John Cardinal Reading Order
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Forty Words for Sorrow | 2000 | Buy |
| The Delicate Storm | 2003 | Buy |
| Black Fly Season | 2005 | Buy |
| By the Time You Read This / The Fields of Grief | 2006 | Buy |
| Crime Machine | 2010 | Buy |
| Until the Night | 2012 | Buy |
Standalone Novels
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Cold Eye | 1989 | Buy |
| No Such Creature | 2008 | Buy |
| Breaking Lorca | 2009 | Buy |
| The Hesitation Cut | 2015 | Buy |
| Bad Juliet | 2025 | Buy |
Giles Blunt has published 11 books since his debut, Cold Eye, in 1989. He is best known for the John Cardinal series, six crime novels set in the fictional city of Algonquin Bay in northern Ontario. Forty Words for Sorrow (2000) introduced detective John Cardinal and won the British Crime Writers’ Silver Dagger Award. The series continued through The Delicate Storm, Black Fly Season, By the Time You Read This, Crime Machine, and Until the Night, running through 2012.
The Cardinal novels use the northern Ontario setting to strong effect, with harsh winters and remote landscapes playing a role in the crimes and investigations. Blunt has also published five standalone novels across different genres, including No Such Creature (2008), a road-trip crime story, Breaking Lorca (2009), set during the Spanish Civil War, and The Hesitation Cut (2015). His most recent book is Bad Juliet (2025), arriving more than a decade after his previous release. The John Cardinal series was adapted into the Canadian television show Cardinal, which ran for four seasons.