Novelists who deliver a profound sense of place in their writings are worth their weight in gold.

Take Giles Blunt, for example. His lauded John Cardinal thrillers were compelling studies in character about the personal and professional crises facing a dedicated northern Ontario cop as he struggled to navigate his way through a dangerously imperfect world. However, they were also anchored to a vividly realized landscape, black flies and all, drawn from Blunt’s own North Bay childhood.

Indeed, it was a wintry return visit as an adult that led to Blunt’s first Cardinal novel, Forty Words For Sorrow. He was walking along the shores of Lake Nipissing during a near whiteout. “You could just see the faint outline of this little island with an abandoned mine shaft on it, and I thought — what an

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