A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny

First Line: Armand Gamache sat in the little room and closed the dossier with care, squeezing it shut, trapping the words inside.

At first thought to be an oddity, an old hand-drawn map found in a wall of the bistro in Three Pines winds up in the hands of Armand Gamache as he begins his new job as head of the Sûreté Academy. There the map will lead Gamache to secrets. To four young cadets. And to a dead professor.

The time has come for a great reckoning.

Not having been a fan of Penny's last book, The Nature of the Beast, (and feeling like an abject traitor) I was thrilled to read A Great Reckoning and see that she's back on track with her siren-like magic.

Although the books in this series can be read as standalones, each book is actually a chapter in one long story arc. This means that the books will have a much greater impact on readers if they are read in order, beginning with Still Life. 

Corruption in Quebec's police force has been a long-running subplot, and in A Great Reckoning Gamache heads to the Academy to finish the task of "cleaning house." You can get rid of dishonest cops from positions of power in government and from the streets and patrol cars, but if you don't go to the source-- the Academy-- and clear out the bad teachers and cadets, you're never going to solve the problem in its entirety. This is the task Gamache has set himself, and he is well aware that it means he will have to do things that he does not wish to do. 

The investigation into the professor's murder, the significance of the old map, the true identity of a cadet named Amelia Choquet... all these things and more combine to make a page-turning narrative that tugs at the mind and the heart. And, I'm happy to say, the citizens of tiny, idyllic Three Pines are back to being their vibrant selves-- especially Ruth.

I know that Louise Penny has a specific ending in mind for this series, but I sincerely hope we can all look forward to a few more trips to my favorite village in Quebec.
     

A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny

eISBN: 9781250022127

Minotaur Books © 2016

eBook, 400 pages

Police Procedural, #12 Armand Gamache mystery

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Amazon  

The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny

First Line: Running, running, stumbling, running.

There is nothing in the world large enough to contain nine-year-old Laurent Lepage's imagination. Almost everyday the residents of Three Pines are treated to one of his tall tales. After his countless impassioned descriptions of walking trees and dinosaurs he's spotted outside the village, no one believes a word he says-- including the newest residents Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache.

...until the day that Laurent disappears and the entire village learns that one of his tall tales was actually the truth. In uncovering evil deep in the forest outside Three Pines, an old poet named Ruth Zardo knows that a monster has returned to her beloved village. The time has come to face up to weakness... and to overcome it.

I never thought this day would come. This is the first time I've been disappointed in a book written by Louise Penny, and making this admission hurts. I'm so used to writing glowing reviews of her work-- her fascinating, in-depth character studies, the sheer poetry of her descriptions-- that I'd rather not say a word at all, but...

The Nature of the Beast just doesn't measure up to her previous books. Once again we have murders in Three Pines, a tiny village that's become the Cabot Cove of Quebec. Gone are her mouth-watering descriptions of meals eaten at the bistro. Gone are her insightful characterizations. Always before even the worst of her characters have been shown to have shreds of humanity. Here characters like John Fleming are simply evil.  

In previous books, Penny would've broken our hearts with little Laurent's fate. Here he's little more than a plot device. I also experienced great anticipation knowing that my favorite character, Ruth Zardo, would have a larger role in this book, but her part fell flat. In fact, the entire book felt flat and slow.

In The Nature of the Beast, too many things stretched belief beyond breaking point-- even something based in truth like the "Whore of Babylon." I am familiar with Penny's current circumstances. Her beloved husband has Alzheimer's, and they've had to move from their idyllic life in the country to a condo in Montreal. Loved ones come before books. They always should. I've seen the deep affection her fans feel for Louise Penny. I am one of those fans, and I don't think I'm the only one who would rather she take some time off instead of risk causing irreparable harm to characters and to a village so many of us adore.
  

