I still really like this series, but I was a bit more lukewarm over this book than I wanted to be. Let’s split it up into good and not-so-good. First, good: The mystery in this one was interesting. CC de Poitiers is a wannabe lifestyle guru who has recently moved to Three Pines with her husband and child, whom she disliked and ignored. Her relationship with Crie, her overweight fourteen year old daughter, is downright emotionally abusive. She is seen as cruel by everybody who […]
A new A plot, and some big progress in the B plot
This is book three in the Inspector Gamache series, and I am pleasantly surprised and intrigued. I was worried that this would be yet another mystery series that follows checklists every book, like how Eve Dallas always has a consult with Dr. Mira and doesn’t like tea, and Stephanie Plum whines about borrowing Uncle Sandor’s Buick, blah blah blah. We get it, you’ve done that every book for 287 books. While there have been some repeats in the quaint, seemingly-frozen, deadly village of Three Pines […]
Is it better to start a mystery with a character or a corpse?
My mom got me the first two Inspector Gamache books for Christmas, and they are delightful! I saw that book seven showed up on a Cannonballer’s Best Of list for CBR9, so I’m looking forward to the rest of the series. Inspector Gamache solves crimes in Quebec, and these books are COLD. Both books take place in a tiny village called Three Pines, in the dead of winter, and Penny does an excellent job of building the atmosphere and setting. I wanted a croissant and […]
Perhaps the Saddest Gamache Yet
I traverse my reading year with Gamache books waiting for me along the way. Self-imposed rules mean that I read these books in the season which they are set, but in 2017 that still meant an embarrassment of Louise Penny and Ralph Cosham* riches as Bury Your Dead, The Hangman**, A Trick of the Light, The Beautiful Mystery, and How the Light Gets In happen chronologically between January and December, although across several years. *Ralph Cosham narrated the first ten Inspector Gamache novels before he […]