Forty Words for Sorrow

By: Giles Blunt

Narrated by: James Daniels

When the badly decomposed body of 13-year-old Katie Pine is found in an abandoned mine shaft, John Cardinal is vindicated. It was Cardinal who'd kept the Pine case open - insisting she was no mere runaway - and Cardinal had been demoted to the burglary squad for his excessive zeal. But Katie Pine isn't the only youngster to have gone missing in the rural town of Algonquin Bay, and Cardinal is now given the go-ahead to reopen the files on three other lost kids. When another youth is reported missing, he begins to see a pattern that screams "serial killer."

Meanwhile, the brass have partnered him with Lisa Delorme, newly shifted to homicide from the Office of Special Investigations, and Cardinal can't help but wonder if she's been sent to keep tabs on him. A guilty conscience makes him think so.

Superbly paced, with fully-fleshed characters and utterly convincing police detail, Forty Words for Sorrow is also a novel of place that transcends the genre. Blunt puts us in a small Canadian town in the dead of winter and makes us feel the cold, then turns the cold into a metaphor for the destruction of young lives.

©2004 Giles Blunt (P)2004 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Blunt has done for Canada's north what James Lee Burke did for Cajun Louisiana." ( Margaret Cannon, Toronto Globe and Mail)

Good book, bad accent.

A well written crime novel by Giles Blunt. His intricacies into Canadian culture really submerge you into the scene. The narrator was a good voice actor, with cool effects like radios and what not. My only gripe was the bad Canadian accent, stretched words that weren't necessary.

Canadian Cop a Winner

This was my first experience with this author and the novel is toward the end of the series. However, this didn't diminish my overall enjoyment of the plot, the characters and the pictures the author paints of a demented pair of killers in a cold and desolate landscape. A child is found buried in a slab of ice and from there, a grisly tale of madness and obsession unfolds. I'd be happy if Audible carried more of this series.

An excellent book

The story line was really good,, if a little gruesome. The matter was appalling at first, but didn't bother me at all as the. book continued. The writing was very engaging.. I loved listening him, I would love to hear some other words by this author, but there were no more on audible. Read this book.

characters were interesting.

It is a sad but interesting mystery and it kept me interested until the very end.

could not put it down

it was a very good read. An enjoyable easy read. Looking forward to reading more by this author