The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny

ISBN: 9781250022080

Minotaur Books © 2015

Hardcover, 384 pages

Police Procedural, #11 Armand Gamache mystery

Rating: C+

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen


 

The Long Way Home by Louise Penny

First Line: As Clara Morrow approached, she wondered if he'd repeat the same small gesture he'd done every morning.

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has retired from the Sûreté du Québec, and with his beloved Reine-Marie and their dog Henri have moved to the village of Three Pines. Gamache relishes the peace he finds there among friends and loved ones, and his wounds-- both inner and outer-- are healing. 

Every morning Clara Morrow watches Gamache sit on a bench in the morning sun, reading a book and looking off into the distance. One day she decides she can wait no longer, so she joins him on the bench and tells him what is troubling her. Clara's husband Peter has not returned as he promised on the anniversary of their separation. She wants Gamache to help find her husband. At the thought of leaving Three Pines, Gamache almost becomes physically ill, but he rises from the bench, begins contacting those who will help them, and joins Clara on her search for Peter.

If you've heard all the praise for Louise Penny's books and are thinking of reading this-- her tenth book to feature Armand Gamache-- first, I urge you to think again. Each book in this series is a chapter in a much larger tale; therefore, to begin reading a book at chapter ten may leave you wondering what in the world is going on. 

The story of Clara and Peter Morrow has been a constant thread throughout this series, and The Long Way Home continues this story by showing us the corrosive power of jealousy. This book has much more to do with searching and less to do with mystery, which may not set well with some readers, but if you are as intensely involved in the lives of these wonderfully realized characters as I am, you will be willing to let Penny tell her story in her own fashion. For me, soul searching can be every bit as fascinating as the search for a missing person-- as long as someone as gifted as this author is telling the tale.

As Clara, Myrna, Gamache and Jean-Guy follow Peter's trail closer and closer to "the land God gave to Cain," readers are treated to conversations with beloved characters like Ruth who, in her own inimitable way, has profound advice to share. As usual with Penny's writing, gestures, glances, and words left unspoken can have great import, and conversations can range from the existence of a tenth muse to overworking a painting. 

Lest the search for a jealous man become too grim, Penny shows that she can do more than bring her characters or scenes of nature and food to life. Having Clara, Myrna, Gamache and Jean-Guy experience life aboard ship is a brilliant section that gives the book some badly needed lightness and humor. 

Yes, this book is a bit of a departure from the rest of the books in the series, but that's not a bad thing. Gamache is retired, so there's no way he can lead an investigation into a murder. The Long Way Home is not your typical police procedural. In fact it moves quite a distance from that particular subgenre. What this retired man can and will do is to leave his comfort zone to go in aid of a friend, and as such I found it to be a brilliant and loving continuation of Penny's series. 

At the beginning of The Long Way Home, Armand Gamache looks out over the village and wonders, "Was Three Pines a compass? A guide for those blown off course?" For me, Louise Penny's creation is exactly that, and each time a new book is released, I feel the pull of that compass to remind me to return to the shelter of that small and wonderful village.
  

The Long Way Home by Louise Penny

ISBN: 9781250022066

Minotaur Books © 2014

Hardcover, 384 pages

Police Procedural, #10 Armand Gamache mystery

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen.


 

How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny

First Line: Audrey Villeneuve knew what she imagined could not possibly be happening.

From the very first line of the very first chapter, the reader is plunged into a nightmare. A woman seems on the verge of madness. Inspector Armand Gamache's well-trained team has been broken apart and sent to many other divisions. Jean-Guy Beauvoir now works for Gamache's superior and is on the verge of falling completely apart. Gamache's team now consists of lackluster men who are openly contemptuous of him. Anyone who has read and loved Louise Penny's books from the beginning will be filled with pain and disbelief during the opening chapters of How the Light Gets In.

