Until the Night [Hardcover]

Until the Night marks the sixth (and much awaited) entry in Giles Blunt's mystery series featuring Detective John Cardinal.

Until the Night opens with a cryptic entry from something called The Blue Notebook, giving us a brief glance into an Arctic science station. The next chapter takes us back to more familiar territory - Algonquin Bay, Ontario - 340 miles north of Toronto. It is here that John Cardinal lives and works. He and counterpart Lise Delorme are called in to investigate what looks to be a domestic murder - a husband murdering his wife's lover. But the wife is missing too - also murdered? She is found, dead, but in odd circumstances. As is yet another woman. And the case leads Cardinal and Delorme down paths they couldn't imagine.

As their investigation progresses, so do the entries from The Blue Notebook - and we are slowly privy to more and more details.

Blunt has done it again - an absolutely original, intelligent, riveting plot that kept me reading.....Until The Night. (Sorry couldn't resist) But, seriously, I did use a Sunday off to devour it from first page to last. Yep, that good.

Why do I like this series so much? Protagonist John Cardinal is the big draw for me. In him, Blunt has created a believable, realistic character whose life has evolved over the course of six books. His personal life involving his wife and her difficulties have provided a storyline handled with thoughtfulness, realism and genuine emotion. His relationship with Delorme has him quite confused and is explored further in this book. We get to delve much deeper into Lise Delorme's life this time. Her own issues, insecurities and demons lead her to a dark place, putting herself and her career at risk. I have become quite invested in both of these characters.

The plotting was fantastic - the link between The Blue Notebook and Cardinal's case was slowly, inexorably revealed. The setting of Algonquin Bay has become quite familiar and I can almost feel the cold seeping into my fingers as I hold the book. Blunt grew up in North Bay, Ontario, so he knows what he writes of! Blunt also takes us to other Ontario locales with the seamier underside of Toronto and Ottawa woven into this latest mystery.

I think this latest book just might be my favourite Cardinal book yet. If you haven't discovered this Canadian author and series yet, I encourage you to.

CTV has announced plans for a TV series based on the John Cardinal novels, with Blunt himself doing much of the adaptation.

As other reviews have pointed out, this is the sixth book in the series and also the most complex. I am a character person, and John Cardinal is a great character, as is his partner, Lise Delorme. Their interaction is part of what sets this series apart.

In this book, they are working somewhat apart, for two reasons. One has to do with developments in their friendship, and the other has to do with two separate cases. Lise puts herself in some very difficult situations in order to nail a killer, while cardinal has to deal an idiot who is the lead on the case he is working.

We read a log from someone who had been on an arctic scientific station, and we read about someone who kidnaps women and allows them to freeze to death. The two narratives are clearly connected but we really don't learn the specifics until near the end of the book.

The hunt for the killer is interesting and leads from Algonquin Bay to Ottawa, Parry Sound and Toronto. The end is part a bit of a thriller in terms of will they get there in time, but Blunt handles the sequence in great style.

There is a great plot and great characters. What else does a reader need?

Bought this book months ago but saved it for the coldest days of winter, the best time to read the Cardinal series. As always, Blunt creates an atmosphere that envelopes the reader and draws us into his quiet yet complex characters. In Until the Night, we are treated to several mysteries, gathering clues and making connections at about the same time as the detectives in the story, which seems to increase pace and tension as each page is turned, until you will surely find yourself staying up way too late as you race to the end.

Specific aspects of this book I enjoyed: the Arctic story, taking the world of Algonquin Bay that we've come to know to a new extreme; the fascinating exploration of Delorme's character; that the gruesome aspects of the crimes are not the centre of the story as they have been in the past; Blunt's ability to put as at the scene, physically and psychologically; the very Canadianness of the characters and story.