Open Secret

by Deryn Collier

I picked up this book at a bookstore in Nelson, BC.   It is by a local author.

The book is the second mystery book by this author featuring the coroner Bern Fortin.  Fortin is a retired soldier who it appears has PTSD or at least a lot of skeletons in his closet.  He has served in Rawanda, Bosnia and Afghanistan in an Administrative capacity.  But that has not prevented him from witnessing the horror and even contributing to it.  One of his superiors is shot by a boy along the road.  They shoot back and the boy is wounded.  His superior wants him to save the boy but Bern knows the boy is dying so shoots him so he won't suffer more.  Bern also had an affair with the wife of one of his senior officers and still longs for her.

Bern is now living in Nelson, serving as a coroner.  He is living amidst a colourful group of characters including the local police.  One family is grieving the disappearance of a native girl they adopted.  She disappeared many years before but they still miss her, especially the adopted father (who it appears sexually abused her, but he was not the only one -- she was neglected and abused by her father and possibly also a male cousin.

Bern is out hiking one day when he hears a gunshot.  His immediate reaction is to duck.  He then sees the local doctor running to a downed man, but the man dies. It turns out he is a known criminal.

The Doctor keeps making excuses so she doesn't have to report to the police about the incident.  At the same time as the murder a man disappears at the Can/US border.  He had a panic attack and bolted from his vehicle.  As the murdered man had been staying with him, much to the chagrin of the  man's wife, he is suspected of being the murderer. He realizes his marriage is over but thinks if he can score some marijuana or the special ointment that the Dr. is preparing, which is illegal, he could set his wife and family financially.  However, he is tricked by the local pharmacist and it appears doesn't get his payday.

As Bern and the police try to figure out why the crook was murdered they interact with a local woman suffering from MS, her son and his child and wife.  There is suspicion that this group is growing illegal marijuana but no one can find evidence.  Bern does stumble onto their grow op but it has been robbed and trashed.

As the story develops we find out that the runaway man knows what happened to the missing girl. He digs up part of her corpse so that it can be found and she identified.  Then he writes the coroner a letter telling him where to find the rest of the body.

While all this is happening, the cousin of the dead girl arrives in town and attacks/kidnaps a local woman who bears a resemblance to the missing girl and a former soldier/reporter tracks Bern down and asks him to confess to some of his deeds to "save" another soldier who is on trial for killing a wounded Afghan man to put him out of his mystery.  Bern is reluctant to tell his story at first but eventually decides to come clean even though there will likely be serious consequences for him.

Bern had told police about the local grow-op.  This has the unintentional consequence of getting the woman with MS murdered... another death on his conscience.

This was a well written mystery.  In some ways, with the off the beaten path local and the quirky local population, it reminded me of Louise Penny's mysteries.  I enjoyed it.