Until the Night by Giles Blunt (Random House, $29.95)

A man’s body is found in the parking lot of a seedy motel in Algonquin Bay, Ont.

Mark Flint, who was having an affair with a local woman, dies after someone stomps on his throat. There is no sign of his lover, Laura Lacroix.

Besides not being able to locate Lacroix, Det. John Cardinal and his police team are also on the lookout for a missing senator’s wife. But the search for Marjorie Flint ends in tragedy when her body is found deep in the woods by Sgt. Lise Delorme.

Flint appears to have frozen to death after being chained inside an abandoned hotel.

The probe takes Cardinal and Delorme from the woods of northern Ontario to sex clubs in Toronto and Ottawa that are owned by a local businessman with a checkered past. But the murders may also be linked to events that occurred even further away: on an Arctic research station two decades earlier.

Giles Blunt’s sixth Cardinal mystery reads less like a screenplay than some of the previous books in the series. The author, a former television writer, gives readers less action and dialogue and more atmosphere and psychological insight.

The novel alternates between the central police characters and interludes in the Arctic that are told through the diary of a young scientist.

Much of the tension in this work is fuelled by Delorme. She is feeling alienated by her male colleagues, not to mention confused by her feelings for Cardinal.

She is being so reckless, it is hard to tell if she is going to help the investigation or harm it.

Blunt has made several departures from previous books in the series.

For instance, much of the action occurs outside Algonquin Bay, which is North Bay by another name. It also takes an unusually long while for the action to rev up because the link between the two storylines isn’t revealed until later in the book.

The book’s setting may be wintery and arctic cold, but Blunt’s work continues to be hot.

Spoiled Rotten by Mary Jackman (Dundurn, $11.99)

Toronto restaurateur Liz Walker is a bit hard-boiled — hard-boiled detective, that is.

The downtown bistro owner is feeling the heat when her chef, Daniel Chapin, disappears. Then Walker’s butcher is murdered in his Kensington Market shop, with the missing chef being a suspect.

When a deadly food poisoning outbreak occurs at a beef industry event, the restaurateur’s search for her staffer turns even more urgent.

She combs downtown streets and suburban thoroughfares in search of clues. And she even travels to a Nova Scotia fishing village — albeit a fictitious one — to solve a mystery that threatens her business and her life.

Spoiled Rotten is light summer fare that entertains while it also makes one salivate with all its talk of food.

Walker, a smart and funny character, is the book’s best feature.

“Yesterday I was slinging elegant hash out of a little corner restaurant,” she muses. “Now I was searching for answers to a brutal murder my chef may have committed.”

There is never a dull moment in the bistro owner’s life, whether because of her business or the amateur sleuthing. When the single mom wants a little extra drama, there is always the cute police detective who is giving her the eye.

The Toronto setting is varied and well done, encompassing various neighbourhoods and well-known landmarks. And the inclusion of a Bluenose angle is a welcome surprise and diversion.

Mary Jackman, who owns a Queen Street eatery herself, skilfully reveals the fast-paced world of the restaurant industry. It is one that is not always glamorous. But it certainly is fun and full of drama when Liz Walker is around.

Beach Strip by John Lawrence Reynolds (HarperCollins, $22.99)

When the body of Josie Marshall’s husband is found on the beach near their lakeside Ontario home, the grief-stricken woman refuses to believe that the veteran detective shot himself

But there is compelling evidence to support the suicide verdict and most of Gabe Marshall’s police colleagues accept it.

As Josie struggles to accept her husband’s death, she also starts asking questions about it.

She becomes a thorn in the side of police, including her detective husband’s partner — who is also her lover — as well as their boss. The higher-ranking officer, in particular, has no time for Josie’s theories.

The widow’s best sources of information become the people living on the edge — of the lake, the law and society — including a homeless man, a female ex-con and a mobster.

It has been nearly a decade since John Lawrence Reynolds, an award-winning novelist and non-fiction writer, has penned a mystery.

One can’t help but be drawn into this story, as the Ontario author not only gives himself the challenge of creating a compelling female character, he also makes her the one doing the detective work into her husband’s death.

We see the forty-something woman grapple with a range of emotions, including shock, guilt and anger. But she also possesses a wry sense of humour that keeps the novel from becoming too melancholy.

Then there is the fact she isn’t being honest with the police and seems to have secrets to hide.

The beach strip also has two faces.

At first glance, it is a magical place where the couple has a happy life amid busy boardwalks and serene canals. But it soon becomes a place where menace seems to lurk around every corner.

(jalberstat@herald.ca)