It's almost Christmas and Inspector Gamache is looking forward to spending the holidays in Paris with his family when he receives a message from bookstore owner Myrna Landers of Three Pines. A longtime friend of Myrna's has failed to arrive to spend Christmas with her, and Myrna is afraid that something has happened to her. Gamache relishes the chance to get out of the city to investigate. Although Myrna is reluctant to divulge the person's identity, he soon learns that the missing woman was once one of the most famous people in the world. As his investigation continues, the climax of the plot against Gamache grows ever closer. How can one man stand against so many?

As an enthusiast of Louise Penny's writing since her first book, Still Life, I love her continuing story of characters I have grown to know and love like they are my own family. As in real life, these books are not neatly tied up by the last page. One person's story may be woven into a narrative and then not be spoken of until two or three books later. I can see how this would frustrate some readers, but I love the world and the characters Penny has created so much that I am willing to follow wherever she leads. I have come to consider this series as a thousand-page (plus) novel with each book as a chapter. Seen in that light, it is easy to see why I recommend anyone who wants to read these books to read them in order. Read out of sequence, too much context and texture is lost. Would you read a book by choosing chapters at random?

The mystery concerning Myrna's missing friend is a highlight of the book, and I enjoyed how Penny wove a very important part of Canadian history into that story line. However, as much as I love How the Light Gets In, I did feel that there were a couple of holes in the plot. The logistics of setting up highly sophisticated computer terminals in Three Pines didn't quite ring true, and the plot Gamache uncovers concerning some highly placed government officials had my suspension bridge of disbelief strained almost to the point of collapse. Fortunately, I don't read these books for their unwavering technical exactitude. I read them for the luminous quality of Penny's writing, of the multi-faceted characters she has created, and for all the emotions her stories and her characters evoke within me.

If you're the type of reader who does not believe that-- deep down in the very heart of things-- good exists in the world and within the hearts of humankind, you may not enjoy these books. (There's absolutely nothing wrong with feeling that way because there certainly seems to be more proof to the contrary.) How the Light Gets In-- and every other book in this marvelous series-- is about a very eclectic group of people who are at one and the same time the very worst and the very best that they can be. Throughout this series, readers get to watch as each character works at conquering his demons, and it is a process which is both wonderful to read and ultimately life affirming. I eagerly await Louise Penny's next book.

How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny

ISBN: 9780312655471

Minotaur Books © 2013

Hardcover, 416 pages

Police Procedural, #9 Inspector Armand Gamache mystery

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen 

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

First Line: In the early nineteenth century the Catholic Church realized it had a problem.

The problem, according to church officials, was that the Gregorian chants used in services throughout each day had strayed so far from the originals that they were considered corrupt. As often happens, one problem led to another. Gregorian chants are ancient; they predate written music. The only thing church officials could think to do was to search for the oldest known surviving written record of the chants. But that was a problem for another century.

In this century, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, have been called to the remote monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, where one of the monks has been murdered. Hidden deep in the wilderness of Quebec, two dozen monks who have taken a vow of silence grow vegetables, raise chickens, make chocolate... and sing. Ironically their voices--recorded singing those ancient Gregorian chants-- have brought them fame throughout the world. Until the prior of Saint Gilbert was found murdered, no one has been allowed into the monastery-- no one until Gamache and Beauvoir, and they will not leave until the killer is unmasked. It is a perfect locked room mystery that will have profound effects upon them all.

It is almost meaningless to add my own superlatives to all the rest which have been bestowed upon such a deserving series. Although momentarily unhappy that Gamache would not be returning to the village of Three Pines (since I have several friends amongst those characters), as soon as Gamache and Beauvoir began walking through the monastery, I forgot every single scrap of my disappointment. The two policemen's differing reactions to the religious services throughout the day, the way they search the rooms of the ancient building, the way they interview each monk, and the way they each react to two other visitors from the outside, blend into the inexorable-- and heartbreaking-- end.

Reading a book by Louise Penny is a time of transcendence for me. The lyricism of her writing makes me look at the world differently whenever I raise my eyes from the page. Although the plots in her books are never anything less than first-rate, these novels are about so much more than finding a killer. They're about how we perceive the world; they're about how we perceive ourselves and those around us. They are about our humanity.

