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Algonquin Bay, Ontario, Giles Blunt's fictional stand-in for the very real North Bay, is what many non-Canadians imagine when they hear the name Toronto. It is also what most Canadians imagine when they think about northern Ontario. In short, unbelievably cold in winter, infested with blackflies in the spring and (though Blunt hasn't got there yet) thick with mosquitos in summer. Nevertheless, despite all the challenges nature throws in the face of its stubborn inhabitants, the north is very much part of the modern world, thanks to all-weather roads, plane connections, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Thus you can get a latte grande in Algonquin Bay. You can also get heroin, if you know who to ask. Until recently, the go-to guys for heroin have been the bicycle gang (they prefer 'club') the Viking Riders, but now a self-proclaimed shaman named Red Bear has moved into their territory and violence is inevitable. Cardinal's first indication of a prospective drug war comes in the form of a strange event -- a young woman lacking all identification and an apparent stranger in town stumbles out of the bush, covered with bug bites and suffering from total amnesia. Medical tests reveal that she has been shot in the head, which has produced a fortunately temporary lobotomy and a general aura of eerie tranquillity. As the effects of her injury wear off, she becomes increasingly less amenable to police attempts to protect her from whoever tried to kill her. But soon the corpses begin to mount and they are disturbingly mutilated, suggesting some sort of cult involvement. Forensic entomology connects the young woman to one of these mutilated bodies and Cardinal and his partner, Lise Delorme, become doubly anxious to keep her safe. Unfortunately, Cardinal cannot devote his entire attention to crime in Algonquin Bay. His wife, who suffers from bi-polar disease, has gone off to Toronto with her photo group and shows every sign of being on the verge of a breakdown. Cardinal is torn between his desire to keep her from going over the edge and his recognition that she must be granted autonomy. This relationship, rather than being yet another example of the personally tormented policeman, is one of the stronger elements in the novel, affectingly and sensitively presented. Blunt's first two novels have won major prizes and there is no reason why this, perhaps the strongest in the series, should not as well. Extremely well-paced, crisply written, and filled with the kind of local detail and sharply-observed characters that explain why the author continues to return to the unforgiving north, BLACKFLY SEASON has all the elements of a first-rate police thriller.
Reviewed by Yvonne Klein, December 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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