Sandra Neily’s new novel puts you right in the Maine woods

There’s a lot to like in Sandra Neily’s novel, Deadly Turn. Sandy lives in Greenville, and one of my favorite things is that she sets her story in the woods and hills above Greenville. I’ve spent a lot of time there, hiking, camping, and fishing, so I felt I was right there with her characters.

Another thing I liked is that Sandy includes lots of wildlife in the story, and when you get to know Pock, the dog of the main character, Patton, you will love him.

The main story is also very real, focused on the plan to build a very destructive corridor through those beautiful woods for wind towers. They already have one corridor of wind towers, and one of Patton’s jobs is to find dead birds killed by the wind towers. She’s only allowed to record birds killed in the corridor, not in the woods, so if a bird makes it into the woods before dying, it cannot be counted.

One day, Pock runs out of the woods with somebody’s arm, and when Patton sees that, she faints. It takes quite a while before the rest of that body is found and identified.

There are lots of interesting characters in this story, including a game warden and a 16-year-old boy whose parents have abandoned him. The boy traps in the woods where the new corridor will be built, and he raises an eagle which gets him in trouble because it’s illegal to possess an eagle.

I don’t want to give away all of this story, so I’ll stop here, but I do want to say I was pleased to see, at the end of the book, that Sandy is not opposed to wind power, she’s just opposed to the destruction of our beautiful forests. Me too!

Sandy is an award-winning author who has worked as a licensed Maine guide and whitewater river guide. She loves to fly fish, ski, paddle, and spend time outdoors. And she is definitely one of my favorite writers.

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.