A Better Man by Louise Penny

4.5 Stars

Chief Inspector Gamache - Book Fifteen

The latest Louise Penny, one of the very few authors I will buy on day one, not waiting for a sale or anything.  I love these books, I love Armand Gamache and I love all the characters in the books and I haven't read a Gamache book I haven't adored yet.

And this one is no exception. 

As always, Louise manages to weave the questions of real life into the Inspector's search for answers to the latest crime..  I tried to read it slow and savour it, but you know, I couldn't  I started it late Saturday afternoon and finished it Sunday morning.  And I laughed and I cried and I marveled at what some might call the human condition that Louise sees and writes about so well. 

This time, I wasn't so sure about the guilty party up until quite near to the reveal.  That always makes me happy. :) 

All the beloved characters are back, feeling just like old friends.  This time, I felt like we spent a little more time with the gang from le Sureté than the bunch from Three Pines.  And that's not a slam, because I love le Sureté that Louise has created and could only wish that the real one was getting the same much needed cleaning up! 

Now it looks like we're going to love my beloved Jean-Guy and his family to Paris and I'm just heart-broken about it!  Jean-Guy is so much the Quebecois heart of the Gamache books and he's so familiar to me, I am going to miss him horribly!  Unless something happens to bring him home.  Nothing bad! No tragedy!  But he needs to be home and he needs to be at Armand's side somehow.  :)

Anyway, I loved the book just like I knew I would and I'm going to find it so hard to wait patiently until next year and the next Gamache tale!

Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny

5 Stars

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache - Book Fourteen

My birthday present to me. It's so very rare for me to pay $15 for an ebook, but this is one of my very favourite of favourite authors and it was my birthday the week it came out, so...  I gave myself a gift!

Anyway...

It was like coming home.

I came to a realisation about myself and the Gamache books when I was about halfway through this one.  They are perfect for people watchers.  Perfect for people who love to watch TV shows like Survivor and Big Brother because they want to see how the people will react and what they will become in different situations.  There is a lot of people watching in these books, and speculating and looking for the 'why' of things.  I love it!

All of our friends are back in Three Pines, but this time the focus is more on the Sureté side of the family than the civilians. There are parallel storylines here - the case of the will, the murder of one of the heirs in said will, and the fallout from the previous book with the drugs Armand was forced to let slip through his hands in order to catch the bigger fish. 

I wish I was better at writing these things so that I could explain why they're so good, but suffice it to say that Armand Gamache, is a wonderfully flawed hero and the family that he makes around him is also filled with real people who are alternately flawed and heroic in their times. 

I don't know that I'm completely thrilled with the way this book ended.  Oh, don't get me wrong, the ending was perfect and filled with surprises and sadness and feel good moments, but I'm going to be really annoyed if Jean-Guy's fate is permanent!  (Although the whole theme of the student taking the place of the mentor by his actions was pretty cool.)

So, I am thinking positively that there are more Gamache tales to come and that we will be returning to Three Pines in the future.  :) 

Glass Houses by Louise Penny

5 Stars

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache - Book #13

Loved it.  Pure and simple,  I just loved it. 

Again we're in the village of Three Pines, amidst the characters we've come to love - or at least like and appreciate - and there's been trouble. 

The book jumps between two time periods.  A Montreal courtroom in the depth of a hot and humid Montreal summer and early November in our beloved Three Pines.  This is usually a set-up that I'm not fond of, but in the hands of a skilled writer, like Louise Penny, it works a charm.  Scenes in the one setting set up revelations in the other and I found myself on the edge of my seat waiting for these other shoes to drop with great anticipation.  I actually found myself forcing myself to put the book down so I wouldn't gobble it up too fast. 

And the characters.  My God, you'd think that after a dozen books there'd be nothing more to learn about Gamache and Beauvoir and the rest of the crew.  But there is!  More flaws, more good things, more... well, more humanity.  Because that's the strength of these novels.  Not just the mystery or the convoluted plot, but the characters and their basic humanity.  I defy anyone to not be able to find themselves reflected in one, some or all of them. 

