From Publishers Weekly
Blunt forgoes the shock and violence of his previous crime novel, Forty Words for Sorrow (winner of the British Crime Writers' Macallan Silver Dagger Award), in this standout sequel-though one might not think so after reading the grisly opening. Det. John Cardinal of the Algonquin Bay, Ontario, police force is called in to investigate the severed arm of a white male that has been dragged out of the woods by a neighborhood dog. After the remaining pieces of the body turn up and the man is identified as an American citizen, John and his French-Canadian partner, Lise Delorme, are immersed in a case that involves more bodies, a 30-year-old unsolved murder with ties to the violently separatist Quebec Liberation Front, and clashes among various law enforcement agencies, including the Mounties, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the local police. There are also the ordinary and extraordinary personal problems of the wonderfully drawn characters. Cardinal's wife is clinically depressed, and his father is sick. Lise's ethnicity does not help her win the trust of the locals. The novel's fascination lies not only in the meticulous unspooling of the plot, but in watching Cardinal and Delorme uncover the lattice of events linking the political clashes of the past and the covered-up crimes of the present. The detectives maneuver gingerly through a beautiful but dangerous landscape frozen beneath the weight of a once-in-a-century ice storm. In a genre where writers often compete to create vile, loathsome villains perpetrating outrageous crimes, Blunt stands as a master craftsman who shows us not only darkness, but also decency.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* A North Woods of derelict trapper lodges and dangerous bars, where damp and cold pervade everything, forms a convincingly cruel background for a mystery in which one body is set out for bears to dismember and another is placed, naked, in the middle of a copse of trees. The setting is the tiny town of Algonquin Bay in northern Ontario, and the heroes, introduced in Blunt's acclaimed first novel, Forty Words for Sorrow (2001), are homicide detectives John Cardinal and Lise Delorme. They are a first-rate duo, free from the usual male cop-female cop stereotypes, and they react to one another professionally and genuinely. This time two homicides within the same week land on the detectives' plate; one victim is identified as an American accountant while the other, a woman, is the town's most capable doctor. Cardinal has still more worries, both professional (the imminent discharge from prison of a drug dealer with a grudge against him) and personal (an ailing father and a manic-depressive wife). Blunt is adept at spinning a web of horror and impending doom, but he also knows how to spice his tale with humor (Cardinal telling a maladroit bank robber that he must have made off with "tens of dollars") and human detail (Cardinal facing his domestic difficulties with grace and dignity). This one works on every level. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

The New York Times Book Review
Giles Blunt's crisp prose and his insights into suffering and madness give his characters their true voice.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 12, 2003
The plot is good enough on its own. But Blunt takes his book beyond plot with deft characterization.

Review
??an absorbing, perfect-for-the-summer kind of read.? -- En Route

??a book that could be a contender for both the Arthur Ellis Award and the Stephen Leacock Medal.? -- Jack Batten in the Toronto Star

?[Blunt] has an excellent grasp of the issues and history and does a great job of working them into the plot, and he never lets go of the characters, which is where he really shines.? -- Margaret Cannon in The Globe and Mail

?Giles Blunt dazzled us mystery lovers with Forty Words for Sorrow. Now he has done it again with The Delicate Storm. Don't miss it.? -- Tony Hillerman

?[The Delicate Storm] tests positive on Blunt?s desriptive skills, which are undiminished. You are preternatuarally there with these characters, crunching across frozen parking lots, shivering at stakeouts in the woods -- ordinary cop scenes that in the hands of a stylist like Blunt become means of ratcheting up suspense.? -- Quill & Quire

?In a genre where writers often compete to create vile, loathsome villains perpetrating outrageous crimes, Blunt stands as a master craftsman who shows us not only darkness, but also decency.? -- Publishers Weekly

?This book is a diamond -- a glittering novel with sharp, hard edges and depth?[Blunt] has imagined many of the leading characters with insight and clarity?? -- Hamilton Spectator

?It?s a kind of mystery that?s literate, smart and subtly political. It also has an unerring sense of time and place.? -- Edmonton Journal

?Giles Blunt combines a massive ice storm, the conservative Ontario political scene and the FLQ crisis of 1970 into a crackerjack of a mystery novel?This book is a compulsive and intelligent page-turner.? -- Ken Kilpatrick for The Chronicle-Herald (Halifax)

?Blunt has woven together fictional characters with recent history to create a narrative both instructive and compelling.? -- The National Post

??intriguing, well-considered and original.? -- The Vancouver Sun

??[Blunt] has devised another fascinating case for his affable protagonist?Blunt gradually unfolds the engaging plot, dropping clues as well as several red herrings and twists that will keep readers turning the pages?his dialogue is credible and his prose moves the book along to its gripping conclusion.? -- The Winnipeg Free Press

??wry humour, understated storytelling, and a sensitive understanding of how lives can be shattered by a single mistake?It is a multi-layered, elegantly written story that manages to transform ancient politics into unput-downable reading.? -- The Calgary Herald

?Blunt weaves an interesting and easily read tale while laying out his mystery?[his] writing is smooth and compact and carries you along with the right amount of detail mixed with the right amount of action.? -- FFWD Magazine

?This is good. The plot drives fast and well and the people speak like human beings. But it?s Blunt?s sense of place that is unique; that assures us he can join the select group of writers -- such as Ian Rankin and Tony Hillerman -- who can locate their readers in a fictional universe as physically real as the chair they inhabit.? -- The Observer

