Third in Blunt's series of thrillers set in Algonquin Bay, Ontario, starring homicide detectives John Cardinal and Lise Delorme.
The young woman who's just arrived at The World Tavern is acting so odd that the bartender assumes she's high on something; if only because no one in their right mind would have been outside during black fly season without covering up more than she has. Turns out, though, that "Red" isn't on drugs. She's got a bullet in her brain, and no memory of how it might have gotten there.
Solving the mystery of her identity leads Cardinal and Delorme into a case involving the local drug trade, the Viking Raiders biker gang, and a self-styled Native American shaman who calls himself Red Deer.
This is a fine series Blunt has going here. The second in the series, The Delicate Storm, relied a bit heavily on knowledge of 1970s Quebec separatist politics for most US readers, but the first volume, Forty Words for Sorrow, is one of the best thrillers of recent years (and has one of my favorite covers ever).
John Cardinal is a complicated character, and his domestic problems -- his wife struggles with serious emotional problems -- make for a nice subplot without overwhelming the main story. Blunt's villains, as usual, are a strong point; their behavior is always believable and understandable. And the progress of the woman initially known only as "Red" is very nicely drawn as she slowly recovers from her amnesia.
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