I cried at the end of the book.  I always cry at some point in the Gamache books.  :)  Oh, it was truly delicious!  I cannot... CANNOT wait for the next one and I don't know that Louse has even started THINKING about it!  *LOL*

A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny

5 Stars

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache - Book 12

And Louise Penny hits it out of the park once again.  I cannot tell you how much I adore her characters and her stories and her insight into the human mind and all the messy emotions that roil within.

Yes, there's a murder mystery in the story, but Gamache stories are SO SO much more than just a murder mystery.  It's the motives, the whys, the reasons that people do what they do, are who they are and the choices that we all make.

When I finish one of Louise Penny's books, I always feel so inadequate when writing up my thoughts.  All I can say aside from professing my love for the characters old and new, the familiar locations in which the stories are set, the puzzlement of the mystery and how it manages to affect the denizens of Three Pines, and the easy yet deep way the books are written is that I wish there were a ton more to read.  This is the 12th book in and I haven't felt once that I was reading a retread of what had come before.  Armand et all always have something to teach me.  Some surprise, some twist, some truth I hadn't seen.

I think I spent the last 20 or so pages of the book wiping tears away.  Rip my heart out, Louise!  Rip it right out!  *LOL*

I am sad because I have no Gamache books left to read.  I'd been hoarding this last one for the longest time.  The next one, #13, comes out at the end of August but I find the $16 price tag a bit rich for my budget right now.  But as SOON as I can, I'll be adding it to the library, anxious to read of what's next in the lives of my favourite members of the Sureté du Quebec.

The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny

5 STARS

Chief Inspector Gamache - Book 11

I think this is one of the best Gamache books.  Many favourite characters are back, but there is a renewed focus on Armand Gamache, Jean-Guy and Isabelle Lacoste.  Especially on Armand.  We are getting to see how he is, or isn't, dealing with retirement from the SQ.  I mean, honestly, does anyone really think that Armand will just be able to sit on the porch of his home in Three Pines reading, walking Henri, eating Reine-Marie's wonderful cooking, chatting with the denizens of our favourite Townships village?  I'm sure he'd like to think he'd be quite happy doing just that, but I think even he realises that he might be fooling himself.

The mystery is interesting.  A BFG - and that's not Big Friendly Giant, my friends - is at the center of case that begins with the death/murder of a young boy known for his huge imagination.   I'm glad it wasn't a graphic murder, I have to say.  I don't deal well with those at the best of times, but when it's a child...  well.  I'm glad Penny did things the ways she did.  Also interesting was that there is a historical basis for the BFG.  Very cool.

But as always, the main reason I adore these books is the characters and they have all grown, changed or shown a little more of themselves in this volume and I have loved it.  I really loved the final shot (in the book, that is) of Clara - it was perfect and insightful and made me smile.

So all I have left is the latest book in the series, A Great Reckoning.  And I'm saving that for a bit.  For a special time.

The Long Way Home by Louise Penny

5 STARS

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache - Book 10

Another winner! Big surprise, eh? :) 

In this, the 10th Gamache book, things are a little more quiet, a little more personal, a little less grand - as they needed to be after the culmination of major series arcs in the previous novel. This felt like a chance to catch our breath as well as see where all our old friends have ended up.

Again, not only do we have the mystery of the missing artist, but we have the mystery of what's going on inside our characters. I love how Louise manages to parallel both threads of plot.

This series really makes me wish I could write in depth essays on books the way some people do, but I can just tell you that I loved the book, loved where the author has taken some of her cast of characters this time, loved the settings and just loved her story-telling voice, period.

I have one more Gamache book in my Kobo and then hopefully the 12th book will have come down a bit in price and then I'm going to be stuck waiting like everyone else for the 13th Gamache tale!

Oh, and if you were wondering, the picture on the cover is supposed to be upside down.  :)
 

How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny

5 STARS

Chief Inspector Gamache - Book 9

How the Light Gets In is, in my humble opinion, the best Inspector Gamache novel yet, hands down.

This is the 9th Gamache book and it seems as if we've been building towards this tale and this climax from the very beginning of the series. Well, I guess it doesn't just seem that way, we actually have.

