Project: Catch Up On Review Backlog, review #5 out of 11 Glad to say I’m fully back on board with this series. I’ve decided to overlook its faults in favor of the things it does really well. I don’t think these same people in this same very small town are going to stop improbably encountering dead bodies anytime soon. And what it does really well is character. Penny’s characters are very human. The consensus for this one seems to be that it’s good, not great. […]
The Real Mystery is the Economy of Three Pines
I didn’t finish this one in time for Canada Day but at least the call for Canada Day reviews provided the push for me to finally read this one. It’s weird because I loved the first Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novel but haven’t felt the need to plow through it in the way that I basically binged through the Sebastian St. Cyr series. I certainly had trepidations coming into this one because narfna’s review highlighted issues that were already showing signs of developing (for me […]
“It’s our secrets that make us sick.”
This book bored and frustrated me for the first third, and then something turned and the plot and interesting character stuff got going, and my annoyances were subsumed under actual interest for the characters and story. Subsumed is a fun word to use by the way. Do they still sell Word of the Day toilet paper? I heard about that one time but never investigated further. So when I say that I was frustrated, I mean that I seriously contemplated not continuing with the series. […]
“I often think we should have tattooed on the back of whatever hand we use to shoot or write, ‘I might be wrong.”
I still really like this series, but I was a bit more lukewarm over this book than I wanted to be. Let’s split it up into good and not-so-good. First, good: The mystery in this one was interesting. CC de Poitiers is a wannabe lifestyle guru who has recently moved to Three Pines with her husband and child, whom she disliked and ignored. Her relationship with Crie, her overweight fourteen year old daughter, is downright emotionally abusive. She is seen as cruel by everybody who […]
A cozy but emotionally hefty mystery.
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Quebec is not your typical literary detective. He’s functional. He’s kind. He loves and respects his wife, with whom he has a long and trusting relationship. He is still surprised by the violent crimes it’s his job to investigate. He has no tragic backstory or substance abuse issues. He isn’t a genius. And yet he is still good at his job! (I say all this tongue in cheek; I love all those tropes when they are deployed […]