The Recommended Reading Order
For the best experience, the John Cardinal series should be read in its original publication order. The overarching narrative depends heavily on the evolving relationship between Detective John Cardinal and his partner Lise Delorme, as well as Cardinal’s turbulent personal life and back-story. Reading them out of order will spoil major character developments and ongoing plot lines that span multiple novels.
- Forty Words for Sorrow (2000)
- The Delicate Storm (2003)
- Blackfly Season (2005)
- By the Time You Read This (2006) (also published as The Fields of Grief)
- Crime Machine (2010)
- Until the Night (2012)
Detailed Book-by-Book Breakdown
1. Forty Words for Sorrow (2000)
The series begins with the discovery of the body of a young girl frozen in an abandoned mine shaft. Detective John Cardinal is convinced a serial killer is targeting local teenagers in Algonquin Bay, but his superiors are skeptical. Meanwhile, his new partner, Lise Delorme, has been quietly assigned to investigate Cardinal himself for corruption. This stellar debut sets the moody, suspicious, and freezing tone for the entire series and introduces readers to one of Canadian crime fiction's most compelling duos.
2. The Delicate Storm (2003)
A winter storm uncovers human remains in the woods, leading Cardinal and Delorme into a complex investigation. The case quickly connects to a historic, politically sensitive event from the 1970s involving the RCMP and federal intelligence. Giles Blunt weaves a story that is as much about political cover-ups and historic injustices as it is a gritty local police procedural. It won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel.
3. Blackfly Season (2005)
Moving away from the freezing winter into the humid, insect-ridden Northern Ontario summer, this novel starts with a mysterious, disoriented woman arriving in Algonquin Bay with a bullet wound to the brain. Cardinal and Delorme’s investigation leads them into a dark web of biker gangs, drug trafficking, and bizarre occult rituals. The change in season highlights Blunt’s ability to use the Northern Ontario environment to create a heavy, suffocating atmosphere.
4. By the Time You Read This (2006)
Also published under the title The Fields of Grief in some markets, this installment is the most personal and devastating for Detective Cardinal. The book opens with the apparent suicide of Cardinal's wife, Catherine, who has long struggled with bipolar disorder. However, Cardinal receives anonymous notes that suggest her death was actually murder. Delorme steps up to investigate, trying to find the truth while keeping her grief-stricken partner from spiraling out of control.
5. Crime Machine (2010)
Cardinal and Delorme investigate the brutal murder of a local doctor and his wife at their summer cottage. The case soon links back to political corruption, international relations, and historical events dating back to the Cold War. As the partners peel back the layers, they realize they are dealing with professional killers. The book showcases Blunt's knack for connecting small-town tragedies with sprawling, large-scale conspiracies.
6. Until the Night (2012)
The final book in the series returns to a brutal, sub-zero winter. The story begins with a series of murders targeting individuals connected to a long-past, ill-fated scientific expedition in the Arctic. As Cardinal and Delorme race against the freezing cold to find the killer, the book ties up the personal threads of the main characters, providing a satisfying, melancholic, and definitive conclusion to the John Cardinal saga.
The TV Show Adaptation: Cardinal vs. the Books
The books were adapted into a highly acclaimed Canadian television series titled Cardinal, which ran for four seasons from 2017 to 2020. The television show starred Billy Campbell as John Cardinal and Karine Vanasse as Lise Delorme. Rather than adapting one book per episode, each season focused on adapting a single novel across a six-episode arc:
- Season 1: Adapts Forty Words for Sorrow (Book 1)
- Season 2: Adapts Blackfly Season (Book 3)
- Season 3: Adapts By the Time You Read This (Book 4)
- Season 4: Adapts Until the Night (Book 6)
Because the television adaptation ended after four seasons, two novels in the literary series were skipped entirely: The Delicate Storm (Book 2) and Crime Machine (Book 5). Despite skipping these books, the show manages to maintain a cohesive, continuous character arc for Cardinal and Delorme, making it a masterpiece of modern television crime drama.
What to Know Before You Start
The fictional setting of Algonquin Bay is heavily based on North Bay, Ontario, where Giles Blunt spent his childhood. The stark geography of Northern Ontario plays a massive role in the stories. Whether it is the sub-zero winters that freeze crime scenes or the insect-plagued summer heat of Blackfly Season, the weather is as much of a character as the detectives themselves.
Additionally, readers should be prepared for a realistic and sometimes painful exploration of mental illness and social issues. Catherine Cardinal's struggle with bipolar disorder is treated with great empathy and realism, and Blunt frequently uses his mysteries to critique historical and systemic issues in Canada, such as the treatment of First Nations communities and the friction between English and French-speaking Canadians.