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

Louise Penny - A Fatal Grace

Welcome to winter in Three Pines, a picturesque village in Quebec, where the villagers are preparing for a traditional country Christmas, and someone is preparing for murder.
No one liked CC de Poitiers. Not her quiet husband, not her spineless lover, not her pathetic daughter—and certainly none of the residents of Three Pines. CC de Poitiers managed to alienate everyone, right up until the moment of her death.
When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, of the Sûreté du Québec, is called to investigate, he quickly realizes he's dealing with someone quite extraordinary. CC de Poitiers was electrocuted in the middle of a frozen lake, in front of the entire village, as she watched the annual curling tournament. And yet no one saw anything. Who could have been insane enough to try such a macabre method of murder—or brilliant enough to succeed?
With his trademark compassion and courage, Gamache digs beneath the idyllic surface of village life to find the dangerous secrets long buried there. For a Quebec winter is not only staggeringly beautiful but deadly, and the people of Three Pines know better than to reveal too much of themselves. But other dangers are becoming clear to Gamache. As a bitter wind blows into the village, something even more chilling is coming for Gamache himself.

Comment: This is the second book in the Armand Gamache series by Louise Penny, whose first book I have read last year. This time, as then, it's because my buddy read friend and I have decided to read this series and we will try to do it in the following months.

In this second adventure, inspector Gamache and his team return to the quiet village of Three Pines to investigate the murder of CC de Poitiers, a socialite-alike who claims to have the perfect life teachings everyone needs and she plans to expand her philosophy Be Calm, mostly through a book and a deal with an American company. The problem is that CC herself is a despicable person and clearly someone has enough of her. The question is, why and why in Three Pines? What reason could this person, very much a city and luxury person at that, have to stay in Three Pines and even buy a house there?

I had a very good experience reading the first book in this series and I certainly assumed that reading this second one would be as good. I saw that there is even a TV series based on these books, apparently focused mainly on the events in this installment and I will check it out when I can, to compare. This story was as engaging as the previous one had been and I really felt myself "in the zone" reading it.

The mystery is very well planned. I keep being positively surprised by author's imagination in thinking about details and in how putting them together so that the big picture makes sense. For instance, the victim of this story, CC, is murdered by electrocution. Never would I think about all the necessary scientific elements and such that would make it a possibility, the way it was described, but it does add drama and gives off a certain "vibe", which made the experience of connecting the dots so much more interesting.

To be fair, the final explanation for the elaborated murdering was a little convoluted, considering what we learn in terms of red herrings, but the actual motif and the way the killer was portrayed at the end really gave me food for thought. I suppose this is the author's intention, according to her introductory note, that the point of these books is not only the investigation of a crime and all that is related to that task, but the study of human behavior and human psychology.

The characters in this book are all quite complex and added to the author's writing style it seems that everyone is slightly more mysterious than what they seem, I kind of like this tactic, this notion of being lead to believe that everyone has inner depths not immediately seen and that by observation and characters interacting, we get to peel off layers and nuances. Many authors cannot do this but I think it's a great way to not only perceive things but also to be captivated by the characters and what they do, what drives them... of course this might sound a little exaggerated for some readers.

All the secondary characters in this book were captivating and the little things we learn about them make them seem more important at times and then annoying at others. I do think that inspector Gamache does sound a little condescending at times but he is such a good guy, has unshakable principles and I keep rooting for him to succeed. Again, the way he connects the dots about what happened during this investigation was very interesting and made me think too.

The element I'e found weakest here was close to the end, when a certain situation happens and we get kind of mislead on the reasons for why it happened. I thought that the whole scenario was too melodramatic and when we know why it happened, what motivated the ones who did it to do it, even being aware of their psychological state of mind, their personalities, I was still a little disappointed, because it didn't make sense, not the way it was. I'd change this whole section, honestly.

That aside, this was a great story. I'm more than sold on the idea of continuing with the series.

Grade: 8/10

Louise Penny - Still Life

The discovery of a dead body in the woods on Thanksgiving Weekend brings Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his colleagues from the Surete du Quebec to a small village in the Eastern Townships. Gamache cannot understand why anyone would want to deliberately kill well-loved artist Jane Neal, especially any of the residents of Three Pines - a place so free from crime it doesn't even have its own police force.
But Gamache knows that evil is lurking somewhere behind the white picket fences and that, if he watches closely enough, Three Pines will start to give up its dark secrets...

Comment: My buddy read friend and I have decided to try this book, for it seems to fit the general genre we've been going for in the past years. It's a long series and I liked this one... I don't know yet if my friend will want to continue it, but if so, yet another commitment!

Friendly Jane Deal is found dead in the woods and everyone at Three Pines can't understand why this happened, for it seems Jane was murdered. That is how inspector Armand Gamache and his team arrive at the small town  and start their investigation by talking to people and observing what is going on with the routines of everyone... inspector Gamache believes everyone has secrets and watching people is a step towards trying to know which, but is there enough time to do a proper investigation before the clues are lost? Or before someone destroys them? Day after day, situation after situation, the police seem to get closer to finding out who the killer is, but what if they aren't on time to avoid another death?

This long series has been praised by many but I haven't even known about it until some months ago, when my friend and I decided to give it a chance. We have converged to many cozy types of mysteries, often in an historical setting, which is not the case here, and the genre seems to fit in with many of our preferences. Thus, I didn't have any specific expectation about this book, except that it would be in a genre we tend to like.

The setting is on a small town in Quebec. I confess I don't know much about Canada besides the most general information, but I think the author managed to convey a very good notion of how life is in this region of the country and I liked that I could understand there are some nuances of what it means for someone there to be of French origin or English origin, which apparently is quite the difference among Canadians. The setting and atmosphere created in regards to life in a small community and with that particular sense of being for the inhabitants gave this fascinating vibe, which might seem a bit too quirky to some readers.

For me, this was part of the appeal because there are many layers to small communities in all parts of the world. Since the author also lives in Quebec, I will assume she is being realistic in most of her details, especially after reading her introduction note as to why the series are special to her. It was interesting to think about the cultural aspects and the characters and that alone would have been intriguing enough for me, even if the mystery were nonexistent. However, the mystery is something I was curious about too, although it's not such a complex plot, all things considered.

Just like the author says, the really absorbing part is to watch the characters and how they matter in the big scheme of things. After the identity of the killer is know, several pieces make sense. Why would they not before, but that's the real fun in these stories, we see what we want and that person did not seem to be seen as a possible evil person, it's just that simple. I also liked how we got to know the secondary characters, even some who don't seem to have a big importance in the plot, and the sometimes minimal role they played added layers to the big picture. 

To my personal taste, I think there are some details which would have been better if they had been developed differently, but I was engaged for the most part while reading the book. Some chapters felt a bit too long or didn't seem to add much, but the overall effect is one of an interesting thought process. I liked this one enough to want to read the next, at some point, even if my friend won't.

Grade: 8/10