Giles Blunt, a pivotal figure in the Canadian crime fiction scene, returns with the sixth instalment of his series featuring detective duo John Cardinal and Lise Delorme. Over the course of the previous books, as their investigations of Algonquin Bay’s most perplexing, gut-clenching, and sadistic crimes revealed the Nothern Ontario town’s most hideous secrets, Cardinal and Delorme’s relationship has changed considerably – progressing from unrequited attraction to deep friendship.

Until the Night pushes the two detectives further apart and brings them closer together, sometimes simultaneously, as they embark upon another complicated case. Women are turning up frozen to death in clothes they were never seen wearing before, seemingly cared for then cruelly abandoned by their murderer. The victims variously have ties to a senator in Ottawa, a former rock star strongly suspected of killing a woman years before, a sex club catering equally to the elite and downtrodden, and a science outpost deep in the Arctic where, decades earlier, something terrible happened. A handful of people know about this catastrophe, and have a vested interest in keeping it quiet.

As always, Blunt perfectly balances plot and character development. Cardinal is a little more befuddled than in past outings – especially concerning Delorme’s erratic behaviour on the job – but the great revelation in store for him is worth the wait. Delorme, however, is truly given a star turn here. Not only does she run up against sexism in the workplace, she also wrestles with her own growing need to live dangerously, despite feeling the “guilt of the Catholic girl gone wrong.” Blunt ably demonstrates how Delorme falls down the rabbit hole of breached professional ethics, but her behaviour is absolutely in keeping with her personality, no matter how uncomfortable her actions may appear for the reader.

It’s fitting that Until the Night ends with the question, “Now what?” One answer is easy: another series instalment that will equal or outdo Blunt’s fine effort here.