My chief complaint when I read A Rule Against Murder this summer was that while it was an Inspector Armand Gamache novel with all that entails, and it featured some of the characters who populate Three Pines, the book was not set there and I felt the lack of the world that Louise Penny had spent three books crafting. Well, in book five I got my wish to return to Three Pines, and Penny makes the reader pay mightily for the return. Mild spoilers for […]
Another Murder with Inspector Gamache
This is the fourth Inspector Gamache book, set in the week leading up to Canada Day (July 1), and the Gamaches’ wedding anniversary. I’m glad I remembered when this one was set, because visiting with Gamache always tends to improve the spirits, and its ben HOT here and driving around in the car listening to Ralph Cosham while the AC did its job was a wonderful way to break up the day. Unfortunately, I felt like this was the weakest thus far of the Inspector […]
April Really Is . . .
As I worked my way through this third book in Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series, the noise I heard in the back of my head as I read was the sound of all the elements of this series coming together in a majorly wonderful way—with so much going on and on so many levels. I enjoyed the first two books in the series but this was the one where I finished and thought, “Hell yeah.” Once again, this story is really a story of Three […]
A Return to Three Pines
This was my second outing to Three Pines with Inspector Armond Gamache and his team from the Montreal Surete and I am now fully hooked. I’m pretty sure I compared this series to Henning Mankell’s Wallander books after I read Still Life because this series has a similar feel to me—a slow and thoughtfully plotted story where details build and build and the “who did it?” is far less interesting than the “why?” The residents of this town are starting to become familiar to me—the […]
Surprised by Joy
Last year, MsWas reviewed and highly recommended Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series. She promised we would love them. While I did not race out and buy or borrow the books, I did begin to recommend them to people based on MsWas review. Everyone returned favorable reports. After many months I finally picked up Still Life. As promised, I loved it. I don’t know if it’s some form of self-loathing or deep-seated distrust, but I have a hard time reading books I’m told I will love. […]
I Think This is the Start of a Beautiful Friendship
I’ve been meaning to start the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny for the last year. Several of my friends are huge fans and reading their reviews on Goodreads made me sure that I would enjoy this series too. For Christmas, one of the themes of the gifts I got my sister was “first book in a series” and I ended up buying her a boxed set of the first three Louise Penny books. This, of course, meant that I could read them after she […]