Product Description

When a woman stumbles into a tavern, covered in black fly bites, with a bullet in her brain and no memory, homicide detectives John Cardinal and Lisa Delorme know someone left her for dead. And if word gets out that she isn't, someone will try again

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #887631 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Silver Dagger–winner Blunt spins a highly disturbing but truly memorable tale about a Canadian cult's murder spree. After homicide detective John Cardinal is called in to talk to a young woman who wandered into an Algonquin Bay bar sans ID, keys or memory, doctors examining her find a bullet in her brain. Figuring whoever tried to kill her may want to finish the job, Cardinal puts the woman, dubbed "Red" for her coppery hair, into seclusion. Backed by partner Lise Delorme, Cardinal begins assembling what pieces of information he's been able to gather, and the investigation quickly takes the team from the mundane (drugs, bikers) to the grisly (a string of dismemberment killings apparently committed by a Cuban cult known as Palo Mayombe). The action will glue readers to the page, but the plot is equally moving in its quieter, more poignant moments when Cardinal, whose wife suffers from bouts of severe depression, must take time to handle family matters. Based on a true crime, the pulsing, tightly plotted narrative again shows why Blunt (Forty Words for Sorrow) should be considered among the new practitioners of crime drama's elite.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Blunt sets his highly acclaimed Cardinal and Delorme series in Canada's remote Algonquin Bay, which is far from civilization (the closest city, Toronto, is 250 miles to the south), far from prosperous, and filled with such daily-living challenges as relentless winter storms followed by the spring arrival of rapacious black flies. The locals' obsession with protecting themselves from the onslaught of the flies makes them all the more shocked when a woman enters a bar, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she's covered in fly bites. The woman has no idea where she is, or who she is, and when the cops take her to the hospital, doctors discover that her thick red hair has been obscuring a bullet hole in her skull--the bullet lodged in her brain is responsible for her amnesia. Series homicide detectives John Cardinal and Lisa Delorme take on the case, which links to a vicious motorcycle gang and a series of ritualistic murders. As in his previous two series entries --Forty Words for Sorrow (2001) and The Delicate Storm (2003)--Blunt transposes an actual true-crime story, this time about ritual killings along the Mexican border, into the North Woods. But it's what Blunt does with the true-crime graft that is amazing. His characters, even to the lonely guy sitting by himself at the end of the bar, are wonderfully realistic; his pacing never flags; his knowledge of police procedure is accurate without being show-offy; and he leaves the reader not so much with a story as with a glimpse into a perfectly realized world. First-rate. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
A woman with a bullet in her brain can't remember who she is or who put it there. The black flies are swarming and biting, making everyone in Ontario's tiny Algonquin Bay miserable-except for the redhead who's lost all memory and affect since someone shot her. Homicide detectives John Cardinal and Lise Delorme have Red sequestered, a guard at her door, while they try to figure out who wanted her dead. Their inquiries lead to the Viking Raiders, a group of bikers into local drug distribution until a rival group usurps them, dismembering Wombat Guthrie along the way. The next to be disarticulated is Toof, who unwisely bragged about his mates' big plans before he met a death marked by the sadism of the Palo Mayombe, a Cuban sect into human sacrifice. Her memory returned, Red decamps, desperate to contact her brother, a heroin addict; Cardinal's depressive wife Catherine again needs hospitalization; a member of the RCMP is on the take; and the deadly Red Bear and his acolyte Leon have plans that involve hatchets, knives and vats of boiling blood. Clearly Algonquin Bay and its citizenry are under siege, not the least by vicious black flies. If the macabre plot, based on a true-crime episode, seems more rote than its predecessors (The Delicate Storm, 2003, etc.), Blunt redeems himself with his searing portrait of a cop unable to prevent his wife's self-destruction. (Kirkus Reviews)

Reviews of Forty Words for Sorrow 'Intensely vivid characters, terrible crimes and a brutal deep-frozen landscape all prove beyond a reasonable doubt that cold nurtures good and evil as readily as heat!and that Giles Blunt is a really tremendous crime novelist' Lee Child 'One of the finest crime novels I've ever read. Giles Blunt writes with uncommon grace, style and compassion and he plots like a demon. This book as it all -- unforgettable characters, beautiful language, throat-constricting suspense' Jonathan Kellerman '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 'A fine debut that deserves to do well, and promises much from a talented new author' Jim Driver, Time Out 'A superior Canadian police procedural with an evocative sense of place: the frozen lakes and forests are as integral to the plot as the flawed detective ! an impressive achievement' Maxim Jakubowski, Guardian

Customer Reviews

A Classic Page-Turner
"Black Fly Season" was my first Giles Blunt novel and, after reading it, I'm surprised Blunt is not a runaway best seller. "Black Fly" has all the right stuff of a perfect mystery/thriller: interesting characters, a well-tuned plot, crisp dialogue, and an unlikely but effective northern Canadian setting. Blunt's writing style is similar to Lee Child - high praise - while the content is reminiscent of Ken Goddard, who has written some fine crime novels ("Balefire", "Prey"...) featuring the US Fish and Wildlife Department. Giles and researched his subject material well, and throws in some neat forensics to boot, making for the classic summer read that will keep you up long after you should be sleeping.

A young girl his wandering around the local Algonquin Bay watering hole, incoherent and obviously suffering from amnesia. With good reason, it turns out - she has a bullet lodged in her brain. Homicide detective John Cardinal and his partner Lise Delorme are on the case, trying first to identify the redheaded young victim and then try and find those behind the attempted murder. From there, Blunt takes us on a guided tour of the north woods heroin trade, complete with renegade bikers and a mysterious and evil Voodoo-like religion. Blunt keep the story line clean and the dialog mercifully crisp, focusing his efforts on unraveling the crime while building a uniquely depraved bad guy. The thriller clips along to a suspenseful if predictable climax and high adrenaline entertainment for the whole trip. This is highly recommended reading; I'm looking forward to catching up on Blunt's previous efforts that I've missed.

Murder, magic and some top-notch forensics in Northern Ontario.
This was the first time I'd read a book by this Canadian author, and I was very impressed with Mr. Blunt's writing and plotting skills. We have two very likeable police partners in this series - John Cardinal and Lise Delorme. The book is set in Algonquin Bay, Ontario, Canada (250 miles north of Toronto). John and Lise have a different type of mystery to solve. A young woman is discovered walking around acting strange, and she doesn't remember who she was. It is discovered that she has a small-calibre bullet in her brain. Then bodies start turning up. One is particularly gruesome. The body of a biker from a local gang is found minus his head, hands and feet. Mr. Blunt gives us a good insight into forensic entomology as Lise and John try to solve what appears to be ritualistic killings. They are up against a particularly odious killer in this one. This appears to be a great series, and I intend to read the previous two books in this series soon.

Excellent
I have read all three books in this series and they just keep getting better and better. Blunt has created interesting, realistic characters in Cardinal and Delorme. His descriptions are wonderfully written without being overwhelming in detail.

The story flowed very well. This is not a "who done it" type of mystery. The story revolves more around who the characters are, why they do what they do, and how the mystery is solved. I would love to see this series of books get the attention they deserve.