Product Description

Stylish, atmospheric psychological thriller following on from the Silver Dagger Award winner, Forty Words for Sorrow. A gruesome discovery in the wilderness above Algonquin Bay leads detectives John Cardinal and Lisa Delorme to a remote cabin that has served as an abattoir for a cold-blooded killer! But the woods hide other horrors and soon a second body is discovered, naked and shrouded in ice. When one of the victims is identified as an American the Mounties have to be called in, but it's the Canadian Secret Service that arouses the most mistrust. Is their interference due to a suspected terrorist link, or is there something even more sinister behind it? With Northern Ontario in the grip of an ice storm of once-in-a-hundred years severity, the woods take on a glittering, lethal beauty. And in this winter wonderland John Cardinal must hunt down and confront a killer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #292360 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In The Delicate Storm, it's January in the northern Ontario town of Algonquin Bay, and the foul smell of murder permeates the chilly air when the remains of a bear's dinner in the woods turns out to be the body of an American tourist with a shadowy past. Time for Detective John Cardinal to track down the scent. The mystery deepens when another corpse, that of local doctor Winter Cates, is discovered in the same woods, and Cardinal suspects a link. Unearthing the connection takes Cardinal back to a very different time and place: Montreal circa 1970, a city gripped by the fear of separatist violence. A single incident from that era turns out to have deadly repercussions in Algonquin Bay 30 years later.

Giles Blunt's first thriller to feature John Cardinal, Forty Words for Sorrow, was an international hit, which earned Blunt the British Crime Writers' Macallan Silver Dagger Award. With The Delicate Storm, Blunt delivers another imaginative and entertaining mystery. The author honed his craft writing scripts for such popular TV crime series as Law and Order and Street Legal, and his tight plotting is neatly complemented by a vivid yet never overly extravagant writing style. His depictions of the political scenes of both Quebec in the 70s and contemporary Ontario are fascinating (he shows a deep contempt for his novel's neo-conservative Ontario premier, Geoff Mantis, who bears a striking resemblance to a recent real-life premier from Blunt's hometown of North Bay). He is less successful when exploring the sexual tension between Cardinal and colleague Lise Delorme. Creating a plumbing problem in a hotel so they must share a room is just a little forced.

Toward the end of The Delicate Storm, the author explains how to avoid being electrocuted by downed power lines. That makes it a book that could literally save your life. Failing that, The Delicate Storm is certain to provide you with hours of pleasurable reading. --Kerry Doole, Amazon.ca

Review
Praise for Forty Words for Sorrow 'Extraordinary for its psychology and tensions. Giles Blunt manages to inhabit the minds of killer, victim and investigator alike, a feat that very few writers can manage. It moves his work to a different level' Jane Jakeman, Independent 'A taut and enthralling tale that is as dark as the Canadian winter setting is cold. Humane, intelligent and gripping, Forty Words for Sorrow is a haunting journey into the human heart in all its complexities' Val McDermid 'This Canadian novel is as fine a police procedural as any written in the USA and doesn't rely on others for ideas -- it comes across as fresh as morning dew ! never less than fascinating throughout' Mark Timlin, Independent on Sunday 'A highly professional tour-de-force: excellently plotted, with fleshed-out characters and a well-portrayed, interesting setting' TJ Binyon, Evening Standard 'A fine debut that deserves to do well, and promises much from a talented new author' Jim Driver, Time Out

About the Author
Giles Blunt grew up in North Bay, Ontario, and now lives in New York City. He's written scripts for 'Law & Order', 'Street Legal' and 'Night Heat'. He is at work on his next crime novel, 'The Glittering Wood', also set in the fictional town of Algonquin Bay, and featuring John Cardinal. www.gilesblunt.com

Customer Reviews

Whatever compelled the harsh lower review, I don't know
I must confess, I wasn't quite so crazy about Giles Blunt's debut, Forty Words For Sorrow, as others were, even though it was certainly very good. However, now, after reading The Delicate Storm I'm quite tempted to revisit his first novel and be prepared to reassess my opinions, because The Delicate Storm is, quite simply, excellent.

