Forty Words for Sorrow – Giles Blunt
Forty Words for Sorrow is the first Giles Blunt book I’ve read. It is also the first book in the John Cardinal series. Set in Algonquin Bay Canada, John Cardinal is a former Toronto police officer now back on the force in his hometown. He is a former homicide detective who had been transfered out of the homicide division after he spent too much time on two missing children cases Katie Pine and Billy LaBelle. When the mutilated body of Katie Pine is discovered in a block of ice in an abandoned mine shaft, Cardinal is transfered back to homicide and sets out to find the serial killer.
Cardinal is aided by Lise Delorme a former Special Investigator, who in fact is still investigating Cardinal! . Cardinal is married with a daughter at Yale in the Master of Fine Arts program and a wife in a mental hospital and how he can afford both is part of the reason for Delorme’s investigation and Cardinal’s guilty conscience. Read more from Giles Blunt’s web page here
I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was fast paced with some twists and turns as Cardinal and Delorme race to find and stop the killers. I liked both of the main characters Cardinal and Delorme. The book won the 2001 Macallan CWA Silver Dagger award. The award is given for the second best book in English by a British publisher. In my opinion it was well deserving of the award. Now onto The Delicate Storm the second John Cardinal book!