But Not Forgotten by BJ Bourg Review: A Gripping, Grief-Driven Mystery Series Opener

But Not Forgotten, published by Death Shadow Press, LLC in March 2016, is the first installment in BJ Bourg's Clint Wolf Mystery Series. The novel opens in Mechant Loup, Louisiana, where blood, body parts, and a grim discovery set the investigation in motion: a local businessman's arm is found in the jaws of a large alligator. Chief of Police Clint Wolf and his partner Susan Wilson are pulled into a murder inquiry that quickly deepens beyond its grotesque starting point. The victim was killed before the alligator ever entered the picture, and untangling how the arm got there — and who is responsible — forms the spine of the novel's central mystery.

The case unfolds against the distinctive backdrop of Louisiana's swamp country, and Bourg uses that environment deliberately. As the blogger Patti Aliventi at Thoughts from the Mountain Top observed, Bourg manages to capture the absurdity of life in the swamp without making it ridiculous, and the result is a very entertaining story.

Clint Wolf arrives at this investigation carrying considerable personal wreckage. Two years before the novel begins, he lost his wife and daughter in an act of violence that left him broken and consumed by guilt — convinced, however irrationally, that he could have prevented their deaths. His former father-in-law helps him secure the position of Chief of Police in Mechant Loup, a role that functions as both a lifeline and a proving ground. The mystery Clint must solve is thus layered over a quieter, internal investigation: whether a grieving, self-blaming man can rebuild a life and a professional identity from the wreckage.

This emotional dimension gives the procedural plot genuine weight. Aliventi noted that Clint working through grief and blame is realistic, as is what he experiences from those around him — a balance that keeps the character from slipping into either stoic cliché or maudlin excess.

As a mystery, But Not Forgotten is constructed to sustain suspense across its length. The central case keeps its secrets long enough to reward attentive reading, though some readers may find themselves assembling key pieces around the midpoint. The novel wraps up its central mystery while deliberately leaving threads available for the series to continue — a structural choice that rewards readers who commit to the broader Clint Wolf world without leaving the standalone narrative feeling unresolved. Supporting characters are established with enough distinctiveness that the series has a cast to build on, not merely a protagonist in isolation. The pacing is described by Aliventi as good throughout, with the investigation and the character study advancing in tandem.

What began with this first entry in 2016 has expanded into one of the more prolific independent mystery series in the genre. The Clint Wolf Mystery Series now spans 39 books, with titles released across boxed sets through at least 2025. That sustained output speaks to a readership that has embraced both the character and the Louisiana setting across an unusually large body of work. For readers approaching the series now, But Not Forgotten offers a clearly defined entry point — the origin of Clint's role in Mechant Loup, the introduction of Susan Wilson as his investigative partner, and the establishing of the emotional and geographic framework the entire series builds upon.

But Not Forgotten is designed for readers who enjoy procedural mysteries anchored by character-driven backstory, regional atmosphere, and surprise endings. The publisher's description specifically calls out readers who like surprise endings, realistic characters, and long hours of reading as the intended audience — signaling a novel built for sustained engagement rather than quick resolution. Readers new to Bourg's work will find a first entry that establishes the series' tone efficiently. Those with a preference for emotionally uncomplicated genre fiction may find Clint's sustained self-recrimination a slower burn than a purely plot-forward mystery, but for readers drawn to protagonists shaped by genuine loss, the combination of swamp-country atmosphere and personal reckoning is the series' central appeal.