Deryn Collier Books In Order

Publication Order of Bern Fortin Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Deryn Collier is one of the famous authors from Canada who likes to write all her books based on the crime, mystery, and thriller genres. She is particularly famous for writing down the extremely successful novel called as the ‘Confined Space’. This book went on to be shortlisted for the prestigious Arthur Ellis Award in the category of the best debut crime novel. The second book that author Collier wrote was published under the title ‘Open Secret’, which was released very recently. Author Collier originally hails from Montreal and has completed her graduation from the McGill University. Initially, she started her career as a federal bureaucrat, but it was very short lived for her. After that, she immediately ran away in the mountainous regions of British Columbia. There, she has been living ever since. Before going on to become a novelist, author Collier worked for a number of other jobs including working at a brewery, in a log yard, as a communications consultant, and as a recruiter for doctors. As of today, author Collier lives happily in her house located in Nelson, British Columbia along with her family members. Her family consists of her husband and a couple of sons.

The crime novel series written by author Collier is titled as the ‘Bern Fortin’ series. It consists of only two books as of now and author Collier is working on the development of the plot of the third book of the crime fiction series. Collier also used to be a blogger for sometime in her career. One summer, she decided to take off from blogging and everything else. While she was walking on the beach, she decided to give a deep thought to the thing called social media and her approach towards it. Eventually, author Collier decided that she will retire from blogging and give all her attention towards writing novels. Author Collier believes that the seeds of her first crime novel were planted in the pages of Agatha Christie and Nancy Drew novel. While growing up in Montreal and Ottawa, she quickly got indulged in reading, writing, and dreaming about a career as a crime writer. In fact, it was her love towards the experience of reading such novels that compelled her to start writing her own crime fiction novels. While reading the crime novels, author Collier used to get taken into a different world full of puzzles and then everything used to fall in one place in the end. She even used to get the feeling that a part of all this was next to impossible. In spite of that, she used to love the experience of reading the books.

Author Collier was still very much young when she wanted to create a similar experience for other readers through her own imagination. But, her plans of pursuing a career in writing took a different turn when she was sitting along with her friends in the library of her school at the age of eight. All of them were discussing about what they wanted to become after growing up. Collier came across a government pamphlet that showed various career options. But, when she saw the section of the writing career, it was written there that unless you are Margaret Lawrence or Margaret Atwood, you should give up and choose a field of marketing, advertisement, or PR. Being 8 years old, author Collier believed whatever was told in the pamphlets by the Canadian government. And she grew up in her life doing all the other exciting things other than writing novels. But eventually, she realized after a few years what she was really up to. What followed after that was a couple of highly interesting crime fiction books. The success motivated her to continue with the writing work and she seems to be doing quite well with it.

The Bern Fortin series written by author Deryn Collier consists of two books which were published between the years 2012 and 2014. The first book is titled as ‘Confined Spaces’ and was released in the year 2012 by the Simon and Schuster publication. At the start of the book, Bern Fortin is introduced as an ex-commander of the Canadian Forces. He resigned from his post so as to focus on his new job as a coroner in a small mountainous town located in British Columbia. Bern hopes of having a quite life, leaving behind his haunting past. However, he keeps getting haunted by the memories of the brutal killings that he witnessed in Afghanistan as well as other war-stricken countries. Soon, he comes to know about the discovery of the dead body of a worker in a big washing tank and is called for carrying out a routine investigation. Initially, the case appears to be an accident, but when the dead body of the worker’s girlfriend is found from the nearby field, it takes a menacing turn. Bern decides to ask Evie Chappelle for help, who is the brewery safety investigator determined to keep the community of her workers safe. After a little while, Evie and Bern find themselves risking their lives and their jobs to catch a hidden killer in a nearby place. In the end, the novel appears to be a taunt mystery filled with a lot of suspense. This helped it to become successful and then get nominated for the Arthur Ellis Award.

The second book in the series was published under the title ‘Open Secret’. It was published by the Simon Schuster publication in the year 2014. In this book, it is shown that Bern Fortin is trying to adjust to his seemingly peaceful life in Kootenay Landing, after ending his military career abruptly. He discovers that the town’s only doctor named Dr. Juniper Sinclair is trying to revive a small time drug dealer named Seymour Melynchuk. He was shot in his forehead. In another incident, a local accountant named Gary Dowd leaves his van during the US border crossing. Bern Fortin learns that Gary was the best friend of Seymour and quite a steady and predictable person. After studying about both the disturbing incidents, Bern seems pretty much sure that they are related and therefore, he joins hands with Maddie Schilling, a police constable, to find the possible link between the two cases. As Bern begins to investigate the matters, he finds himself entangled with a number of questions which tend to confuse him a lot. On top of that, the dark clouds of his military background once again begin to haunt him. As a result, Bern is forced to confront his secrets from the past that he had kept buried for a very long time. Soon, Bern and Maddie get indulged in the case on a personal level as the stakes become higher. Everyone is Kootenay Landing seems to be hiding something and no one was willing to talk. At last, everything turns upside down and the secrets begin to come out one after the other. Bern and Schilling realize that no secret can be kept buried forever, not even their own.

One Response to “Deryn Collier”

1. Rebecca: 1 year ago

   Hello Deryn
   I read both of your books several years ago. I loved them and could not wait until your next book was published.
   I hope that you will publish again soon and, if possible, would like to be notified about the release date of any books that you do publish in the future.
   P.S.: It would be especially wonderful if you published a third Bern and Eve novel.
   Wishing you a very happy holiday season!

   Reply