Apologia

The novel 40 Words for Sorrow is admittedly, not extremely earth shattering, or significant to literature as a whole, however the author Giles Blunt is a important enough figure when it comes to the genre of crime and mystery novels. The novel is significant in how it was written, the characters, and setting.

40 Words for Sorrow is not necessarily famous within the general public however, within the crime genre Giles Blunt is a very well renowned writer. Lee Child, author of The Killing Floor has been quoted as saying 40 Words for Sorrow has "intensely vivid characters, terrible crimes, and a brutal deep-frozen landscape...Giles Blunt is a tremendous crime novelist"

Giles Blunt is significant to the crime and mystery genres because he has been nominated for four awards, in the category of best novel. In 2001 he was nominated for a Dagger Award, for the novel I studies, 40 Words For Sorrow. Then in 2007 he was nominated again for Fields of Grief. In 2004 he was nominated for a Macavity Award (names after the "mystery cat" of T.S Elliot), and an Anthony Award which is an award that has been handed out since 1986 at the yearly Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, the nominees and winners are selected by the attendees. The novel that was nominated for both of these awards with The Delicate Storm. Although he as only ever been a nominee for awards, it is important that he was been nominated for so many of them.

Regarding the significance of the novel, I think that the most important part is the double narrative. You get the story from both perspectives which is very intriguing because you get to see the story unfold through the eyes of John Cardinal, the detective on the Windigo Killer case, but you also get it from the perspective of the Eddie, who is essentially the assistant to Eric, the murderer. Very rarely in a crime novel to you get both points of view. I feel that in the crime genre this is very effective, however when it comes to mystery, I really think it kills the prolonged suspense of not knowing the killers next move. Suspense only lasts the 20 pages that is a chapter of the novel, because you know as soon as you get to the next chapter, the mysteries will be revealed.

The characters of John Cardinal and Lise Delorme are important, and fairly significant to the genre of crime novels because Giles Blunt has written an series of crime novels about these two characters. The Delicate Storm, the novel that was nominated for both the Macavity and Anthony awards, is the second book in the series.

Another important aspect of the novel is the setting. Giles Blunt has said himself in an interview that he wanted the setting to be non-conventional. He originally wanted to set it in New York, but there are many crime novels out there set in the big city. So he thought back to his roots in Northern Canada and placed his story in Algonquin Bay, (or North Bay) Ontario. The choice in setting is important because it gives the reader a sense of, "Wow, this stuff can really happen anywhere, murder doesn't just happen in the big city". It makes you question the safe, coziness of your own little town and leaves you feeling slightly disturbed, which is important with this particular genre because crime does indeed happen everywhere, and no one is safe. This novel really hits home to readers, which is very important and helps to bring you into the story.

In conclusion, although 40 Words for Sorrow is not a world renowned piece of literature that should be recommended for everyone to read, Giles Blunt is a fantastic crime novelist and brings a different, Canadian perspective to the crime genre. Canadians who enjoy crime novels should definitely consider reading this novel because of its close to home feeling, that "this could happen anywhere".