Forty Words for Sorrow

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Dark, atmospheric and terrifying psychological serial killer thriller set in a freezing Ontario winter, guaranteed to chill readers to the bone: Forty Words for Sorrow is brilliant Jonathan Kellerman
When four teenagers go missing in the small northern town of Algonquin Bay, the extensive police investigation comes up empty. Everyone is ready to give up, except Detective John Cardinal, an all-too-human loner whose persistence only serves to get him removed from homicide.

Then the mutilated body of thirteen-year-old Katie Pine is pulled out of an abandoned mineshaft. And only Cardinal is willing to consider the horrible truth: that this quiet town is home to the most vicious of killers. With the media, the provincial police and his own department questioning his every move, Cardinal follows increasingly tenuous threads towards the unthinkable. But time isnt only running out for him: theres also another young victim tied up in a basement wondering how and when he will die.

Reviews

'This is the book I've been waiting for through twenty years of reviewing crime fiction. This is the first great Canadian crime novel. Giles Blunt has done for Canada's north what James Lee Burke did for Cajun Louisiana. With Forty Words for Sorrow, the Canadian crime novel finally comes of age' Margaret Cannon, Globe '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

Author Bio

Giles Blunt grew up in North Bay Ontario, and now lives in Toronto. He has written scripts for Law & Order, Street Legal, and Night Heat. His first psychological thriller, Forty Words for Sorrow, which also features Detectives Cardinal and Delorme, won the 2001 Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger Award