A Better Man (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #15) by Louise Penny

Book Description:

Published: August 27, 2019

Format: Audio/OverDrive

Catastrophic spring flooding, blistering attacks in the media, and a mysterious disappearance greet Chief Inspector Armand Gamache as he returns to the Surete du Quebec in the latest novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny.

It’s Gamache’s first day back as head of the homicide department, a job he temporarily shares with his previous second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Flood waters are rising across the province. In the middle of the turmoil a father approaches Gamache, pleading for help in finding his daughter.

As crisis piles upon crisis, Gamache tries to hold off the encroaching chaos, and realizes the search for Vivienne Godin should be abandoned. But with a daughter of his own, he finds himself developing a profound, and perhaps unwise, empathy for her distraught father.

Increasingly hounded by the question, how would you feel…, he resumes the search.

As the rivers rise, and the social media onslaught against Gamache becomes crueler, a body is discovered. And in the tumult, mistakes are made.

In the next novel in this “constantly surprising series that deepens and darkens as it evolves” (New York Times Book Review), Gamache must face a horrific possibility, and a burning question.

What would you do if your child’s killer walked free?

Review –

She has done it again. With a vengeance. Take the same backwater in Québec, the same core of main characters, and write fifteen crime stories with that. You will probably end up with predictable plots. But Louise Penny doesn’t. Not ever. A Better Man is here to prove it. Once more.

The  author is a mystery in herself. Once again, she managed to deliver a unique book, with an original plot. And red herrings. And many twists and layers. Layers that keep getting more involved. If her last book dealt with drugs in the city, this one focuses on domestic violence. And violence through social media.

Fans of Three Pines have a new chance to enjoy Penny’s great art at describing characters, the depth of human emotions, as well as landscape:

  The sky was grey and stretch and threatened rain. Or sleet. Ice pellets or snow. The dirt road was covered in slush and mud. There were patches of snow on the sodden grass. Villagers out walking their dogs were clumping around in rubber boots and wrapped in layers of clothing, hoping to keep April away from their skin and out of their bones.

     and   

     Woodsmoke drifted from the old fieldstone, brick, clapboard homes. A signal to some higher power. Send help. Send heat. Send a real spring and not this crapfest of slush and freezing, teasing days. Days of snow and warmth.

Armand Gamache does not hurry. He takes time to look, feel, and think. The writing style itself, with many short sentences and pauses, beautifully conveys the same atmosphere.

And yet, when the time is ripe, the book also contains nerve-wracking suspenseful scenes, where events rush too quickly at the protagonists, with the violence of the Bella Bella river threatening to engulf the nearby villages.

Lovers of this series will also enjoy how the author integrated elements of previous books. And of course, we meet the same characters. Including the poet Ruth. And her duck Rosa—featured with short refrains, another nice little touch that helps keep all the threads together.

Reading another book by Louise Penny is like spending some annual time with good old friends. And age and experience have the potential to make them better. The only bitterness to it, is that we’ll have to wait next year to meet them again. Write faster, please !!!

Five Stars!

 

 

 

 

Kingdom of the Blind (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #14) by Louise Penny

Book Description:

Published: November 27, 2018

Format: Audio/OverDrive

When Armand Gamache receives a letter inviting him to an abandoned farmhouse outside of Three Pines, the former head of the Sûreté du Québec discovers that a complete stranger has named him as an executor of her will.

Armand never knew the elderly woman, and the bequests are so wildly unlikely that he suspects the woman must have been delusional – until a body is found, and the terms of the bizarre will suddenly seem far more menacing.

But it isn’t the only menace Gamache is facing. The investigation into the events that led to his suspension has dragged on, and Armand is taking increasingly desperate measures to rectify previous actions. As he does, Armand Gamache begins to see his own blind spots – and the terrible things hiding there.

Review –

“The Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté du Québec finds himself in a unique position: He’s tangled up in the life of a recently deceased woman, and it doesn’t involve her murder.

