Forty Words for Sorrow: A Thriller

Forty Words for Sorrow (John Cardinal 1) by Giles Blunt

Because I really enjoyed the Canadian series, I decided to give this book a go. The series established a somber, brooding tone that seemed to fit the wintry Canadian setting of the first season. All three seasons did a nice job of interlacing the troubled personal life of the main character, John Cardinal, into the mystery, which set the series apart from the normal myster.

The book is obviously different. The plot and characters closely follow that of series, albeit with some departures that are quite apparent. The writing is effective and the plot comes together with an overriding threat and red-herrings to lead us astray.

The plot involves the hunt for a serial murderer in the small Canadian city of Algonquin Bay. The discovery of a dead girl's body brings John Cardinal back into an investigation. He had previously disgraced himself by insisting that a different girl's disappearance had been a murder. With the newly discovered body, Cardinal is able to discern that a serial killer has been working the city for some time. The killers are creepily drawn. They are sadistic and nuts. At some point we flip back and forth between the detectives and the killers, which heightens the suspense.

The book is good, but it lacked something that would have made it great. Cardinal remains a troubled man with a daughter he is supporting through art school and a wife with mental issues. He is assigned a partner who is secretly investigating him for corruption, but he is a fundamentally decent man. This is an enjoyable read, but, like I said, not great.