  We employ the functional renormalization group framework at the second order
in the derivative expansion to study the $O(N)$ models continuously varying the
number of field components $N$ and the spatial dimensionality $d$. We in
particular address the Cardy-Hamber prediction concerning nonanalytical
behavior of the critical exponents $\nu$ and $\eta$ across a line in the
$(d,N)$ plane, which passes through the point $(2,2)$. By direct numerical
evaluation of $\eta(d,N)$ and $\nu^{-1}(d,N)$ as well as analysis of the
functional fixed-point profiles, we find clear indications of this line in the
form of a crossover between two regimes in the $(d,N)$ plane, however no
evidence of discontinuous or singular first and second derivatives of these
functions for $d>2$. The computed derivatives of $\eta(d,N)$ and
$\nu^{-1}(d,N)$ become increasingly large for $d\to 2$ and $N\to 2$ and it is
only in this limit that $\eta(d,N)$ and $\nu^{-1}(d,N)$ as obtained by us are
evidently nonanalytical. By scanning the dependence of the subleading
eigenvalue of the RG transformation on $N$ for $d>2$ we find no indication of
its vanishing as anticipated by the Cardy-Hamber scenario. For dimensionality
$d$ approaching 3 there are no signatures of the Cardy-Hamber line even as a
crossover and its existence in the form of a nonanalyticity of the anticipated
form is excluded.