As the first snowflakes of a major storm start to fall, Chief Superintendent Gamache is standing in front of a crooked house in the middle of the woods, unsure of whom he will find inside. Curiosity is what brings him here after receiving a vague invitation in the mail. But is there danger waiting beyond the door? It’s what Gamache has been trained to anticipate. Currently suspended from his Sûreté post during the investigation into the controversial events of Glass Houses (2017), Gamache must remember he’s here on unofficial business. He and two others who arrive at the house learn that they’ve been named executors of a will belonging to a woman they never knew in life. Stranger still, the woman, who called herself the Baroness, has left millions to her three children, money everyone is shocked to hear about. Her secretiveness was fueled by generations of family bitterness and resentment. And though it may seem like Gamache has all the time in the world to dive into this dark history, his attention is in fact divided: The deadly opioid that slipped untraced into Montreal under Gamache’s watch is expected to hit the streets any day—a most unsettling thought. The author reveals a deeper vulnerability in the introspective Gamache; is it possible he’s not quite sure of himself anymore? A theme of desperation plays out in both story arcs, as characters from all walks of life move between hope and despair and traverse the fine line that separates them. The main mystery pales in comparison to Gamache’s interior story, and the decisions he makes are sure to raise a few eyebrows. Moral duty has been synonymous with our hero, but Penny seems to be pushing her characters in new directions with this installment: “[Gamache] considered his options and the atrocity he was about to commit.” The ending is adrenaline-filled but, no, not because of the mysterious will.”

Five Stars!!!!!!!

This series ranks Number One on my list of Favorite Foreign Crime Fiction Series.

Because of the decision Chief Inspector Gamache made in the previous book, Glass Houses, he has willingly resigned  from his beloved post and his son-in-law and right hand man has decided to quit the force also. He is taking a safer job and moving his family to Paris.

While the author has tied up some continuing story lines, she also  sends recurring characters in surprising directions in this riveting installment.

Can’t wait for the next book which should be released next August.

 

Glass House (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #13) by Louise Penny

Book Description:

Published: August 29, 2017

Format: Audio/OverDrive

When a mysterious figure appears in Three Pines one cold November day, Armand Gamache and the rest of the villagers are at first curious. Then wary. Through rain and sleet, the figure stands unmoving, staring ahead.

From the moment its shadow falls over the village, Gamache, now Chief Superintendent of the Surete du Quebec, suspects the creature has deep roots and a dark purpose. Yet he does nothing. What can he do? Only watch and wait. And hope his mounting fears are not realized.

But when the figure vanishes overnight and a body is discovered, it falls to Gamache to discover if a debt has been paid or levied.

Months later, on a steamy July day as the trial for the accused begins in Montreal, Chief Superintendent Gamache continues to struggle with actions he set in motion that bitter November, from which there is no going back. More than the accused is on trial. Gamache’s own conscience is standing in judgment.

In Glass Houses, her latest utterly gripping book, number-one New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny shatters the conventions of the crime novel to explore what Gandhi called the court of conscience. A court that supersedes all others.

Review –

I love this series,The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, because of the  group of close knit quirky characters and the quaint village of Three Pines where they reside. Within the characters there is a baker, a painter, a book seller, a B&B owner, a bistro owner,  an old, no holds barred poet and Armand Gamache, now chief of the Sûreté du Québec.

There is a murder in the village caused in part by the emergence of a Black Robed Figure (the conscience) stalking someone in the hamlet.  But did the dark thing come for a villager or for one of their guests? The appearance of the black thing coincides with the visit of four out-of-town guests. They are friends from the Université de Montréal who meet for a yearly reunion at the B&B in Three Pines, usually in August but this year it happens to be November first.

All of this is being related by CI Gamache, on the  witness stand in a horribly hot Summer, explaining how over the course of a few days the masked man grew into a fixture on the village green and morphed slowly into an omen.

Conscience is an overarching theme in Penny’s latest Gamache novel, seeping into the courtroom narrative as Gamache grapples with an enemy much larger than the dark thing, a war on drugs and two separate drug cartels, he took on as the new Chief Superintendent. His victory depends on the outcome, and the path, of this murder trial.

