By The Time You Read This by Giles Blunt

This is another book I read about at the BookBitch website. Several contributors rated their favorite reads from 2007 and this book was on several lists. Read the book's description prompted me to place a hold from my local library, and while the description sort of mislead me, I still enjoyed it. I rated the book a B.

From Amazon:
Autumn has arrived in Algonquin Bay, and with it an unusual spate of suicides. The most shocking victim yet is Detective John Cardinal’s wife, who has finally succumbed to her battle with manic depression. As Cardinal takes time to grieve, his partner, Lise Delorme, handles an unsavory assignment: a young girl appears in a series of unspeakable photos being traded online, and background elements indicate she lives in Algonquin Bay. Delorme is desperate to find the girl before she suffers more abuse.

When Cardinal receives a string of hateful anonymous notes about his wife’s death, he begins to suspect homicide. His colleagues believe he is too distraught to think clearly, and he’s forced to investigate alone. In doing so, he comes up against a brand of killer neither he—nor the reader—has ever seen before.
In his most masterful and thrilling novel yet, Giles Blunt confirms his reputation as a rising international star in crime fiction, and positions Detective John Cardinal among the finest characters in the genre.

I would have a hard time calling this book a suspenseful novel, though there were two mysteries that had to be solved. I thought the author did a wonderful job letting the reader really getting to know the characters and understand their motivation behind everything they did. While this was the fourth book of a series, I certainly did not feel like I was missing out on any backstory or history. This book can definitely be read as a standalone which is always a bonus for me. The graphic pictures of child molestation was done in a way that disgusts the reader because of the concept and not because of the descriptions in the book. I also thought that the reader really had a great understanding of what truly depressed people feel and go through. My only complaint was that the ending was kind of rushed and not fully finished. However, I do expect that of a series book.

Up next is another book I got from the same website which is titled The Abduction by Mark Gimenez. It is another new to me author and I hope it is as good as some of the reviews I read. I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter and Happy Reading!