Cardinal is based very overtly on Giles Blunt's Forty Words for Sorrow, in which Algonquin Bay police detective John Cardinal finally discovers the frozen corpse of a First Nations girl who disappeared some years back, only to realize she must have been the victim of a serial killer who's still operating in the area. His Quebecois partner, Lise Delorme (Karine Vanasse), has been placed in his department to investigate a potential link Cardinal might have with a Toronto gangster he spent time undercover with, but she twigs fairly quickly to the fact that this is just a hobby-horse her superior's riding rather than a legitimate beef. Nevertheless, Cardinal's a sad, huge, difficult guy who barely sleeps and doesn't seem to have much of a life outside of work; his wife is a bipolar in-patient, his daughter lives back in the city, and he constantly seems to be wearing a giant parka made from multi-layered guilt. Add in Brendan Fletcher and Allie MacDonald as the killers (revealed early, their dynamic recalls partnerships like Bernardo and Homolka but adds an interestingly cold set of body horror influences), plus film-level cinematography, and you've got a real winner, IMHO.