Stylish, atmospheric psychological police thriller featuring detectives Cardinal and Delorme 'It lay there, fishbelly white, hair curling along one side. Toward the wrist end, the flesh still bore the zigzag impression of a watch with an expandable bracelet. Even though there was no hand attached, there was no doubt that the thing lying in Ivan Bergeron's backyard was a human arm.' The gruesome discovery in the wilderness above Algonquin Bay is assumed to be the work of bears. Until the search for body parts leads detectives Cardinal and Delorme to a remote trapper's cabin that has served as an abbattoir for a cold-blooded human predator. Until the woods give up a second body, naked and shrouded in ice. Having narrowly survived an RCMP investigation into police corruption, John Cardinal is less than thrilled when the first victim is identified as a US citizen and the Mounties are called in to assist. It's the Canadian Secret Service, however, that pose the real problem. Is their interference in the case merely a question of preserving jurisdiction over cases involving terrorism - or something more sinister? Even the elements seem to be conspiring against the police, with Northern Ontario in the grip of an ice storm of once-in-a-hundred-years severity. The woods take on a glittering, lethal beauty, the eerie silence broken only by the crash of falling branches and power lines. And against this backdrop Cardinal comes face to face with a killer. Second in the series featuring John Cardinal and Lise Delorme, central characters in the widely acclaimed Forty Words for Sorrow.

'This is the book I've been waiting for through twenty years of reviewing crime fiction. This is the first great Canadian crime novel. Giles Blunt has done for Canada's north what James Lee Burke did for Cajun Louisiana. With Forty Words for Sorrow, the Canadian crime novel finally comes of age' Margaret Cannon, Globe 'A taut and enthralling tale that is as dark as the Canadian winter setting is cold. Humane, intelligent and gripping, Forty Words for Sorrow is a haunting journey into the human heart in all its complexities' Val McDermid 'A fine debut that deserves to do well, and promises much from a talented new author' Jim Driver, Time Out 'This atmospheric account ... is extraordinary for its psychology and tensions. Giles Blunt manages to inhabit the minds of killer, victim and investigator alike, a feat that very few writers can manage. It moves his work to a different level' Jane Jakeman, Independent 'A highly professional tour-de-force: excellently plotted, with fleshed-out characters and a well-portrayed, interesting setting' TJ Binyon, Evening Standard 'This Canadian novel is as fine a police procedural as any written in the USA and doesn't rely on others for ideas -- it comes across as fresh as morning dew ... never less than fascinating throughout' Mark Timlin, Independent on Sunday

Giles Blunt grew up in North Bay, Ontario, and attended the University of Toronto. He now lives in New York with his wife and two cats. He has written scripts for Law & Order, Street Legal and Night Heat. He is at work on his next crime novel, The Glittering Wood, also set in the fictional town of Algonquin Bay, and featuring John Cardinal.