Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Constance Pineault is the kind of woman you hope would move to the winsome village of Three Pines. She is self-sufficient, feels motherly to bistro owners Gabri and Olivier, is friends with bookstore owner Myrna, drinks happily with mad poet Ruth, and is even considering getting a duck. But there is a mystery about Constance. She won't let Clara paint her portrait. It is almost as if she has a secret in her past. Perhaps a big one. Perhaps a secret someone would kill for. "Who doesn't have a secret?" asks crazy Ruth. Secrets, and the revealing of them, is Inspector Gamache's focus in this book. It seems everyone has them. There's the mysterious death of a woman by a bridge he passed - why would a young woman jump over a bridge in a cold Canadian winter Gamache wonders. Then there's the mystery regarding Gamache's cunning supervisor, Chief Superintendent Francoeur, who is decimating Gamache's homicide department and ordering Gamache's former assistant Jean-Guy Beauvoir on dangerous raids. Is Francoeur trying to drive Gamache and Beauvoir over the edge, or is something deeper and more sinister at play? And what about the secrets in Constance's past? The sleepy little village of Three Pines is about to have a rude awakening. Even high tech visits it in Gamache's efforts shine the light on the secrets. This is one of the most intense investigations Gamache has lead as the secrets go deeper and deeper. Will the villagers act to protect Gamache and their village from the bad guys? Will the bad guys meet their match in Ruth? A brilliant balance between modern, big city intrigue and bucolic, small village happenings, this mystery novel is an absorbing read. Grit meets charm. There are enough clues to ferret out some of the secrets with Gamache and his team, but some secrets will probably surprise you. Intricately plotted, this mystery is complex without being confusing. Ruth's duck has never been more entertaining. You may want to send your kids to their grandparents for an overnight and tell your partner it's a good time for them to take that fishing trip, because once you start reading, you won't want to stop. This is my favorite mystery in this series by Louise Penny so far. It is deep, witty, surprising, original, sophisticated and even a bit cinematic. Louise Penny's writing is more riveting and nuanced with each book. As to whether you will want to read this series in order, Penny herself recommends that the books are probably more enjoyable if you do read them in order to follow the arc of the story. She says she wrote them to be standalone books, also. At the end of this book, you sense Gamache will be charting some new paths for himself in a promising future. This is definitely a page-turner, and one of my favorite mystery reads I have read. If you wish to read this series from the beginning, the books in order are: STILL LIFE A FATAL GRACE / DEAD COLD THE CRUELEST MONTH A RULE AGAINST MURDER / THE MURDER STONE THE BRUTAL TELLING BURY YOUR DEAD A TRICK OF THE LIGHT THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN * If you go to Penny's author's site there's a link to her Facebook account which is fun to follow, as well as images of her desk and views from where she writes, and her musings and news along the way on her writing life.