??riveting?the book has the urgency of a TV crime drama?The plot is vast but plausible?The prose bristles with tension?? -- Chatelaine

??offers lashings of suspense, excellent characters and prose and a well-told credible story worth the time spent reading it.? -- Victoria Times Colonist

Praise for Giles Blunt?s Forty Words for Sorrow:
?I wish I?d written Forty Words for Sorrow.? -- Tony Hillerman

?Brilliant -- one of the finest crime novels I?ve ever read.? -- Jonathan Kellerman

?Don?t read it just because it?s a good crime novel and because once you?ve begun, you won?t put it down until you?re finished. Read it because it?s excellent.? -- Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail

?The final pages present the sort of ending rare in crime fiction, one which compels readers to congratulate everybody in sight -- themselves, the book?s characters and particularly the author.? -- The Toronto Star

Book Description
The author of Forty Words for Sorrow-winner of Britain's Silver Dagger Award-returns with a crime thriller challenging our most cherished belief: that, in fiction, there is no such thing as the perfect crime.

The small city of Algonquin Bay in northern Ontario: A freak warm front has moved in, making it feel like April and rousing hungry bears from hibernation. So when Ivan Bergeron's dog brings him the chewed-off arm of a white male, it's assumed the victim met a natural if ugly end. Except, as it turns out, the owner of the arm was dead before the bears got to him.

A second victim is found: a woman, apparently raped. There has to be a connection-two bodies abandoned in the woods within days of each other can't be a coincidence. Then police records reveal a long-unsolved murder with the same MO: a woman found in the woods, seemingly raped. It isn't long before homicide detectives Delorme and Cardinal are led back thirty years to another unsolved murder, this one linked to Quebec terrorists. Logic suggests the Algonquin Bay murders are connected to this case. Evidence is less convincing. And somewhere, a murderer-smart and powerful-is walking free.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"The third week in January in Algonquin Bay: A freak warm front has rolled in, making it feel like April and enticing the locals into shedding their down parkas and strolling the streets. But the warm weather has also brought the bears out of hibernation, and they have come out hungry. Suddenly the stakes turn ugly when an auto mechanic discovers a mauled human arm in his yard, and the cops determine that its owner was dead before the bears got to him. A search of the surrounding woods turns up body parts placed exactly where the bears were most likely to find them. A homicide, then, but who is the victim?" "As detectives John Cardinal and Lise Delorme wrestle with what soon becomes a trail of misinformation about the victim's identity, another body is found in the woods - a young woman, apparently raped. There has to be a connection: two bodies abandoned in the woods within days of each other cannot be a coincidence in a small town like Algonquin Bay. Then police records reveal an unsolved murder with the same MO - a woman found in the nearby woods, also apparently raped. It isn't long before the two homicide detectives are following a trail that leads back thirty years to yet another open murder case - this one linked to Quebec terrorists - then twists forward to the mysterious unidentified first victim." Logic suggests all these murders are connected. Evidence is less convincing. And somewhere, a murderer - smart and powerful - is walking free.

FROM THE CRITICS

The New York Times

Whenever he is describing the scenery in this cold, harsh place, Blunt writes with the flashing grace of an ice skater skimming over a frozen pond. — Marilyn Stasio

Publishers Weekly

Blunt forgoes the shock and violence of his previous crime novel, Forty Words for Sorrow (winner of the British Crime Writers' Macallan Silver Dagger Award), in this standout sequel-though one might not think so after reading the grisly opening. Det. John Cardinal of the Algonquin Bay, Ontario, police force is called in to investigate the severed arm of a white male that has been dragged out of the woods by a neighborhood dog. After the remaining pieces of the body turn up and the man is identified as an American citizen, John and his French-Canadian partner, Lise Delorme, are immersed in a case that involves more bodies, a 30-year-old unsolved murder with ties to the violently separatist Quebec Liberation Front, and clashes among various law enforcement agencies, including the Mounties, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the local police. There are also the ordinary and extraordinary personal problems of the wonderfully drawn characters. Cardinal's wife is clinically depressed, and his father is sick. Lise's ethnicity does not help her win the trust of the locals. The novel's fascination lies not only in the meticulous unspooling of the plot, but in watching Cardinal and Delorme uncover the lattice of events linking the political clashes of the past and the covered-up crimes of the present. The detectives maneuver gingerly through a beautiful but dangerous landscape frozen beneath the weight of a once-in-a-century ice storm. In a genre where writers often compete to create vile, loathsome villains perpetrating outrageous crimes, Blunt stands as a master craftsman who shows us not only darkness, but also decency. (June 2) Forecast: A tame jacket won't help this noteworthy thriller, but word of mouth is sure to be strong. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Following up his successful debut, Forty Words for Sorrow, Blunt scores again with a story also set in northern Ontario's Algonquin Bay and featuring detectives John Cardinal and Lise Delorme. When two bodies are found in the woods and a local doctor is murdered, Cardinal and Delorme's investigation leads them to an unsolved 30-year-old killing linked to Quebec terrorists. Are the Royal Canadian Mounted Police involved? What clues can be found in such far-flung places as Montreal and New York City? The plot races toward the finish line but not at the expense of the characters. What puts this book above the average tale of psychological suspense is the depth of Blunt's character study. We feel that these are real people; each is well rounded, and his or her links to other characters in the novel are explored in depth, as are their relations to the unique local culture. Recommended for public libraries.-Fred M. Gervat, Concordia Coll. Lib., Bronxville, NY Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews