Louise Penny - The Cruelest Month

It's Easter, and on a glorious Spring day in peaceful Three Pines, someone waits for night to fall. They plan to raise the dead??? When Chief Inspector Gamache of the Surete du Quebec arrives the next morning, he faces an unusual crime scene. A s??ance in an old abandoned house has gone horrifically wrong and someone has been seemingly frightened to death. In indyllic Three Pines, terrible secrets lie buried, and even Gamache has something to hide. One of his own team is about to betray him. But how far will they go to ensure Gamache's downfall?

Comment: This is the third installment in the Inspector Armand Gamache series, following the investigations of this inspector and his team in a Quebec area, mostly in Three Pines, a charming village but where murder happens with frequency.

In this third adventure, a woman dies while being part of a seance. At first it seems she simply died due to an intense fright, but evidence reveals she had been drugged and now it's up to inspector Gamache to discover who would have hated this woman so much to the point of finding such a way to kill her. At the same time, something is going on back on the Sureté, and inspector Gamache is facing vile attacks in the newspapers, seemingly still connected to the Arnot case, exposed by Gamache. In this game of cat and mouse, who will prevail?

There is no doubt whatsoever that Louise Penny found her groove and her place with this series. Although this is only the 3rd book in 20 or something, I can already tell this will be consistently engaging and with plenty of food for thought. The author includes notes in some installment telling the reader about how the success of her career came in late, but it it totally worth it and these books are police mysteries but also studies on human nature and I have to agree.

It is true the base of the books has been a murder and how the police investigates. But unlike stories where what matters is the whys and hows, in here the real importance is on the psychology of the assassin and what happened to make someone do something like this. I really like thrillers/ crime stories where the key elements are psychological/philosophical and not how many people die or how terribly. However, I can see how this might sound a little repetitive and, perhaps, boring, to other readers.

The plot of this book is divided into two themes. Inspector Gamache needs to investigate the case and needs to deal with the personal issues at work. This second theme has been going on since book #1 and has had a good enough resolution but things weren't completely solved, i think, and there's room to keep up the subject, although I will be honest to say that, while this does add interesting clues on human behavior and layers to some characters, it also distracts from the main plot, which I think is more captivating. I understand why the author feels this matters too, but... I hope it won't be highlighted as much in future books.

The process of reading these books is great, in the sense that I keep wanting to turn the pages and see what is next in terms of investigation and who will be interviewed after, and what kind of specific dialogue they will have which is supposed to give us clues. The exercise of seeing each character sharing stuff and then the reader having to read between the lines is quite engaging. The author's talent shines in this, because often little things or more philosophical things are included in poetry, culture history and geography hints/content and I just love having these things as an educational plus.

The case seems complicated but, of course, once everything is presented and explained at the end, and the pieces fit, all makes sense in an almost too simplistic way. The real wonder is, as I've said, the psychology of what made the killer do this, and how incredible it is to see that sometimes something that seems ridiculous or vital is seen in a totally opposed way by someone else. We humans are, indeed, complex and fascinating.

Some twists pertaining to personal issues probably will surprise some readers but I will confess I wasn't amazed by what we learn here about some characters. I don't know if it having read too many books and recognizing some red herrings, but I only felt happy my suspicions were matched. Still, it is always fun to see how some things surprise the characters. Let's see what the author will do in the following book regarding the new things we learned here.

Grade: 8/10