I've seen some readers complain, saying they don't like Louise Penny's books because Armand Gamache is "too good to be true." Throughout the series, characters find Gamache striking because of his sense of calm, and many of them realize that this calm is due to having been at war. That's the feeling that I've always gotten from Gamache. That his calm is very hard won-- and we see that calm shatter in this book.

Most of us have also been at war in one way or another in our lives. What some of us like to see is someone who's made it through to the other side, either in a sense of feeling like kindred spirits, or in a sense of knowing that "if he did it, I can do it, too." The Beautiful Mystery shows us that even Gamache must continue to strive for that inner calm; that he is every bit as human as the man whom he loves like a son-- Jean-Guy Beauvoir.

Each book stands on its own merits. A person doesn't have to read all the books in the series to have them make sense. But, oh what a person misses when he doesn't read each book! This series is a garden. Seeds are sown in one book that may not come to fruition until two or three books later, and this Candide-like tending of her literary garden is one of the things that makes Louise Penny's books so special.

This wonderful eighth addition to Penny's garden ends on a strong note of foreboding and makes me both eager and hesitant for book nine. On the last page, the abbot of Saint Gilbert tells Gamache of how the monastery got its name. The last line of the story, "The one I feed," will resonate with me for a long, long time.

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

ISBN: 9780312655464

Minotaur Books ©2012

Hardcover, 384 pages

Genre: Police Procedural, #8 Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mystery

Rating: A+

Source: Amazon Vine

A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny

Title: A Trick of the Light
Author: Louise Penny
ISBN: 9780312655457
Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2011
Hardcover, 352 pages
Genre: Police Procedural, #7 Inspector Armand Gamache mystery
Rating: A+
Source: Amazon Vine

First Line: Oh, no, no, no,  thought Clara Morrow as she walked toward the closed doors.

The raid on the factory that occurred in Bury Your Dead has had lasting effects on Inspector Armand Gamache and his team of the Sûreté du Québec's homicide division. Just what those effects are we're able to see when the team is assembled in the small village of Three Pines.

Clara Morrow's dream has finally come true. The famed Musée d'Art Contemporain in Montréal is having an exhibition of her art. Art experts and critics from the local scene and from as far away as New York, Paris and London are at the vernissage, and Clara's party afterwards in Three Pines is a smashing success... for everyone except Lillian Dyson, whose body is found in Clara's flower garden the next morning.

When Inspector Gamache and his team converge on the village and begin gathering evidence, one of the first inconsistencies that pops up is about the victim herself. Lillian and Clara were best friends in childhood, but wound up being enemies during the final years of school. Lillian went on to become an art critic known for her skill in ending an artist's career with a cruelly well-written line. However, when her current friends are tracked down and interviewed, they all liked the murder victim and found her kind and helpful. Was it possible for Lillian to have changed so drastically? That's just one of the many questions that have to be answered on route to discovering her killer.

Louise Penny's books are at the top of my "must read" series. Some detractors say that everyone and everything is just a bit too perfect in her books, and that they prefer a bit more reality in their crime fiction. To each his own! I don't find any of the characters "perfect". Perfectly drawn by Louise Penny perhaps, but not as shining examples of the perfect human being. Gamache and his second-in-command Jean Guy Beauvoir are both fighting off the physical and psychological horrors of that factory raid, and their struggles have changed the ways in which they deal with the people around them.

As usual, the murder investigation was compelling. At its heart was the character of the murder victim herself. What was Lillian Dyson-- devil or angel? Just how much can a person change over the years? Is it possible for a person to change? Gamache and his team are forced to dig deep into this woman's life in order to find out who was responsible for her death.

