Reviewed by Lily Bond
Author Giles Blunt's fellow Canadians automatically understand and appreciate the title of his murder mystery Black Fly Season (2005, Seal Books, Random House, 448 pages) set in Algonquin Bay, Ontario. Throughout the tale, people are annoyed by the swarms of black flies plaguing the area.
Right away, the story draws you in as you visit the crucial places and meet the important characters. There’s a pub, a pretty girl with red hair who acts oddly and appears to have lost her memory, a homicide detective and his partner, and a dead motorbike-gang member. Drug running and voodoo practices play important parts as Blunt weaves the threads together into a novel you won't want to put down.
Born in 1952 in North Bay, Ontario, Blunt wrote his first novel, Cold Eye, in 1989. It was acclaimed as “a sensational debut”. At the time, he lived in New York and wrote scripts for TV series, like Law and Order, Street Legal and Night Heat.
After returning to Ontario, Blunt wrote a second novel, Forty Words For Sorrow (2000), which introduced Algonquin Bay homicide detective John Cardinal who then appeared in three more crime thrillers: The Delicate Storm (2003), Black Fly Season (2005) and The Fields of Grief (2006).
Blunt's writing style is such that once you start reading, you can't stop. Cardinal is a well-developed character, credible and likeable. His intriguing cases hold your attention until the end when all is solved. As the books thrill and entertain, they also depict life in the part of Ontario where they are set.
The award-winning author develops parallel plots by introducing Cardinal's manic-depressive wife and following his interactions with her. She plays an especially pivotal role in The Fields of Grief.
In the search for a crime series to keep you enthralled for many hours, Giles Blunt solves the case.
Approval rating: 80 per cent.
For more information: www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/giles-blunt/.
(March 14, 2007)
ARCHIVES
|
Like most Canadians, Giles Blunt
encounters black flies at times.
|