It begins when a human arm is discovered on an unseasonably warm day in some woods near the town of Algonquin Bay. The search for other human body parts leads investigators John Cardinal and Lisa Delorme to a remote hunter's cabin that is clearly the scene of the crime, and which holds some useful information. The deceased is soon found to have been an American citizen, and so the Mounties are brought in to assist. But, it is when the Canadian Secret Service also start sniffing around the case that Cardinal comes to uncover something far deeper and darker.

Then, a few days later, a young doctor goes missing, and the glittering woods relinquish a second dead body.

Blunt paces his novel absolutely perfectly. It's not too slow, but nor is it so fast that, come the end, the book feels like sand having slipped through a net. He has also struck a perfect equilibrium between character and plot, giving the book power from both corners, and a nicely rounded feel. The characters are excellent, especially Cardinal and Delorme, who are fascinating (both when working together and apart), and, I am sure, capable of sustaining this series for many books to come. The plot itself is great (although possibly discomforting for those who don't like to confront the possibility of a "perfect" crime), and the plotting is slick, smooth and assured, all stemming from Blunt's excellent narrative control. He also examines, interestingly and convincingly, the past and present Canadian political scene.

However, possibly best of all is the setting, which the author describes brilliantly, giving the book a sharp, edgy and entirely chilly atmosphere that broods over the whole novel like some impetuous deity. The landscape creaks and shimmers under the ice and takes on a forbidding life of its own in a way which few writers can really create.

Overall, I'd recommend this book to everyone who likes a great crime novel, because there is no way you'll be disappointed with this. It's full of interesting characters with interesting lives, great plotting, and an atmosphere that shivers. Giles Blunt is tremendous, and surely the best writer to have emerged from Canada in many a moon. I'm looking forward to the next one already!

Blunt's best
The second of Blunt's Cardinal novels (the third I have read) is in my opinion the best. Fiendishly clever, deftly plotted and irristably gripping, this can't be faulted (unlike other revieweres I found the history of Quebec's terrorist movement of the '70's fascinating).

A brilliant thriller, I'll be getting the next in the series as soon as possible.

Well done Giles Blunt!
I must confess, I wasn’t quite so crazy about Giles Blunt’s debut, Forty Words For Sorrow, as others were, even though it was certainly very good. However, now, after reading The Delicate Storm I’m quite tempted to revisit his first novel and be prepared to reassess my opinions, because The Delicate Storm is, quite simply, excellent.

It begins when a human arm is discovered on an unseasonably warm day in some woods near the town of Algonquin Bay. The search for other human body parts leads investigators John Cardinal and Lisa Delorme to a remote hunter’s cabin that is clearly the scene of the crime, and which holds some useful information. The deceased is soon found to have been an American citizen, and so the Mounties are brought in to assist. But, it is when the Canadian Secret Service also start sniffing around the case that Cardinal comes to uncover something far deeper and darker.

Then, a few days later, a young doctor goes missing, and the glittering woods relinquish a second dead body.

Blunt paces his novel absolutely perfectly. It’s not too slow, but nor is it so fast that, come the end, the book feels like sand having slipped through a net. He has also struck a perfect equilibrium between character and plot, giving the book power from both corners, and a nicely rounded feel. The characters are excellent, especially Cardinal and Delorme, who are fascinating (both when working together and apart), and, I am sure, capable of sustaining this series for many books to come. The plot itself is great (although possibly discomforting for those who don’t like to confront the possibility of a “perfect” crime), and the plotting is slick, smooth and assured, all stemming from Blunt’s excellent narrative control. He also examines, interestingly and convincingly, the past and present Canadian political scene.

However, possibly best of all is the setting, which the author describes brilliantly, giving the book a sharp, edgy and entirely chilly atmosphere that broods over the whole novel like some impetuous deity. The landscape creaks and shimmers under the ice and takes on a forbidding life of its own in a way which few writers can really create.

Overall, I’d recommend this book to everyone who likes a great crime novel, because there is no way you’ll be disappointed with this. It’s full of interesting characters with interesting lives, great plotting, and an atmosphere that shivers. Giles Blunt is tremendous, and surely the best writer to have emerged from Canada in many a moon. I’m looking forward to the next one already!