The murder investigation is not the only thread in the plot. We're once again in the picture-postcard village of Three Pines amongst Clara Morrow and her friends. You'd think everyone would be happy for Clara and her exhibition, but they're not. If you're a long-time follower of the series, you can probably identify one jealous Three Pines inhabitant, and you'll be pleased to know that he meets his Waterloo in this book. Another villager who's recently returned from being falsely imprisoned deals with how his friends' attitudes toward him have changed. And Ruth-- the elderly, evil-spirited, acid-tongued poet whom I love-- is waiting, waiting....

Three Pines may have the appearance of a picture postcard village, but scuffle those autumn leaves on the ground with the toe of your shoe, and who knows what you'll find? The remains of a dead sparrow. A worm. A gold ring. A discarded snakeskin. Acorns. Three Pines is a microcosm for the world outside. Usually evil arrives in town by traveling the road from the outside, but not always. Occasionally an emotion, an old hurt or hatred, lies just beneath the surface moldering away for a long time, and all you have to do to bring it to life is to scuff those leaves aside. What is different in Louise Penny's take on crime is that her main character believes that if you sift through evil, you'll find good at the very bottom. Like Gamache I, too, like to believe that good can be found at the bottom of that barrel, and I enjoy following the career of a character who believes the search is worthwhile... and worth doing with respect and love.

If you like complex plots full of psychological insight and books filled with characters you come to know as well as you know members of your own family, get your hands on Louise Penny's books! Do not delay!

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Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

Title: Bury Your Dead
Author: Louise Penny
ISBN: 9780312377045
Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2010
Hardcover, 384 pages
Genre: Police Procedural, #6 Armand Gamache mystery
Rating: A+
Source: Amazon Vine

First Line: Up the stairs they raced, taking them two at a time, trying to be as quiet as possible.

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has come to the beautiful old city of Quebec during Winter Carnival to recuperate from an investigation gone horrifically wrong. He stays with a dear friend, he takes his dog for walks along the streets, he frequents favorite restaurants, and he does a bit of research at the English-operated Literary and Historical Society. But death intrudes even in that sanctuary, and everyday a letter arrives from the village of Three Pines which tells Gamache, "He didn't do it, you know."

I was absolutely thrilled with Penny's first novel, Still Life, and-- incredibly-- each book in this series has grown stronger and stronger. Readers new to Penny will rejoice that they don't need to start with book one. Although characters from previous books make appearances in Bury Your Dead, it isn't necessary to read the other books in order to enjoy this one. Readers who are well aware of Penny's talent will simply rejoice that there's a new book to read. (We know the treat we have in store.)

At the beginning of this book, we are told that Gamache and other members of his team have been seriously injured in a previous investigation, but Penny wisely doles out the information about this in a slow but steady stream. A strength in this book is that-- although I was dying to know everything about this investigation-- I didn't become angered by the author's slipping away into other plot threads. The other plot threads themselves are very strong.

There is information about the French and English communities in Quebec, both past and current. The treasure hunt revolving around Samuel de Champlain is fascinating. Gamache sending his second-in-command, Jean Guy Beauvoir, to Three Pines to reopen an investigation introduces new readers to that marvelous village of characters that is so beloved by those of us who already know it.

This series is consistently excellent, and is one that I always recommend to others. Many mysteries seem to focus so strongly on death and past mistakes that they never rise above the two. There are two sentences in Penny's acknowledgments that tell readers a great deal about the series as a whole: "Like the rest of the Chief Inspector Gamache books, Bury Your Dead is not about death, but about life. And the need to both respect the past and let it go." This is why these books rise above: they have a humanity that so many of the others lack.

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The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny

Title: The Brutal Telling
Author: Louise Penny
ISBN: 9780312377038, Minotaur Books, 2009
Genre: Police Procedural, #5 Inspector Gamache mystery
Rating: A+

First Line: "All of them?"

One of the best places in the literary world to live is Three Pines, Louise Penny's Canadian version of Shangri-La. The friendships there are strong and deep-- better than most people's family lives. Peter and Clara the artists, Myrna the bookshop owner, Ruth the curmudgeonly poet, Olivier and Gabri the bistro and B&B owners are all people I have come to know over the course of this series. Their strengths, their weaknesses, how they support each other during difficult times-- I feel as though these "people" have let me into their homes and into their hearts.

