Crime Machine: A John Cardinal Mystery    by Giles Blunt Order:  USA  Can Random House, 2010 (2010) Hardcover, e-Book Read an Excerpt      Reviewed by Hilary Williamson Crime Machine is the fifth in Giles Blunt's award winning series (that began with Forty Words for Sorrow), starring insightful Canadian police detective John Cardinal, who lives and works in Northern Ontario's fictional town of Algonquin Bay, the Gateway to the North. As this story begins, Algonquin Bay hosts its annual fur auction. Cardinal is still grieving over the death of his beloved wife Catherine, whose murder he solved in By the Time You Read This. He has sold his lakeside home, moved into an unsatisfactory luxury condo, and spends a great deal of off duty time with his good friend and trusted colleague, Lise Delorme. On the job, he's been assigned a very cold case, that of the disappearance of the Scriver family, suspected victims of a drowning accident. Crime Machine begins with a secretive liaison between married real estate agent Randall Wishart and feisty eighteen-year-old Native American artist Samantha Doucette at an empty lakeside bungalow that he's listed. Randall departs before Sam does and she takes a quick shower. Before she can close up and leave, a couple arrives with another agent - who executes and beheads them. Sam escapes through a window and makes a run for it, pursued by the killer. Though Randall persuades Sam not to go to cops, she makes an anonymous call. In the meantime, John Cardinal and Lise Delorme are on the case, soon joined by affable FBI agent Irv Mendelsohn. New York reporter Donna Vaughan helps them identify the victims as Lev and Irena Bastov, U.S. nationals of Russian extraction who are in the fur business. Donna tells Cardinal she is investigating the Russian mafia and fears for her life - their resulting relationship gets in the way of John and Lise's longstanding friendship. Next, readers meet a modern Fagin, the self styled Papa, who leads his murderous, damaged children to the remote home of wealthy Lloyd Kreeger, which then becomes their base of operations. Blunt ties all these plot threads together (with a few shocking twists along the way) and then blasts them apart in a violent crescendo of a conclusion. Giles Blunt is easily Canada's top thriller writer today, holding his own with the best on the international scene - his Crime Machine is another brilliant read, absolutely not to be missed! Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Mystery books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews