by Giles Blunt
First published 2002
Four teenagers vanish from Algonquin Bay, a small northern Ontario town. The police investigation stalls and the department prepares to move on. Detective John Cardinal refuses to let go. His stubborn pursuit gets him kicked off Homicide. Cardinal carries criminal secrets from his past while internal affairs investigates corruption charges against him. His career hangs by a thread. His family life crumbles. Then workers discover Katie Pine's mutilated corpse in an abandoned mineshaft. The thirteen-year-old girl was tortured before she died. Cardinal sees what others won't admit. A serial killer operates in their quiet town. The media attacks his theories. Provincial police question his methods. His own colleagues doubt his judgment. Cardinal follows thin leads toward an unthinkable truth. Time runs short for him and for another young victim. The boy sits tied up in a basement, wondering when his captors will end his life.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: detective-investigation, race-against-time, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Algonquin Bay, Northern Ontario
Period: contemporary
388 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Seal Books
Content warnings: child-death, graphic-violence, murder, torture