40 Words Too Many! (Forty Words for Sorrow - Giles Blunt)

Member Name: TigerTiger

Product:	Forty Words for Sorrow - Giles Blunt
Date:	02/02/02 (140 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Last section actually gets quite interesting (shame about the rest!)

Disadvantages: Sooooo slow to get into, lack of depth to charactes, It's all been done before

Nothing beats a good crime or forensic novel? However, I’m not sure “Forty Words for Sorrow” is one. I sound confused, I know. I guess, I should explain what the book is about and why I can’t decide either way if this is a good or bad book.

“Forty Words for Sorrow”, was sitting on the shelf in WhSmith starring at me with the words “One of the finest crime novels I’ve ever read”- Jonathan Kellerman, written across the front cover. After reading the whole book I can only conclude this man does not read crime novels very often and that this quote is a little misleading. You can understand why the author chose to put this in a prominent position on the book’s front cover. It is probably the only bit of praise that it ever received, or is likely too. There are most certainly many finer crime novels around. I was in need of a book to read on a long train journey and so at the time it did seem like a good purchase.

I had never heard of the writer Giles Blunt. It seems he is a Canadian, who now lives in New York, but bases his books in Canada. In the past he has written scripts for programmes like “law and Order”, “Street legal” and “Night Heat”. This is his second novel. He is also (more pity us), writing another book in the same series as “Forty Words for Sorrow”.

This book is set in the fictional town of Algonquin bay, Canada. It is a quiet place where nothing much happens. That is until four teenagers go missing. The police investigation doesn’t go too well, as there are no leads and it is only when one by one bodies start turning up that the pieces gradually start slotting together. However, it isn’t fast going and ultimately they find themselves in a situation where time is running out for the next victim, who is tied up in a basement waiting to die.

The team investigating the disappearances/ murders is led by D
etective John Cardinal, who has a fair few problems of his own. What is it with detectives it leads me to ask, in every single crime novel or tv drama the detective is always pre-occupied with his own issues and they often get in the way of the investigation. Cardinal’s biggest problem is that he thinks he is under investigation from his own partner Delorme, as he is suspected of taking bribes. He also has a wife who has suffered a nervous breakdown and who is now in hospital. Then there is the problem of his highly talented daughter who is studying art at Yale. He fees are so expensive, that Cardinal knows he can’t afford them any more. How will he tell her this though? Basically, his life is falling apart and he can’t even solve a crime.

As the novel unwinds everyone is shocked to find that the sleepy town in which they live may be home to an extremely vicious killer. Things most certainly won’t be the same again, for any of them.

I guess this leads me to say why this just didn’t work for me. The plot in itself certainly sounded like it had lots of potential, yet in reality it didn’t cut it. Firstly, the novel itself is 425 pages long. It took me about 200 pages to actually get into the story. I am an extremely fast reader and get through 6 books at least a week. However, I started this on the train and it bored me so much I found it very hard to get through. It was very slow indeed. I put it down and read two other books before I picked it up again. I got a little further, but then read something else. This doesn’t bode well does it?!! I did persist though and I am glad I did, the book did get better. I couldn’t help but think, what a perfectly good waste of 200 pages.

Once I was into the book, there was some suspense and some twists and turns which kept me interested. In reality though, you never get over those first impressions. So, however, great this book ultimately was, the whol
e book is ruined from what preceded this.

“Forty Words for Sorrow” did have some gruesome passages in it and so it is not for the faint hearted. The victims are tortured and this is described in great detail. Hearing the killer(s) and their motives can also be quite hard to handle. However, myself as the experienced crime reader took it all within my stride. If you can survive the likes of Patricia Cornwell, then you will be fine with this.

The characters were also a bit of an issue of concern for me. I didn’t get that sense of knowing any of them really, which I enjoy. One thing that keeps me reading Patricia Cornwell’s novels is that she makes you care about the people she writes of. Giles Blunt may have told the reader quite a lot about Detective Cardinal and his background, but I don’t think I really found out what made him tick. As for other characters, well there were of course more, but I can tell you even less about them, as I just don’t know.

This book has also been described by Val McDermid, as “intelligent” and for me the jury is still out on that one. It’s not “that intelligent”, not basic either, just nothing special or great enough to get me sitting up and noticing.

I tend to choose books quite carefully and on the basis of recommendations. On this occasion I did not and I paid the price. It’s hard deciding what to say when I have to recommend this to other people. Towards the end it was quite good, but then you have to get through the first section to reach that. On that basis I advise you to read something else. If you enjoy crime fiction, there are better things to read. Try Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Clare Francis or Patricia Cornwell.

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