Saturday 12 January 2008

By the Time You Read This - Giles Blunt

This was a solid, well-written, gripping mystery. From the opening chapter, the story had me in thrall. It was difficult in places to read because it deals with depression (which my family struggles with) and suicide, but this meant I could relate on a personal level with what the story was about. The main character, John Cardinal, a detective with the fictional town of Algonquin Bay, ON police force, has a bipolar wife Catharine who it appears finally takes her life at the beginning of this book. I can't say anymore without revealing crucial elements of the plot, regarding how he handles her death, but I can say the descriptions of grief were realistic, and the writing about depression, as it has been written about for Catharine throughout this series, is outstanding. This is such a good story. All the characters are interesting and the secondary story of Cardinal's co-worker Lise Delorme working on a difficult child molestation case is equally gripping and provides the impetus for the book.
I have been been giving Forty Words For Sorrow, the first book in the series, to different people to read. Now I can recommend this book as equally as good as the first!

So that is three books read in my Canadian Book Challenge, and the first one from the 'new releases' 888 challenge. Since all my favourite new books by authors are in that section, I can see how that will be the first section completed!

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