While certain installments in Penny’s bestselling series take Gamache and his team to the far reaches of Québec, others build their tension not with a chase but instead in the act of keeping still—this is one such book. The tension has never been greater, and Gamache has sat for months waiting, and waiting, to act, with Conscience watching close by.

Fantastic story and on the edge of the  seat suspense  and a lot of tears when I feared that a favorite character might have met their end in  gun battle that occurred in the bistro. Thankfully, at the end of the book the character in still in critical condition in the hospital with brain damage but I have every faith in the author, Louise Penney, that she will bring this character back to us in the next installment of this series, which comes out in August of this year.

The Nature of the Beast (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #11) by Louise Penny

Book Description:

Published: August 25, 2015

Hardly a day goes by when nine-year-old Laurent Lepage doesn’t cry wolf. From alien invasions, to walking trees, to winged beasts in the woods, to dinosaurs spotted in the village of Three Pines, his tales are so extraordinary no one can possibly believe him. But when the boy disappears, the villagers are faced with the possibility that one of his tall tales might have been true. And so begins a frantic search for the boy and the truth. What they uncover deep in the forest sets off a sequence of events that leads to murder, leads to an old crime, leads to an old betrayal. A monster once visited Three Pines. And put down deep roots. And now, it is back.

Review –

A boy of nine who cried “wolf” one too many times is killed because someone DID believe his story about the “gun bigger than a house with a monster on it”. Suspicion falls on the father, who  turns out to be a deserter who fled to Canada to escape his involvement in a massacre the Vietnam War is a damaging factor in the credibility of the family. His wife, Evie, knowing nothing about his past, believed him to be a draft dodger. After he is arrested by authorities in the US, she goes to live with Ruth, the old poet, and her duck, Rosa.

As in all of the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache books, there are multiple focal points and another in this story is a  local argument over an amateur play being staged in the village, with the intriguing name “She sat down and wept.”Gamache  is one of the few who is chilled when he recognizes the play as the work of John Fleming, a monster whose hideous killings led to his life imprisonment in the grimmest prison in the country and he urges that the play never be produced. Around this time, the body of the boy is found in a large cave that had been covered with camouflage netting for decades.

It is Gamache  who realizes what it all means after a metal monster resembling the biblical whore of Babylon is found curled around a huge artillery gun that has been buried for years in the dense undergrowth and that was meant to become a global weapon of destruction in Canada and the United States. What makes that more fascinating is that Ms. Penny notes that such a “super gun” did exist at one time and her account of its origin and invention is based on fictionalized fact. But the super gun discovery means that Gamache  is no longer retired and terror has come to the lovely village. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Bull

Members of the Canadian intelligence service arrive as well as a mysterious professor who knows more about the gun than he admits, and suddenly the sinister shadow of John Fleming darkens the happy little village.

The strange play written by Fleming assumes major importance when it is discovered that not only the firing mechanism but the plans for the gun are missing, and only Fleming knows where they are. Gamache  is willing to cut a strange deal with the killer in return for that knowledge and the murders in Three Pines take on massive importance. As usual, Gamache is the controlling figure of the book, leading readers to suspect that he is indeed far from retired and I suspect that if the next book he will take a job that will lead in back in the direction of law enforcement while still maintaining a quiet life in Three Pines.

I had the audio version and the last several chapters had me on the edge of my seat.  Fantastic book!

The Long Way Home (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #10) by Louise Penny

Book Description:

Published: August 26, 2014

Happily retired in the village of Three Pines, Armand Gamache, former Chief Inspector of Homicide with the Sûreté du Québec, has found a peace he’d only imagined possible. On warm summer mornings he sits on a bench holding a small book, The Balm in Gilead, in his large hands. “There is a balm in Gilead,” his neighbor Clara Morrow reads from the dust jacket, “to make the wounded whole.”

While Gamache doesn’t talk about his wounds and his balm, Clara tells him about hers. Peter, her artist husband, has failed to come home. Failed to show up as promised on the first anniversary of their separation. She wants Gamache’s help to find him. Having finally found sanctuary, Gamache feels a near revulsion at the thought of leaving Three Pines. “There’s power enough in Heaven,” he finishes the quote as he contemplates the quiet village, “to cure a sin-sick soul.” And then he gets up. And joins her.

