Another gripping novel in the John Cardinal series set in the fictional town of Algonquin Bay. I don't like to reveal the plot when I review a book because I want the reader to discover it the way I did. Read elsewhere if you want to know what happens before you read the book (though why you woul...
Giles Blunt, Forty Words for Sorrow (Berkeley, 2001)Giles Blunt first came to the attention of critics everywhere as a staff writer for Law and Order, one of the strongest television series in history. And when reading Blunt's first novel, the reader who is a Law and Order fan is likely to know, ...
Giles Blunt's "The Delicate Storm" is surprisingly unremarkable. It is the second novel in the Cardinal/Delorme series, and it does not match the quality of the first book in the series ("Forty Words for Sorrow"), which is one of the better police procedurals I have read. Maybe the "sophomore slu...
PROTAGONIST: John Cardinal and Lise Delorme, homicide detectivesSETTING: Ontario, CanadaSERIES: #3 of 3RATING: 4.75Located far north in the province of Ontario, Algonquin Bay is normally a placid place of scenic splendor. However, there's one time of year that's a trial for every person that da...
It's not unusual for John Cardinal to be hauled out of a warm bed on a cold night in Algonquin Bay to investigate a murder. And at first this dead body, sprawled in the parking lot of Motel 17, looks pretty run of the mill: the corpse has a big bootprint on his neck, and the likely suspect is his...
The temperature had dropped, and blades of cold pressed against Cardinal’s face. The parking lot was empty except for three or four cars and a red pickup with a bumper sticker that said I ♥ Country Music. “Lev Bastov’s been in this industry forever,” Cardinal said. “It may be his killer has too. ...
She was down at the end of the bed totally absorbed in Zig’s collection of graphic novels—not reading them, just grooving on the drawings and exclaiming every five seconds.“That is so cool,” she would say, and flip another page.“I got stuff to do this afternoon,” Zig said.“This is so beautiful,” ...
He was not yet ready to declare himself officially back at work. If he did, there would be a stack of assignments he would be expected to deal with, and pursuit of non-police business would become difficult, if not impossible.Arsenault took a swig from a coffee mug bearing his last name under the...
Leon was always happy to drive for him, and to act as bodyguard. In fact, Leon’s progress was a source of great satisfaction to Red Bear. Bring a little magic into someone’s life, improve his sex life, and the results were fairly predictable. At this point Red Bear was confident that Leon would d...
his uncle said.They were driving up the winding street to his house in the Santa Ana area. It was a good neighbourhood; one could tell by the height of the walls surrounding each property. Some were as high as sixteen feet, composed of different layers of brick and stone, like geological strata. ...