Until the Night

Giles Blunt's books show that Scandinavia does not have a monopoly on Nordic Noir. In 2017 we were on vacation in Canada and quite by chance I saw an episode of Cardinal on TV. Only one episode from the first season, but enough to keep me captivated by the story set in the snowy landscapes of Algonquin Bay in Canada. I knew it was based on a book series. When I got home, I immediately found the author and started reading. I chose this book because of some amazing passages that capture the essence of Nordic Noir, among others a… show more.

Experience a detective at his best and worst. Pick up Until the Night. Blunt doesn’t hide his protagonist’s faults. Like many a detective—to wit, Ian Rankin’s Rebus—Blunt’s John Cardinal bears psychic scars. Until the Night demonstrates that crime novels can be personal, with strong character development. They don’t need to be all crime all of the time—if they have interesting protagonists like Cardinal and his partner, Lise Delorme. Of course, it helps if the criminals aren’t one-dimensional. In Until the Night, Blunt delivers fallible detectives and nuanced perps.