Together with his former second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and Myrna Landers, they journey deeper and deeper into Québec. And deeper and deeper into the soul of Peter Morrow. A man so desperate to recapture his fame as an artist, he would sell that soul. And may have. The journey takes them further and further from Three Pines, to the very mouth of the great St. Lawrence river. To an area so desolate, so damned, the first mariners called it The land God gave to Cain. And there they discover the terrible damage done by a sin-sick soul.

Review –

I thought as I read this installment of the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series that I would rate it four stars but  that all changes within the last ten to fifteen minutes of the story. I had the audio version and it allows me to see how much of a chapter I have listened to or how much is left, it’s just one of the Audible apps’ features that I love.

Within the last minutes of the book a character from the village of Three Pines died, a character that I never really liked that much or became invested in, but when he died I cried, like big tears rolling down my face cried. It was a heart-wrenching moment and it will affect the entire village and especially the spouse, whose character I love. I applaud the author, Louise Penny, for her decision to kill off a person of the beloved village to make the series grow and expand.

How the Light Gets In (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #9) by Louise Penny

Book Description:

Published: August 27, 2013

A DETECTIVE
As a fierce, unrelenting winter grips Quebec, shadows are closing in on Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Most of his best agents have left the Homicide Department and hostile forces are lining up against him.

A DISAPPEARANCE
When Gamache receives a message about a mysterious case in Three Pines, he is compelled to investigate — a woman who was once one of the most famous people in the world has vanished.

A DEADLY CONCLUSION
As he begins to shed light on the investigation, he is drawn into a web of murder, lies and unimaginable corruption at the heart of the city. Facing his most challenging, and personal, case to date, can Gamache save the reputation of the Sûreté, those he holds dear and himself?

Evocative, gripping and atmospheric, this magnificent work of crime fiction from international bestselling author Louise Penny will stay with you long after you turn the final page.

Review –

First I’m going to RANT – I wrote a LONG, INVOLVED  and WONDERFUL (if I do say so myself) review about ten minutes ago and was about to hit the “publish” button when my screen froze. In the past, the post auto-saved, but not THIS  time. Now my mind is a blank and I’m fuming. I’m going to have to calm down before tackling this again. #ihatecomputerssometime

OMG, this has to be the best of the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series to date because it is  nail-biting suspenseful, plot driven and the back story that has been building in the last several books comes to a harrowing end.

The murder that occurs in this book doesn’t happen in Three Pines but does involve some of the beloved villagers. The last of five quintuplets  that was born seventy-seven years ago was killed and Gamache welcomes the chance to go back to Three Pines to solve it.

His Homicide Division has been gutted by his nemesis, the Superintendent and Inspector Beauvoir is a full-fledged drug addict now and works for the “bad guy”. His brain is so messed up that he doesn’t realize that he is being manipulated to hate his friend, Gamache, and also to become dependant on pain pills.  Annie broke up with him because he doesn’t think he has a problem and he thinks  that her father, Gamache, told her to break up with him.(paranoid much!)

The crime that sends Chief Inspector Armand Gamache to Three Pines is the murder of the last of the Famous Quintuplets born seventy-seven years ago. I’m sure the author was inspired by the real life story of the famous Dionne Quintuplets born in Canada in 1934. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionne_quintuplets  I love it when history is incorporated into fiction, it’s like getting a bonus.

Along side the murder investigation, there is the story of the evil Superintendent and his more evil boss(read the book to find out who he is) and their plan to bring down on the most traveled bridges in Canada. This storyline come to a harrowing conclusion when Jean-Guy Beauvoir has to shot the Chief Inspector in the back to stop him from opening the door to the schoolhouse and getting killed in an explosion set by the Superintendent.

The end of the story is more upbeat but I won’t give it away because it has been a long time coming in this series and you’ll just have to read the book  to see what I mean.

Fantastic book!!!!!