I have been completely absorbed into Louise Penny's world.

It is a shock when Myrna discovers a dead body in Olivier's bistro. When renowned Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is summoned to investigate, I knew all would be well. Gamache, a man of infinite wisdom and infinite kindness, knows how to get to the bottom of things:

But one of the first lessons the Chief had taught Beauvoir when he'd joined the famed homicide department of the Sureté du Québec was that to catch a killer they didn't move forward. They moved back. Into the past. That was where the crime began, where the killer began. Some event, perhaps long forgotten by everyone else, had lodged inside the murderer. And he'd begun to fester.

The body having been found in the bistro, the first suspect is Olivier, but as Gamache's team spreads out and begins their search for facts, the suspect pool becomes much deeper. There are the strangers who've bought the old Hadley house and are turning it into a swanky hotel and spa. And what about the Czech family who lives nearby? The murder victim himself is very difficult to identify, but as more and more tiny pieces of the puzzle come together the more things keep pointing back to Olivier.

The Brutal Telling is a complex tale of treasures and greed. It all takes place in a comfortable, charming village populated by fully fleshed characters I've grown to appreciate and, in some instances, to love. First and foremost, I do love Penny's intricate weaving together of place, of history, and of character. And I love how she is not afraid to tear the village and the people she has created asunder...and then to put them back together again. At the end of this mesmerizing book, the village of Three Pines will never be the same, but there is hope. There is always hope.

The one vision that has remained with me since turning the last page is of the cranky old poet. There Ruth stands out on the village green, looking up into the sky at Rosa...a trail of bread crumbs falling from her fingers into the grass. Reading Louise Penny is a bit like becoming Hansel or Gretel. Penny's world is so complete, so magical, that I feel as though I need to mark a trail somehow so that I can find my way back out.

If you have yet to read any of the books in this series, what on earth is stopping you?

A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny

Title: A Rule Against Murder
Author: Louise Penny
ISBN: 9780312377021, Minotaur Books, 2008
Genre: Police Procedural, #4 Inspector Gamache mystery
Rating: A+

First Line: In the height of summer the guests descended on the isolated lodge by the lake, summoned to the Manoir Bellechasse by identical vellum invitations, addressed in the familiar spider scrawl as though written in cobwebs.

For once the action in this fourth book in Penny's excellent series takes place outside the charming village of Three Pines, thus dodging the "Cabot Cove" bullet.

Inspector Armand Gamache and his wife Reine-Marie are at the isolated Manoir Bellechasse to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Unfortunately the lodge is overrun by the wealthy, entitled and whiny Morrow clan, but the pair are able to shut the Morrows out and enjoy themselves. The obnoxious clan dismisses the pair as "a shopkeeper and his cleaning woman wife", and that's fine with Gamache and Reine-Marie.

In exchange for agreeing to take over some of the operating costs, the Morrows erect a statue of the deceased head of the clan on the grounds of Bellechasse. After a furious late night thunderstorm, one of the gardeners discovers the body of Julia Morrow beneath the toppled statue. How on earth was someone able to knock over the statue without leaving a scratch on its base, and who wanted to kill Julia Morrow...and why?

Gamache bundles Reine-Marie off to Three Pines to keep her out of harm's way as he calls in his staff and begins to investigate. The shock when the Morrows discover the inspector's true identity is quite pleasurable. What isn't pleasurable is the discovery that Peter and Clara of Three Pines are members of the Morrow clan. No wonder they've kept that fact hidden, for this clan was tailor made for Gamache to investigate:

And Gamache? He knew he was neither the hound nor the hunter. Armand Gamache was the explorer. He went ahead of all the rest, into territory unknown and uncharted. He was drawn to the edge of things. To the places old mariners knew, and warned, "Beyond here be monsters."