We have the mystery du jour, which has to do with a set of quintuplets inspired by the famed Dionne Quints. It's interesting and does keep one guessing until late in the book. But I think, far more important, is the way the mystery mirrors what the characters we have come to love (and hate) are going through in the over-arcing - through 9 books - mystery of the Sureté.

My emotions have never been twisted and played so much by a freaking mystery! These characters - man, oh man, I've come to love them so much - they have already gone through so much and in this book, they go through so much more! Whether it be Gamache himself, or his closest team members, Beauvoir and Lacoste, or the denizens of Three Pines ( and yes, thank God, we go back to Three Pines), especially Olivier and Ruth - this volume of the series brings watershed moments for all of them, I think.

There is one scene in the last few chapters, where I actually broke down and sobbed for what was on the page! The love, the hope, the loyalty, the trust... OMG, it was amazing. And of course, on the other hand, we have the hate, the jealousy, the evil, the betrayal and every emotion, the positive and the negative, they're just so damned real!

I don't know where we go from here. I have two more books in my TBR pile and then the latest book, #12 to get and then I'll be all up to date. The author has mentioned though, that she has started the next book, so that's very good news!

I want to mention, as well, while I was reading this book and the previous one, the author has been going through the loss of her beloved husband. My condolences, Louise.

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

5 STARS

Chief Inspector Gamache - Book 8

This 8th book of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache quite honestly broke my heart a little.

Louise Penny doesn't just write mysteries, she writes about human beings. People in all sorts of troubles, with all sorts of flaws, and with both moments of deepest despair and the supreme joy. I guess one could say she writes about the human condition - unless that's too much of a cliché. :)

So for the first time, we do not visit Three Pines. We don't even really get a mention of Three Pines and I think that's by deliberate design. Three Pines is a place of healing and peace, (despite being the per capita murder capitol of Quebec) and there is really not a lot of peace and healing to be found by the end of The Beautiful Mystery.

The murder occurs in a monastery hidden deep in the wilderness of Quebec and the only members of the Sureté sent to investigate are Gamache and his second in command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir.

Now, I had thought that since the end of the previous book, A Trick of the Light, things were on the upswing with Gamache and Beauvoir, and the first half of The Beautiful Mystery seemed to bear that out. Then it all goes to hell. The problems of the monastery are reflected in the problems of the Sureté and the problems of Jean-Guy and Armand and I have to say that I finished the last quarter of the book with a palpable feeling of dread. One that did NOT disappear with the closing lines - so I started the next book right away and those that know me, know I don't DO that. *LOL*

I have to say that I didn't completely get all the details of the explanation of the mystery. I didn't matter though, not really, I understood the emotions behind the actions. :)

So, yes, I am on Book 9 (and weeping because I only have 2 more after this and then the new one that just came out) and I can honestly say that I love this series more and more with every book.

A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny

5 STARS

Chief Inspector Gamache - Book 7

It's no secret by this time that Louise Penny is one of my most favourite mystery writers, indeed one of my fave writers PERIOD. A Trick of the Light just reaffirms those facts. :)

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is back with his team, Beauvoir and Lacoste, but after the events of the previous two books, he's changed and in some ways it's for the better, but in a couple of subtle ways, maybe not.

The mystery hits close to home in Three Pines and our good friends Clara and Peter are very much involved. Lots of change there too. There are definitely troubles to get past for most of the cast. Gamache, Beauvoir, Olivier, Clara and Peter... they all have decisions to make and paths to chose.

The mystery, while it's very good and very much in the front of the tale, also reflects what's going on in the regular characters' lives. There are layers in Penny's books, thoughtful and insightful layers. That's why I can't classify them as cosy mysteries - they are so very much more than that. They just juicy and deep and enjoyable and thoughtful and ... well... I love the characters. Even when they're being their terrifically flawed selves - maybe especially then. :)

Damn, I love these books!

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

5 STARS

Chief Inspector Gamache - Book 6

Have you ever finished a book and just wandered about aimlessly, unable to settle at doing anything, unable to concentrate because you're just busy feeling? That's how I've felt for the past hour or thereabouts. Since I finished Bury Your Dead.

Moonlight Murder was right. It was indeed a devastating emotional onslaught. SO many times my throat got real tight and I'm pretty sure I cried my way through the final 3 chapters.

