The beautiful Manoir Bellechasse might be surrounded by nature, but there is something unnatural looming. As the heat rises and the humidity closes in, some surprising guests turn up at the family reunion, and a terrible summer storm leaves behind a dead body. It is up to Chief Inspector Gamache to unearth secrets long buried and hatreds hidden behind polite smiles. The chase takes him to Three Pines, into the dark corners of his own life, and finally to a harrowing climax.
Comment: This is the 4th installment in the Armand Gamache series, which I foresee being something I will enjoy reading...
In this story, inspector Gamache and his wife are spending some time at an inn close to Three Pines, celebrating their anniversary. They are having a quiet time enjoying the summer, in spite of the fact some other guests, namely the Finney family, not being all congenial. Then, one of the siblings and his wife finally arrive and everything changes once more. The family dynamics are tense and it all goes to worse when one person is murdered. Who killed this person and how did they manage it since the tool used was impossible for one person to maneuver on their own?
The author has said plenty of times that these books are about a crime investigation, yes, which means they might be read solely for the closure of having a resolution to a mystery, but they are also character studies. I find that this is actually the most provoking part of the novels, because everyone, main character or not, has something about them that we want to see revealed, there are many layers to all characters.
In this book the inspector and his wife are spending some days at the Manoir Bellechasse, which has a solid reputation despite the origins of its construction. They are regulars but do not mind they are not given the best rooms, which immediately tells us about their personality and attitude. These characters are meant for us to like them and I really like the fact we can genuinely care for them and want for them to have good things happening in return.
In contrast, pretty much all of the secondary characters are not as likable. All of them, even the ones we would label"good people", have some kind of deep layer or some secret behavior that makes their personality less than what we see in Gamache and his wife. Although, to be fair, they are not perfect! They just seem so by contrast, and after 4 books I can see that Gamache's big flaw is that he does like to be right, not as in arrogance, but in knowing his deductions are often correct.
The plot is quite usual in how it develops. A good part of the book is on character observation,let's say, in which we see many situations where the characters do and say things that matter to their personality and as to why they could be the murderer or the victim, and a lot is shared through Gamache's skills in seeing between the lines. A lot doesn't make immediate sense, although the writing conveys that tension and anticipation quite well. We just know something is going to happen.
Obviously, only after the investigation is well under way do we understand some of the previous references or scenes. I don't tend to guess who the killer is in these types of books and this time it was no different. Only once the explanations were given did some of those seemingly unimportant references in chapters past make sense. Even then, I would say that there are always some things that don't scream logic or sometimes the way they are viable is through some conveniences and not real logic (to me at least).
The author also seems to have a predilection to unusual crime scenes and methods. I had never heard of the method in which the victim was killed in this book and even investigating on google didn't show an obvious result, although I accept the science behind it. Perhaps this, along with a few other small details, prevented me from seeing the big picture better. Still, it was a good entertainment, to read this story and to see the sequence of events developing at the same time the characters became more visible. Too bad, also, that most of them were not friendly people,even those who had reasons not to be.
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