Orson Carver

Created by Gary Coffin

“I have no interest to dredge up my history. It’s over now. I did their crime, and I did the time. All I want is to forget my past and find some semblance of a life.”
— Mercy Lake

“It’s a rough town.”
— All That We Lost

Twenty years as a cop and five years as a convict, ORSON CARVER made his debut in Mercy Lake (2022), in which returns to Montreal after being released from MillHaven Prison in Kingston, Ontario after five long years, sent there under circumstances that are still as little questionable. Like, did he really come home drunk and kill his wife?

The circumstances are questionable enough to interest young student journalist Elin Eklund, who’s working on her thesis and thinks Orson and his case would be an ideal subject. Orson isn’t initially interested, but Elin wears him down, and he reluctantly agrees to participate.

And so Orson sets out to rejoin society. He rents a room at the less than swanky Starlight Motel in the East End, finds a dojang to work on his Taikwondo, checks in regularly with his parole officer, tries to find a job, and agrees to a series of interviews with Elin–until she goes missing.

Orson’s halting investigation into Elin’s disappearance (and the reasons behind it, which may–or may not–be tied to his wife’s murder) are played off nicely against his fumbling, tentative efforts to rehabilitate, spotlighted by his growing relationships with some of his neighbors at the Starlight and his parole officer, of all people.

I was wondering where (or if) the author would follow up with Orson, and so I was jazzed when Coffin announced (on our Private Eye Writers Bulletin Board) that Orson would be returning in Summer 2025 in All That We Lost — as a Montreal private eye!