So The Brutal Telling (Gamache #5) came out in 2009 and Bury Your Dead (Gamache #6) came out in 2010, a year later. HOW did Penny fans last??? *LOL* I'm so glad I didn't have to wait a year between the two. I was able to go directly from one to the other, something I rarely do these days.

Okay, so... the mystery of the murder of the historian was interesting and at times even fascinating - especially for this anglophone Quebecker. I liked the characters we met in Quebec City, especially Gamache's mentor and I loved all the insight we got on Gamache himself. More insight on the man at work than in his personal life this time.

And I loved Beauvoir going back to Three Pines on Gamache's orders. It gave me a different intimate perspective on the Three Pine inhabitants. AND the further insight we get on Beauvoir, although there's one sublot I can see coming a mile away, I just don't know how Penny's going to handle it. :)

The underlying thread through all this is the incident that took place that 'sends' Gamache to Quebec City and thereby Beauvoir to Three Pines. That is what ripped my heart into teeny-tiny pieces. All these characters that I've come to care so much about! All these beautifully flawed human beings. They all, each and every one of them (okay, maybe not Marie-Reine) have a part of them that's unlikable or even unlovable. But I think I love each and every one of them. :)

Maybe I'm babbling, I don't know. This book (and the previous one as well) have left me rather gutted. *LOL* But dammit, this is one excellent, excellent read! So much more than a murder mystery, really.

I'm spent!

The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny

5 STARS

Chief Inspector Gamache - Book 5

Best one yet!

With this book, I think Louise Penny is now my favourite mystery author, just bypassing Barbara Hambly (Benjamin January Mysteries).

We're back in Three Pines and this book, #5, will rip your heart out. At least it did mine. Louise Penny is not afraid to let her characters experience life in all its myriads of facets. They are so beautifully flawed, each and every one of them.

They mystery had me going and I still don't believe we've solved it. So much so that I went and bought the next in the series (the only one I was missing. I have 7 - 12 but unread.) the minute after I turned the last page. And I'm reading it right away... something I very, very, very seldom do these days.

I really wish I could write a proper review of this book because it was SO SO SO good, but alas, that does not lie within my talents. Just read the books and read them in order because the character arcs of the regulars are just AMAZING!

HIGHLY recommended!

The Murder Stone by Louise Penny

5 STARS

Chief Inspector Gamache - Book 4

My favourite Inspector Gamache yet!

#4 in the series, this mystery feels a little more intimate because we don't see a lot of the workings of the Sureté this time around. Things focus far more on Inspector Gamache's personal life and history. Jean Guy Beauvoir and Agent Lacoste are back to help Armand solve the murder of one of the guests at the Gamache's vacation spot. It's not in Three Pines, this time around, but we do get a quick trip to our favourite village and Peter and Clara Morrow play a highly significant and important role in the doings.

One of the best things about the book was the expanding of Armand and Marie-Reine's marriage and on-going love story and we learn one heckuva lot about Armand's background and childhood. From the grand scale of the Sureté scandal of the first three books, this more personal look at our hero's life is just wonderful!

The way all the little mysteries and questions of the book get wrapped up with the big mystery in the last 3 chapters was terrific and made the utmost of sense and again I find myself saying "Why didn't I see that?!".

And because this was a more intimate look into Armand Gamache's life, I found myself tearing up more than a couple of times in those chapters.

I love these books. I love how Louise Penny weaves a story and I love, love, LOVE her characters.

(Published as A Rule Against Murder in the US.)

The Hangman by Louise Penny

4 STARS

Inspector Gamache Series

It's Louise Penny. It's Inspector Armand Gamache. It's Three Pines. What's not to love???

My only complaint? It was far too short. *LOL*

The Cruellest Month by Louise Penny

4.5 STARS

Chief Inspector Gamache - Book 3

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has firmly established himself as one of my very most favourite book detectives up there with Benjamin January (Barbara Hambly) and Trixie Belden (Julie Campbell/Katheryn Kenny). I love him, it's as simple as that.

The Cruellest Month is the 3rd of the Inspector Gamache books and not only does it have a fascinating mystery at the centre of it, it also brings to a close what I'm assuming is the first of the Gamache series arcs. (The 12th book is due out this August after all). And it solves both of these things in a very Louise Penny type of way - meaning that it left me very thoughtful about people and what motivates them.

