This was a rougher mystery than I usually like, but I found the characters and twists so compelling that I kept going. ( )

mystery, John Cardinal, Ontario ( )

3rd of series ( )

Book 3

John Cardinal and Lise Delorme skilled police officers are busy working the case of a young red-headed woman who is suffering from a memory loss after being shot in the head. They are hindered by a lack of leads and a problem identifying the woman, presenting a challenge for them.

When two bodies are found near the columns of bizarre hieroglyphics, one body of a member of the local biker gang and the other local resident, it is discover that the murders are link to the redhead by the fact that the bullets came from the same gun. Cardinal and Delorme suspect that these murders may not be just biker’s justice. Solving these murders and finding out who is responsible becomes a game of decoding the mysteries of an ancient form of African voodoo.

This mystery novel is well paced and plotted; although the story is complex it still flows nicely it is not burdened with subplots, all the characters have depth and are interesting. Without a doubt, I am eager to read the fourth adventure. ( )

Fascinating and revolting. As always, advances the story of Detective John Cardinal's life and marriage. ( )

This is Blunt's 3rd police procedural set in a northern Ontario town called Algonquin Bay, which seems similar to North Bay. It won the Arthur Ellis award for best crime novel. The police detectives, John Cardinal and Lise Delorme, are convincingly human and likeable, while the crime story is intense, violent and disturbing. The tension increases as the criminals' activities escalate, from drug trafficking to murder and kidnapping, while the police gradually investigate and attempt to prevent more deaths. Recommended, if you like your crime on the 'noir' and bloodthirsty side.
I want to read the others in this series. ( )

Another great John Cardinal novel set in North Bay Ontario. ( )

Blackfly Season is the third John Cardinal mystery that I have read and enjoyed. The story opens with a mysterious young woman who shows up in a bar and is quite friendly with everyone but who has no idea who she is, nor is she able to remember someone she met a few minutes earlier. The mystery deepens when it is discovered that she has bullet lodged in her brain. Cardinal and his partner Lise Delorme are on the case, trying to identify the woman. They are almost distracted by the particularly gruesome murder and dismemberment of a local biker, but various clues lead them to believe that the two cases are somehow connected. Enter a very scary character who calls himself Red Cloud, but who is in fact of Cuban origin and is a high priest of a sect called Palo Mayombe under the sway of which Red Cloud does some very nasty things to people. Throw in an incipient war with the local biker gang, Cardinal's continuing personal problems with his manic depressive wife and estranged daughter, the evocative location of northen Ontario in the middle of blackfly season, good writing and plot lines, and you have all the ingredients for a page-turning mystery novel. Perfect summer reading fare.

(June/06)