A Stranger Here Below: A Gideon Stoltz Mystery by Charles Fergus

Gideon left home because he came home and found his mother dead.  She'd been raped and stabbed.  He was traumatized by that sight and her death, he didn't want to inherit the farm, and after an argument with his father, he left.  When he reached a small town he liked, he reported an incident on the road to the sheriff.  After they chatted a bit, the sheriff asked him if he'd like to be a deputy.  He accepted.  He was young, it sounded interesting.  But he didn't expect the sheriff to die in just a few years...

Skyhorse and Edelweiss let me read this book for review (thank you.  It will be published on March 19th.

Gideon is promoted to the position of sheriff.  He's married, loves his wife and their little boy, and the town is quiet so he finds his job fairly easy.  He hunts with the local judge and they have a good relationship.  When he goes early to the judge's home to go duck hunting, he finds the judge has committed suicide.  Why would he do that?  The answer is thirty years in the past...

As he digs in the past, he finds that while people tolerate him in town, he's not altogether trusted.  He's young and he's Dutch and they resent that.  He also finds much of what he wants to find out is not available anymore.  He takes the judge's journals and read through the past and finds what he wanted to know but he still isn't sure he understands the suicide.  In the meantime, he has another murder to solve.  And then one more...

This is a new series and I'll be watching for more books by Mr. Fergus.  There were hidden facts that complicated the case and offered some explanation, there's a very ironic ending, Gideon's own family has a tragedy and Gideon will have to start believing in his wife's second sight.  I want to read the next book to see what happens next.