Exciting crime thriller set in a Northern Ontario town with the main character, John Cardinal trying to solve a mysterious woman with amnesia showing up in a bar one night. The book series actually is the basis of the tv show “Cardinal” found on CTV in Canada. Great book, I will have to go back and start at book 1 at some point. ( )

Northern rural Canadien noir. Troubled police detective Cardinal with help of pattern Delorme search for perps who shot young woman and killed a series of marginal drug addicts/bikerds & drug runners. ( )

This book was recently made into a TV miniseries called Cardinal which just concluded on CTV. I decided to read the book in stages after each program was aired so that the plot would not be revealed until after I saw the TV version. As usual, I thought the written version was much better but the TV show is cinematically great.

Detective John Cardinal works for the Algonquin Bay Police Force. He and his partner, Lise Delorme, are called into the hospital when a red-haired young woman is brought in with a gunshot wound in her head. Due to brain damage caused by the bullet she cannot remember who she is or who shot her. She has no identification and there are no missing persons reports which match her description. As Cardinal and Delorme work on her case a mutilated dead body turns up. The victim was a member of a local biker gang who have a reputation for controlling the drug trade in the area. It seems that an outsider is infiltrating the drug trade and the biker was killed to obtain the gang's stash. But his hands, feet and head were removed and the cave where he was found was covered in strange hieroglyphics. The gunshot victim might be another casualty of the same interloper and Cardinal and Delorme are hoping that as she regains her memory she will tell them where to find him.

There are some substantial differences between the book and the TV show and I don't think that all the changes were necessary. If you have watched the TV show, do yourself a favour and read this book. ( )

Pretty gory 8n a couple spots, but good story line ( )

A beautiful redheaded girl shows up in a Tavern in Algonquin Bay acting rather strangely and covered with black fly bites and leaves. She has no memory of who she is or what happened, but they discover she has a bullet in her brain. The bullet is removed, but homicide detectives John Cardinal and Lisa Delorme assume she is in danger, and try to protect her. She suddenly regains the memory of who she is, but still doesn't remember the shooting. She also doesn't give full information to the police such as she was visiting her brother, a drug addict because she doesn't want to get in in trouble. However, two murders are discovered and she keeps going out. Then she disappears. The plot is mixed up with drug trafficers, a motorcycle gang, and a central American shaman. ( )