Back to Three Pines we go, of course, and in and around the murder to be solved, we begin to see what exactly makes it special. A place out of time? Sorta. :)

We meet all our old Three Pines friends again, Clara and Peter, Gabri and Olivier, Ruth, Myrna. And we get our team assembled once again too. The stalwart Inspector Beauvoir, Agent Lacoste, Agent Nichol and Officer Lemieux have joined Gamache to solve the mystery of the woman apparently frightened to death in the middle of an Easter Sunday seance.

The growth of all these characters - and the AHA! moments near the end OMG!! - is what elevates this series above the normal police procedural novels. And the way Gamache's mind works sometimes is just amazing!

I love them and I am seriously debating my rule about not immediately jumping to the next book!

Dead Cold by Louise Penny

5 STARS

Chief Inspector Gamache - Book 2

I finally picked up the second book in the Inspector Gamache series and I hate that I made myself wait so long (it's all about that damned book budget! *LOL*). Dead Cold was SO good!

The team is back, even the ones we might not be so fond of. And the residents of Three Pines are back in all their glory too. That's one of the things I like about Penny's characters. Some of them are not pleasant and that's okay, because in life, everyone has faults, right? I think so, anyway.

As I read through the book, my ideas on the guilty party seemed to change with every couple of chapters. There were clues all over the place and I love the way that Penny brings them all together in one lovely whole at the end. And the thing is, you have to pay attention because small things at the beginning of the story that are seemingly just atmospheric, end up being rather important!

And not only do we have the big mystery, the raison d'etre if you will, of the book, but we have a continuing thread of the case that lead to Inspector Gamache's ... well, not downfall, but ... well, maybe that's coming. *LOL* I'm going to need to read book 3 to find out more. :)

Earlier this year, I bought books 7, 8, 9 and 10 when they were on sale (Penny's books tend be in the $9.99 to $15.99 range), but because of the overarching character development I want to read them in order - as Penny herself suggests. Not really necessary, but probably more enjoyable. :)

So yes, I loved this mystery, I love these characters and I love this series. And yeah, being set in the Eastern Townships, an area fairly close to me, the setting is quite recognisable and comfortable. It's reading a book like this that makes me happy I've begun to read mysteries again. :)

Still Life by Louise Penny

4 STARS

Chief Inspector Gamache - Book 1

I'd been wanting to try this series for a while now, but when Book #1 of 11 (latest comes out on August 25th) goes for $13.99 Cdn, it's a pricey tryout. But finally, the price dropped to $9.99 and I picked it up.

Oh, I'm so glad I did!!

Louise Penny is Canadian and the book (the whole series as a matter of fact) are set in a small (fictional) town only about an hour away from my home. The main character is Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sureté du Quebec (provincial police) and he's past 50 years old, married and a unique sort. :) I liked him a lot. I liked his inner dialogue and I liked his moments of self-deprecating humour. I know men like this - very Montreal francophone. In my movie of the book, I would cast Colm Feore in the role.

The supporting characters are great too. French, English, a mix of both - again, very Montreal and surrounding areas. And they're all flawed. Well, except Gamache's right hand man, Jean-Guy Beauvais. I didn't spot any flaws in him and maybe that's how it's supposed to be. :)

The inhabitants of the small town of Three Pines are unique and very familiar to me too. Some are likable and others, not so much. There are many stories to be told about these folks in this small town, secrets upon secrets and we've only begun to scratch the surface.

The mystery itself was good. Thinking back, there were clues I might have picked up on, but there were also misdirections, so I was never certain. And I will say that up until the last two chapters, the climax and the wrap-up, I really wasn't certain about who the murderer was.

One might think that the Gamache mysteries fall into the cozy mystery genre, but Louise Penny has a bit of a different voice from the British folk who are so good at that type of book. Like a Canadian. *LOL* I had a quibble or two at a couple of the political observations made by a couple of the characters - it's a very anglo way of looking at things - but you know, that's life in Quebec. :)

Anyway, I'm hooked and I fully intend to read the whole series. :) And I totally recommend it!