Murder is never an accident, as the great mystery writers from Agatha Christie to Raymond Chandler and Elmore Leonard have shown the world over the last century.
That belief also holds true for Canadian author Giles Blunt, the creator of the popular “John Cardinal” mystery series of books and their hero: A northern Ontario super-sleuth.
“Outlining a story is my favourite part of writing. That’s where you think up all the psychology of who does what and why,” Blunt said Tuesday on CTV’s Canada AM.
Dead bodies, missing women and a decades-old injustice that has gone unsolved set the stage in “Until the Night,” Blunt’s latest entry into the popular crime series.
The book is the sixth instalment in the author’s “John Cardinal” saga and is the basis for an upcoming television series for CTV, which Blunt will write.
Blunt once again reunites the crusty Canadian detective with his sidekick, Lise Delorme, to solve another perplexing crime in “Until the Night.”
As the book begins, the frozen body of a senator’s wife is found inside an abandoned hotel in the woods.
Blunt and Delorme soon discover that the grisly murder has a connection to an unsolved murder, which occurred 20 years earlier on a desolate research station in the icy Arctic.
“There are really two stories in the same book,” said Blunt.
“One revolves around the crimes which take place in the present day. The other story, which took place 20 years earlier, is a romance adventure, and is told as flashbacks,” he said.
That unearthed romance helps, however, to nudge the relationship between Cardinal and Delorme in a new direction. That turn of events should delight longtime fans of the series.
Married for most of the series, Cardinal saw his wife die in “By the Time You Read This,” the fourth book penned by Blunt.
The romantic tension between Cardinal and Delorme has been hinted at, but never acted upon in the series. That changes in “Until the Night.”
“Cardinal has been friends with Delorme for a long time. But things between them heat up considerably here, which causes them a lot of problems,” he said.
Raised in North Bay, Ont., Blunt studied English literature at the University of Toronto. He later moved to New York City, where he lived for two decades.
Blunt now resides in Toronto, which has been home to the 59-year-old author since 2002.
During his time in New York, Blunt penned scripts for the TV series “Street Legal,” “Night Heat” and “Law & Order.”
His “John Cardinal” series also earned Blunt international acclaim.
His first entry in the series, “Forty Words for Sorrow,” won the Silver Dagger from the British Crime Writers’ Association in 2001. The organization awards its Silver and Gold Daggers to the best crime novels of the year.
Blunt’s second Cardinal tale, “The Delicate Storm,” picked up the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for best novel.
His fourth instalment, “By the Time You Read This,” went on to become an international bestseller in 2006.
Blunt’s latest work, set partially in the remote Arctic, takes readers on an adventure that journeys far outside of Algonquin Bay, the author’s thinly-disguised setting for his hometown of North Bay.
Blunt interviewed people who had spent time working on research stations in the Arctic for this new book. Those efforts helped to create the desolate feel in this murder mystery that must be solved in a race against time.
That tension, as well as the distinctive flavour of hero Cardinal, will all be on full display in CTV’s adaption of Blunt’s series.
“I’ve drafted the script for episode one,” said Blunt.
“Hopefully it will come back without a single revision,” he said.
