Black Fly Season by
Giles Blunt
hbk out January 05
Published by HarperCollins
at £18.99
It's early summer in the Algonquin Bay and the bugs are sucking on any trace of
bare flesh and spattering on car windshields like rain. Unfortunately for Detective
John Cardinal the flies are not the only pain he's likely to get in the neck. His
wife, who suffers from Bi Polar Disorder, is going on a college photography trip
for a few days and is exhibiting the first signs of growing mania, his estranged
daughter is still playing cool and, unbeknown to him, he's about to be caught up
in a case that takes him through the physical and spiritual wringer.
One night a dazed young woman with red hair wanders into The World Tavern,
acting dippy and eventually drawing the wrong kind of attention from the locals.
She narrowly escapes an over cosy car trip with a few of the guys and ends up in
the hands of the local cops. She doesn't know who she is or where she's been,
but most importantly for Cardinal she hasn't the faintest idea why she has a bullet
still lodged in her brain.
The search for the girl's identity and the reason behind the gunshot wound takes
Cardinal and Delorme (Lise Delorme being Cardinal's partner and foil for his
bouts of angst) to the heart of the Algonquin Bay lowlife drugs economy. A place
peopled by biker and native gangs, gullible students and Voodoo practitioners on
the make; a heady mix but Blunt carries it off well. The narrative is suitably
driving ,the sense of place vivid and at times Blunt creates an air of actual
creepiness and tension. Although some of the characters verge on being
unbelievable grotesques Blunt pulls them off like a Northern Hiaasen. Well worth
the read. This is the Third Cardinal and Delorme mystery, I'm already looking
forward to the next one.
Black Fly Season by
Giles Blunt
