The Delicate Storm - Softcover

Giles Blunt

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007115784 ISBN 13: 9780007115785

Publisher: Harper Collins Pod, 2004

Synopsis

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.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

“…an absorbing, perfect-for-the-summer kind of read.” -- En Route

“…a book that could be a contender for both the Arthur Ellis Award and the Stephen Leacock Medal.” -- Jack Batten in the Toronto Star

“[Blunt] has an excellent grasp of the issues and history and does a great job of working them into the plot, and he never lets go of the characters, which is where he really shines.” -- Margaret Cannon in The Globe and Mail

“Giles Blunt dazzled us mystery lovers with Forty Words for Sorrow. Now he has done it again with The Delicate Storm. Don't miss it.” -- Tony Hillerman

“[ The Delicate Storm] tests positive on Blunt’s desriptive skills, which are undiminished. You are preternatuarally there with these characters, crunching across frozen parking lots, shivering at stakeouts in the woods -- ordinary cop scenes that in the hands of a stylist like Blunt become means of ratcheting up suspense.” -- Quill & Quire

“In a genre where writers often compete to create vile, loathsome villains perpetrating outrageous crimes, Blunt stands as a master craftsman who shows us not only darkness, but also decency.” -- Publishers Weekly

“This book is a diamond -- a glittering novel with sharp, hard edges and depth…[Blunt] has imagined many of the leading characters with insight and clarity…” -- Hamilton Spectator

“It’s a kind of mystery that’s literate, smart and subtly political. It also has an unerring sense of time and place.” -- Edmonton Journal

“Giles Blunt combines a massive ice storm, the conservative Ontario political scene and the FLQ crisis of 1970 into a crackerjack of a mystery novel…This book is a compulsive and intelligent page-turner.” -- Ken Kilpatrick for The Chronicle-Herald (Halifax)

“Blunt has woven together fictional characters with recent history to create a narrative both instructive and compelling.” -- The National Post

“…intriguing, well-considered and original.” -- The Vancouver Sun

“…[Blunt] has devised another fascinating case for his affable protagonist…Blunt gradually unfolds the engaging plot, dropping clues as well as several red herrings and twists that will keep readers turning the pages…his dialogue is credible and his prose moves the book along to its gripping conclusion.” -- The Winnipeg Free Press

“…wry humour, understated storytelling, and a sensitive understanding of how lives can be shattered by a single mistake…It is a multi-layered, elegantly written story that manages to transform ancient politics into unput-downable reading.” -- The Calgary Herald

“Blunt weaves an interesting and easily read tale while laying out his mystery…[his] writing is smooth and compact and carries you along with the right amount of detail mixed with the right amount of action.” -- FFWD Magazine

“This is good. The plot drives fast and well and the people speak like human beings. But it’s Blunt’s sense of place that is unique; that assures us he can join the select group of writers -- such as Ian Rankin and Tony Hillerman -- who can locate their readers in a fictional universe as physically real as the chair they inhabit.” -- The Observer

“…riveting…the book has the urgency of a TV crime drama…The plot is vast but plausible…The prose bristles with tension…” -- Chatelaine

“…offers lashings of suspense, excellent characters and prose and a well-told credible story worth the time spent reading it.” -- Victoria Times Colonist

Praise for Giles Blunt’s Forty Words for Sorrow:
“I wish I’d written Forty Words for Sorrow.” -- Tony Hillerman

“Brilliant -- one of the finest crime novels I’ve ever read.” -- Jonathan Kellerman

“Don’t read it just because it’s a good crime novel and because once you’ve begun, you won’t put it down until you’re finished. Read it because it’s excellent.” -- Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail

“The final pages present the sort of ending rare in crime fiction, one which compels readers to congratulate everybody in sight -- themselves, the book’s characters and particularly the author.” -- The Toronto Star

From the Inside Flap:

Acclaimed by peers and critics alike, winner of the British Crime Writers? Macallan Silver Dagger for Forty Words for Sorrow, Giles Blunt delivers a second thrilling mystery featuring Detective John Cardinal.

When the corpse of an American tourist turns up half-eaten by bears near Algonquin Bay, Detective John Cardinal is put on the case. But what at first appears to be a simple homicide quickly becomes complicated by others? deceit. And when an Algonquin Bay resident is found murdered in the same woods, Cardinal realizes that there may be more to this case than he first believed.

With his authority on the investigation constantly challenged, Cardinal finds that he must band together with a former nemesis, Corporal Malcolm Musgrave of the RCMP, to outwit a common enemy. At the same time, working side by side with the beautiful and strong-willed Detective Lise Delorme, Cardinal begins to suspect his feelings for Delorme go beyond the professional.
As tensions escalate in the town, a relentless ice storm slows the hunt and throws Algonquin Bay into darkness. Against orders, and risking life and career, Cardinal digs deeper into the seemingly small-town murder. And when he does, he uncovers a series of lies and conspiracies that go back nearly thirty years and extend to the highest reaches of Canadian intelligence.

Excerpt from The Delicate Storm:
Cardinal sat on the edge of the bed, depressed at his lack of direction. Half the time -- at least in a place the size of Algonquin Bay -- it was the killer himself who called cops to the scene of the crime. Now, here was a genuine mystery and Cardinal didn?t have a single lead to point him away from the improbable story about ice fishing. An American citizen had come up to his town and -- if he hadn?t been followed -- had managed in a very short time to upset somebody enough to get himself murdered. And whoever it was didn?t just kill him, but attempted to wipe out all trace of his identity. Why?

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Collins Pod
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0007115784
• ISBN 13: 9780007115785
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464