Matters of life and death

Desolation Highway (a John Smyth mystery) James R. Coggins. Moody Publishers, 2004. 221 pages.

A child’s need of an unscheduled bathroom break beside the highway near Prince Rupert, B.C. leads to the discovery of a human finger. Soon, more body parts are found.

These facts are disturbing, but the focus of the story is on whom the parts may belong to and who scattered them along the highway. Sergeant Troy Wesson of the local RCMP begins to investigate. He meets a variety of characters who may have been motivated to do someone in. And, Wesson’s wife just happens to be attending a church John Smyth, a denominational editor, has come to write a story about.

Like Coggins’ first John Smyth mystery, Who’s Grace, this is a well paced, skillfully written, quick-read book. The Christian angle to the story is woven in naturally and attractively. The characterization generally feels more rounded in this second book.

Wesson is the most interesting. John Smyth seems a little too perfect, but he provides additional suspense in that he’s late entering the action, yet we know he has to have a role (it’s a John Smyth mystery after all).

Why would Coggins, long-time editor of the MB Herald, be writing murder mysteries? One answer may be found in an exchange between Smyth and Wesson. The officer says he has no time for church; “I have some murders to solve,” he says. “I’m dealing with matters of life-and-death.”

Smyth replies, “So is the church.”