Forty Words for Sorrow

Rating:
Summary: This is a super book!
Review: This is a terrific crime novel. The book is set in a fictional frozen Canadian town and our hero is a good (but flawed) cop. The serial murders are interesting. There is a sense of freezing cold everywhere in the book which makes it truly atmospheric. This novel lived up to the hype and I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written & haunting
Review: This is a wonderful book with well-developed characters that I cared about. A prior reviewer complained that the "killers" were revealed midway through the story & that this detracted from the suspense; I think this misses the point of the story. For me, the suspense was heightened as the Cardinal & Delorme, the investigating police detectives, follow-up on leads that bring them slowly closer to the killers & the latest victim; I was reminded of suspense classics like "Silence of the Lambs" which used this same style of building psychological tension. Hihly recommended !

Rating:
Summary: Time Well Spent
Review: Time is a precious commodity so there's always some degree of risk to start a novel by an author I'm unfamiliar with. In this case, the time devoted to read enough to decide if it was worth continuing was short. The story of an investigation of the murders/disappearances of three young people starts with the discovery of a body while describing the main characters in the setting of bitter cold Algonquin Bay, Canada. The cold winter weather is expertly described and matches the cold, detached feelings of the heartless killers. Once they are introduced, the pace of the story quickens. The technique of alternating between Cardinal and Delorme ( the primary investigators ) and the killers and their captive heightens the tension and accelerates the pace so by the time the storyline is clearly established, the investigation is in overdrive. The subplot allows the reader to witness the internal struggle of conscience in one of the characters and the total emptiness and lack of conscience within the other killer. The comparison offers enough contrast to lift the story above the run of the mill thriller by offering the reader some substance and material for reflection. To put it simply, invest the time, it'll pay off.