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A Novel
by Giles Blunt
Book Reviewed by:Detective John Cardinal is on the hunt for an ingenious killer even as he mourns his own wife’s tragic death in this thriller of heart-stopping suspense. Published in the UK as The Fields of Grief.
Autumn has arrived in Algonquin Bay, and with it an unusual spate of suicides. The most shocking victim yet is Detective John Cardinal’s wife, who has finally succumbed to her battle with manic depression. As Cardinal takes time to grieve, his partner, Lise Delorme, handles an unsavory assignment: a young girl appears in a series of unspeakable photos being traded online, and background elements indicate she lives in Algonquin Bay. Delorme is desperate to find the girl before she suffers more abuse.
When Cardinal receives a string of hateful anonymous notes about his wife’s death, he begins to suspect homicide. His colleagues believe he is too distraught to think clearly, and he’s forced to investigate alone. In doing so, he comes up against a brand of killer neither he—nor the reader—has ever seen before.
In his most masterful and thrilling novel yet, Giles Blunt confirms his reputation as a rising international star in crime fiction, and positions Detective John Cardinal among the finest characters in the genre.
Published in the UK as The Fields of Grief.
1
Nothing bad could ever happen on Madonna Road. It curls around the
western shore of a small lake just outside Algonquin Bay, Ontario, providing
a pine-scented refuge for affluent families with young children, yuppies
fond of canoes and kayaks, and an artful population of chipmunks chased by
galumphing dogs. It’s the kind of spot—tranquil, shady, and secluded—that
appears to offer an exemption from tragedy and sorrow.
Detective John Cardinal and his wife, Catherine, lived in the smallest
house on Madonna Road, but even that tiny place would have been beyond their
means were it not for the fact that, being situated across the road from the
water, they owned neither an inch of beach nor so much as a millimeter of
lake frontage. On weekends Cardinal spent most of his time down in the
basement breathing smells of sawdust, paint, and Minwax, carpentry affording
him a sense of creativity and control that did not tend to flourish in ...
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BookBrowse Awards
2008
With its themes of mental illness, physical abuse and dealing with loss By The Time You Read This could be a deeply depressing story, but in fact it's an absolutely riveting character-driven mystery, a thinking-person's novel that tackles big issues sensitively, while reaching the pulse-pounding heights of the best thrillers. If you have yet to discover Giles Blunt, start now!..continued
Full Review
(810 words)
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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Giles Blunt was born in 1952 in
Windsor, Ontario, and grew up in
North Bay, Ontario. He describes
his parents as being "so English
that the space on their
passports for citizenship could
only be filled in" British
Beyond Belief". He spent most of
his education at a Catholic
boys' school called Scollard
Hall, moving to a "regular
school", Algonquin Composite,
for his last two years.
His career started with poetry
which was published in various
publications including Grain
and Poetry ...
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