One of the delights of reading A Rule Against Murder was learning more of Gamache's background, of discovering what happened in his youth to make him the rather strange and very understanding man that he is in these books. What isn't so delightful is learning about the odious Morrow clan, one of whose members named her child Bean and hasn't told anyone Bean's sex-- and no Morrow has even asked!

"Are you kidding? A Morrow ask a question? Admit ignorance?" She leaned forward conspiratorially and despite himself Beauvoir leaned forward to meet her. "That's the brilliance of this. Their own ignorance is my best weapon."

That's quite a crew, isn't it?

The more I read, the more I sank into the characterizations. They reign supreme in this book. I sank so far that I totally forgot to gather clues and when the identity of the murderer was revealed, I was shocked. The explanation for moving the statue almost made me smack my forehead. Penny had neatly planted clues from the very beginning as to the killer's identity and methods, but I was oblivious to them all.

That's the power of Louise Penny. She's created an entire world, her own version of Shangri-La, and peopled it with so many fascinating characters that it's all too easy to forget that you're reading a mystery and supposed to be gathering together the pieces of the puzzle. For me, A Rule Against Murder is the strongest book in the series so far, and I look forward to the next, The Brutal Telling, with a great deal of anticipation.

The Cruellest Month by Louise Penny

Title: The Cruellest Month
Author: Louise Penny
ISBN: 9780755328956, Headline, 2007
Genre: Police Procedural, #3 Inspector Armand Gamache mystery
Rating: B+

First Line: Kneeling in the fragrant moist grass of the village green, Clara Morrow carefully hid the Easter egg and thought about raising the dead, which she planned to do right after supper.

It is Easter time in the small Quebec village of Three Pines, and the earth is beginning to come out of winter's long shadow. As a lark, several villagers enlist the aid of a visitor to hold a seance. The results are less than satisfactory, so they plan a second one-- to be held in the creepy old Hadley house. The second seance has deadly consequences. Madeleine Favreau is frightened to death, and many people feel that the Hadley house has claimed yet another victim. Forensics prove otherwise, and it's not long before Inspector Armand Gamache and his team are in Three Pines to solve the murder. Unfortunately Gamache has more on his plate than finding a killer. Five years before he put a bad cop behind bars, and there are members of the Surete du Quebec who want to make sure he pays for this.

It is always a pleasure to visit this small village in Quebec. It has some of the best characters in crime fiction living there. The old Hadley house ranks high on my list of creepy, spooky places that I wouldn't spend the night in-- a French Canadian version of Shirley Jackson's Hill House:

As he approached he was surprised to see peeling paint and jagged, broken windows. The 'For Sale' sign had fallen over and tiles were missing from the roof and even some bricks from the chimney. It was almost as though the house was casting parts of itself away.

Something in him felt the need to seal away whatever was in that room. He'd never admit it, of course, but Jean Guy Beauvoir had felt something growing. The longer he stayed the more it grew. Foreboding. No, not foreboding. Something else.

Even Gamache has a problem with the Hadley house:

What does that house want? Gamache wondered. Anything that went in alive came out either dead or different.

Mix a creepy old house with a group of marvelous characters, and you have the ingredients for an excellent read. The only part of this book that palled a bit for me was the secondary story line about the police officers in the Surete who were out to get Gamache. I was hopeful that Gamache would just round them all up and brick them in the basement of the Hadley house, but he's just too nice to do something like that!

If you like reading about a wonderful cast of characters, life in a Shangri-La-like village, and mysteries where the killers always have interesting motivations, Louise Penny's series is the one for you. I would suggest, however, that you do read the series in order because of the characters and their inter-relatedness.

I recently received the fourth book in the series, A Rule Against Murder, from a fellow Paperback Swap member. It won't be long before I read it because today I received an ARC of the fifth book, The Brutal Telling, in the mail. It's always good to know I have reading gems awaiting me!