 

The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #8) by Louise Penny

Book Description:

Published: July 2, 2013

No outsiders are ever admitted to the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, hidden deep in the wilderness of Quebec, where two dozen cloistered monks live in peace and prayer. They grow vegetables, they tend chickens, they make chocolate. And they sing. Ironically, for a community that has taken a vow of silence, the monks have become world-famous for their glorious voices, raised in ancient chants whose effect on both singer and listener is so profound it is known as “the beautiful mystery.”

But when the renowned choir director is murdered, the lock on the monastery’s massive wooden door is drawn back to admit Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Sûreté du Québec. There they discover disquiet beneath the silence, discord in the apparent harmony. One of the brothers, in this life of prayer and contemplation, has been contemplating murder. As the peace of the monastery crumbles, Gamache is forced to confront some of his own demons, as well as those roaming the remote corridors. Before finding the killer, before restoring peace, the Chief must first consider the divine, the human, and the cracks in between.

Review –

This is the first book in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series where a murder occurred elsewhere than Three Pines. The villagers of Three Pines played no part in this story what so ever. 

I liked that we were taken inside the monastery of Saint Gilbert -Entre-les-Loups and shown hidden rooms and secret gardens. The characters of the twenty-four monks came to life in their daily prayers and chores.

Jean-Guy Beauvoir was there to help the Chief Inspector and we find out that he and Annie, the Chief Inspector’s daughter, have been dating for the last three months but keeping it a secret. He is also off the pain pills and I was so relieved to read that. Jean-Guy is a great character and I hate to see the person he becomes when he’s popping pills.

A day or so into the investigation, the Chief Inspector’s boss (who is a real a**hole and hates Gamache) shows up at the very remote monastery saying that’s he wants to help. HA! He is there to mind f**k Beauvoir and see what he can find out about Gamache that can be used to take him down.

Unbeknownst to Jean-Guy he plays right into his hands and is tricked into taking Oxycontin  and almost overdose and Gamache has to take his gun and badge away  and suspends him because he is argumentative and refuses to go to rehab when they get back to Montreal. The Chief Superintendent overrides Gamache and returns the gun and badge to Jean-Guy and they leave together. I hated when that happened because Jean -Guy, in his condition, can’t see that he is being horribly manipulated. He has turned his back on his friendship with Gamache and that’s the worse thing he could do.

We find out the killer of the monk near the end of the story and it wasn’t who I thought it was so that was good, because I really hated predictable story lines.

I love this series and have started number nine and by the blurb I can see that things are going to get a lot worse for the Chief Inspector before they get better.

Five stars *****

A Trick of the Light (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #7) by Louise Penny

Book Description:

Published: August 30, 3011

“Hearts are broken,” Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. “Sweet relationships are dead.”

But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow’s garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara’s solo show at the famed Musée in Montreal. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Quebec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light. Where nothing is as it seems. Behind every smile there lurks a sneer. Inside every sweet relationship there hides a broken heart. And even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they’ve found is the truth, or simply a trick of the light.

Review – 

Another crime has been committed in Three Pines and the body winds up in the garden of Clara Morrow, no less.

It happens at a reception held at Clara’s house the evening after the solo showing of her art work. The dead woman is someone from Clara’s long ago past, a best friend who was really a jealous vindictive person. Clara is never under serious suspicion because there are too many other people who had more motive to get rid of the victim.

Along side of the murder story, we learn that Inspector Beauvoir is leaning heavily on pain killers to function while his body still heals from the shooting six months earlier. We also find out that he is resentful of the Chief Inspector for leaving him during the gun fight at the vacant warehouse. If he was thinking clearly he would realize that the Chief Inspector saved his life and then went on to capture one of the terrorists and then get shot too. Beauvoir has also separated/divorced his wife and now is wanting to approach Annie, the Chief Inspector’s daughter, because he has had a crush on her for years.

