Sat 9 Nov 2019
Stories I’m Reading, Selected by LJ Roberts: PAUL DOIRON “Backtrack.”
Posted by Steve under Stories I'm Reading[8] Comments
PAUL DOIRON “Backtrack.” Short story. Charley Stevens. Minotaur Books, ebook, June 2019. [See also Comment #3.]
First Sentence: There were four doctors staying at the hunting camp.
Game warden Charley Stevens is called to the winter hunting camp in Maine where four doctors from Massachusetts are staying. However, one of them is missing. It’s up to Charley to find the missing man.
The first thing to know is that this story does not feature game warden Mike Bowditch, but focuses on Charley Stevens, who had been Mike’s mentor. The story is also told, very effectively, in retrospect.
A well-done short story truly is a work of art. Such is the case here. With a nicely done twist, Doiron takes the reader from suspense to something unexpected and poses an excellent question while dealing with the subject of regret.
The thing with a short story is that one can’t say too much for fear of including a spoiler. What one can say is how much this story may make one think and question what one would do in the same situation. It may also make one want to read much more of Doiron’s work. The good news is that there is an impressive backlist.
“Backtrack” is a perfect title for this excellent e-short. It really does take great skill to write a story this short which is this impactful.
Rating: Excellent.
November 9th, 2019 at 5:40 pm
This had better be an excellent short story. The ebook price is $7.99 for a twenty one page story.
November 9th, 2019 at 6:16 pm
I saw that, too. I believe LJ when she says it’s excellent, but I agree. $7.99 is higher than I’d care to spend. I’d have to try one of Doriron’s novels first. This is the first I’ve heard about him, and there are already 11 books in his primary Mike Bowditch series.
November 9th, 2019 at 10:39 pm
Thank you, LJ! To Chuck and Steve, I would say that there’s no need to pay that much for the eShort since “Backtrack†is available for free here:
http://www.criminalelement.com/backtrack-by-paul-doiron/
November 9th, 2019 at 10:48 pm
Thank you, Paul! There’s no excuse for anyone not to read the story now. Which I will do, ASAP.
November 10th, 2019 at 1:17 pm
Thank you, Paul, for making “Backtrack” available for everyone to read.
Having also read Paul’s full-length book “Almost Midnight,” I have now added him to my anti-gay list.
November 11th, 2019 at 3:59 am
LJ Roberts’ mistakenly labeling Paul Doiron’s character Charley Stevens in “Backtrack” as a Massachusetts game warden caught my interest. The idea of four doctors going off to a hunting camp sounded more like something that would happen in Vermont or Maine more than in Massachusetts. Having tramped a bit about my native state, I wonder exactly where the story would have been set.
Roberts was mistaken. Stevens is a Maine game warden tracking a Massachusetts doctor in the snow. Still, I used to like being in the woods in the snow and like reading stories set in the wild in the snow.
Doiron’s story is good, maybe very good. It does not reach the level of excellent that Roberts gave it. Small portions of it needed to be marked up by an editor’s blue pencil and characterization could have been tightened up here and there.
The idea of a game warden looking for a man lost in the snow reminded me of when a game warden went out in the snow in Vermont in 1947 looking for my grandfather who did not return from hunting. He found my grandfather killed but the killer was a bear not a man so it was not murder. What fascinated me when I read an article about it was the warden’s ability to read the tracks and the newspaper write up had a good description how he and the bear wrestled.
The pivotal point of Doiron’s story is something to mull over. I probably would agree with the actions of the younger Stevens although the older, reflective Stevens thought his younger self made the wrong decision in this circumstance. The sloppy poor premeditation made it something that I would have steered clear of.
What I did like was how Doiron handled the setting. By the way the snow was falling, I would say the temperatures went from the twenties to the teens. A person could pass the night comfortably with a good sleeping bag and a tent but without them, passing the night would be hard especially if a person stayed still for a while. Doiron describes with care traveling through the winter woods where what lies over the next ridge can be a mystery until it is gotten to.
November 11th, 2019 at 12:29 pm
Thank you, Daryl; you are correct. The story is set in Maine and I have made the appropriate correction.
November 11th, 2019 at 1:00 pm
I’ve made a similar correction to LJ’s review here on my blog. Thanks for pointing this out, Daryl. I also enjoyed your comments about the story, which I still need to read, now even more than before.