Giles Blunt Books In Order

Publication Order of John Cardinal Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Giles Blunt is an author, screenwriter and novelist from Canada. He was born in Ontario in the year 1952. He has written many novels such as Forty Words for Sorrow, Black Fly Season, Cold Eye, etc. with Cold Eye being his first novel which he wrote in 1989. Most of his novels are of the thriller genre and are very much appreciated worldwide. The speciality of his novels is that he uses all real life locations in his stories. He develops the plots of his writings in the areas he grew up with a little disguise. For example, in the novel series John Cardinal he has mentioned North Bay in Northen Ontario as Algonquin Bay. Giles Blunt has received many awards from highly reputed associations for his writings. The first two novels of the John Cardinal series fetched him the British Crime Writers’ Asociation Silver Dagger and the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award respectively. He has proudly been compared with the likes of Ian Rankin and Cormac McCarthy and has been nominated for the Dublin IMPAC award two times. In June 2014, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of education from Nipissing University.

Giles Blunt was born to English parents and attended a Catholic boys’ school named Scollard Hall in North Bay, Ontario. His school life experience was full of grief and pain as he was constantly bullied by the local Canadian students. He later moved to a regular school where he was fascinated by the girls’ presence. The unpleasant experience of Canada forced him to move to New York and live there for the next 22 years. Giles Blunt started his writing career with poems. Some of his poems were published when he was still in college. He was very much fascinated by movies which was why he moved to the United States. He started working in bars and restaurants as a bartender and even had to work as a room service waiter. He used to even serve breakfast to Israeli U.N. Ambassador Abba Eban and his wife. He did not like that too because he was asked to have a conversation in French, which he did not know to speak. Later, he got lucky to receive a two year contract from Grosso-Jacobson, the television producers. He used to write pilot episodes for characters based on Detectives on their shows. He has also co-written television shows like ‘Law and Order’ and ‘ The French Connection’ with other noted novelists of that time.

When he was fired from working for television shows, he attempted to write his own novels. He then came up with his first novel named Cold Eye, which received good reviews but was not a success. Many noted directors and producers started approaching him for taking Cold Eye to the big screen. It was his novel Forty Words for Sorrow that got him fame when it was published by Anne Collins of Random House Canada.

The John Cardinal mystery series written by Giles Blunt was a huge success for him. The first novel of the series was Forty Words for Sorrow, which was published in the year 2000 by Random House Canada and later by Putnam Publishing Group US and in 2001 by Harper Collins UK. The novel is based on the character named John Cardinal, who is a Detective under trial for corruption. He has his own criminal secret from the past which constantly keeps him haunting. Although he is under special investigation for corruption and about to lose his job, he never stops from finding the truth behind a crime. When he finds the mutilated body of thirteen year old Katie Pine in an abandoned mine shaft, he learns that the whole town is full of serial killers. The serial killers only attack young victims but John Cardinal strives hard to solve this crime and bring the criminals to justice.

The novel got very good reviews from readers worldwide and was labelled as the best Canadian thriller ever written. Giles Blunt was also praised by the top writers of that time for his work so much so that they wished they had written the novel.

The second novel of the John Cardinal series was titled The Delicate Storm which also had the Detective John Cardinal as the main lead. This novel was published in the year 2003 by random House Canada, Harper Collins UK and Putnam Publishing Group US simultaneously. It received the 2004 Arthur Ellis Award from Crime Writers of Canada and even nominated for the Dashiell Hammett, Anthoney and Macavity and the Dublin IMPAC Literary Award. The novel shows Detective John Cardinal assigned to a case of a murdered American tourist. The corpse of the tourist is found dismembered in the wood and eaten by bears. Another murder of a local woman whose body is found frozen in the woods under a glaze of ice, makes John Cardinal realize the connection between the two murders. He takes help from his colleague Lise Delorme, who is also his attraction of interest. But controlling his emotions he strives relentlessly and finds the truth behind the murders. The conspiracies are linked to the highest ranks of the Canadian Intelligence Service and have roots which are more than thirty years old.

This novel too opened to great reviews from the readers and appreciated by one and all. The thrilling suspense of the plot was very well praised by all and was regarded as the best crime literature. A few directors tried to use his novels into movies. Noted producers like Larry Turman tried making a movie on Cold Eye by changing the ending from the original novel, but were unsuccessful. Finally, French director Alain Jessua was lucky to make a French movie base on Cold Eye which was named ‘Les Couleurs du diable’. The John Cardinal series has also been made into television series and Giles Blunt is busy nowadays writing scripts for further part of the television series. Giles Blunt has been lucky to become a writer and author of a high caliber. He was lucky to find his path to destiny after going through so many difficulties. It has been his firm belief in himself that kept him going without any fear. He has truly been an inspiration to the upcoming young and prolific writers who learn to strive hard for achieving their goals and not lose faith and hoe as done by Giles Blunt.