Game Warden Mike Bowditch must chase down a cunning and dangerous fugitive in the North Maine Woods in this nail-biter of a thriller from Edgar Award-winning author Paul Doiron.

Legendary bush pilot Josie Jonson can't believe her luck when a skilled builder just happens to show up after she purchases land near Prentiss Pond. All Mark Redmond asks in return for building Josie's dream cabin is that he be left alone to homeschool his 12-year-old daughter.

For Maine game warden investigator Mike Bowditch, the intensity of Redmond's secretiveness is troubling-especially in light of suspicious criminal activity being reported around the area. When he asks Josie to fly him to the pond, he soon comes to regret his naivete. Hours after they arrive, Bowditch awakens from drugged unconsciousness to find Josie dead and Redmond and his daughter Cady on the run, making a mad dash to Canada.

For Mike Bowditch, there is no choice but to set off through the impenetrable forest, alone and unarmed in pursuit of the mysterious fugitive. As he navigates a windblown landscape choked with deadfalls and blocked by swollen streams, he marvels at Redmond's bushcraft. The man possesses skills surpassing his own, and Bowditch can't tell if he is the cat or the mouse in this dangerous game.

As they converge on the Canadian border, Bowditch pieces together the details of Redmond's past and is shaken by a thought: his enemy is prepared to kill his own child rather than have her taken from him. Can Mike Bowditch stop the desperate man in time to rescue Cady, or will he be forced to watch another innocent soul die?