The crime is solved and all is well. The Chief Inspector orders Beauvoir to get counseling and at the end of the story Beauvoir calls Annie, but we are left with our imaginations as to their conservation. (I forgot to mention that Annie and her husband, David, are having trouble and are separating)

Five stars *****

The Hangman (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #6.5) by Louise Penny

Book Description:

Published: 2010

Louise Penny wrote:

l’ve been meaning to mention THE HANGMAN for a while. Some of you wonder if it’s part of the Gamache books. A very good question. In fact, I wrote THE HANGMAN a couple of years ago as part of GoodReads Canada – an initiative for adult emerging readers. The idea is to give adults who are improving their literacy skills adult books to read – so they don’t have to read children’s books. It’s a wonderful idea – one that started, I believe, in the UK and has since spread. THE HANGMAN is in fact a novella – written intentionally at a grade 3 level…simple words and sentences, but adult themes. It’s set in Three Pines and is a mystery featuring Gamache. But, it doesn’t really fit into the actual arc of the characters….sort of a ‘one off’. Hope I’m making sense. It’s also a fundraiser for literacy, and there are lots of wonderful writers contributing novellas to GoodReads and similar projects. It’s also good, I’ve since learned, for people learning English as second language – or after a stroke and needing to re-learn the language. So pleased to be a small part of this terrific initiative. I think your local bookstore can order a copy of THE HANGMAN, or other books in the literacy series, if you know someone who might like them.

On a cold November morning, a jogger runs through the woods in the peaceful Quebec village of Three Pines. On his run, he finds a dead man hanging from a tree.
The dead man was a guest at the local Inn and Spa. He might have been looking for peace and quiet, but something else found him. Something horrible.
Did the man take his own life? Or was he murdered? Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is called to the crime scene. As Gamache follows the trail of clues, he opens a door into the past. And he learns the true reason why the man came to Three Pines.

Review-

This is just a very short story involving a hanging man in the village of Three Pines and it is written on a third grade level (see above)

Even though it is short, it still has the same “who-dun-it” air that all of the Inspector Gamache has and I enjoyed it very much.

 

 

Bury Your Dead (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #6) by Louise Penny

Book Description:

Published: September 28, 2010

It is Winter Carnival in Quebec City, bitterly cold and surpassingly beautiful. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has come not to join the revels but to recover from an investigation gone hauntingly wrong. But violent death is inescapable, even in the apparent sanctuary of the Literary and Historical Society— where an obsessive historian’s quest for the remains of the founder of Quebec, Samuel de Champlain, ends in murder. Could a secret buried with Champlain for nearly 400 years be so dreadful that someone would kill to protect it?

Although he is supposed to be on leave, Gamache cannot walk away from a crime that threatens to ignite long-smouldering tensions between the English and the French. Meanwhile, he is receiving disquieting letters from the village of Three Pines, where beloved Bistro owner Olivier was recently convicted of murder. ‘It doesn’t make sense,’ Olivier’s partner writes every day. ‘He didn’t do it, you know.’ As past and present collide in this novel, Gamache must relive the terrible event of his own past before he can bury his dead.

 

Review –

There are actually three story lines going on in this installment of the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series and make for a roller coaster of a ride.

The Chief Inspector is in Quebec City on leave recuperating from a horrific event where agents he knew were killed, including one that we met in The Brutal Telling, Agent Moran. He was young, engaged, red-headed and could play the fiddle and Gamache left very closed to him. The author uses flashbacks in order for us to see how the kidnapping and murders occurred and it is heart wrenching. (I cried, of course).

The second story line is the murder in the  basement of the Literary and Historical Society of a man obsessed with finding the body of the Father of Quebec, Samuel de Champlain. 

And the final story line is a revisit to the murder in Three Pines that was told in The Brutal Telling. Gamache  is receiving disquieting letters from the Gabri in the  village of Three Pines where beloved Bistro owner Olivier was recently convicted of murder. “It doesn’t make sense,” Olivier’s partner writes every day. “He didn’t do it, you know.”

As past and present collide in this astonishing novel, Gamache must relive the terrible event of his own past before he can bury his dead.

All I can say is that this is the best of the series so far and if I could give it 10 stars, I would. It is a phenomenal piece of writing.

Five Stars *****