On My Bookshelf

My love for Louise Penny and her mystery novels continues to grow and grow. I last wrote about her series here when I was finishing the fifth book in her series... I am now on the tenth. This fall I have read  A Trick of the Light, The Beautiful Mystery and How the Light Gets In, and am now well into The Long Way Home. I have read a few other books in between (yes, sadly, I am way behind on reviews here) but I just cannot stay away from this series. And as I have said before, each one gets better. (With each one I keep thinking she can't possibly get any better, and she keeps proving me wrong!) My favourite of these last three is definitely How the Light Gets In. I could not read the last hundred pages fast enough, all the while not wanting to reach the end because then it would be over.  :(
Again, I won't go into detailed plot summaries here, but the same cast of characters appear in each book, Chief Inspector Gamache and other officers of the Sûreté du Québec, and the colourful villagers of  Three Pines. Penny has a wonderful ability to "grow" each distinct character and with each novel we gain more insight into their personalities, their hopes and fears, their weaknesses and insecurities.
Three Pines artist Clara Morrow is a central character in A Trick of the Light, as she is finally having her solo art show at a Montreal gallery. She is on a "high" after such a successful opening, until an old friend is found murdered in her garden the next morning...
The Beautiful Mystery is one of only several in the series so far, that is not set in Three Pines. Rather, Gamache and Beauvoir are investigating a murder in an isolated monastery, deep in Quebec's wilderness. Two dozen Gilbertine monks live there in seclusion and silence, and one of their own has been murdered... by one of their own, it seems. Despite the secluded peaceful setting, there is a great deal of conflict in this novel, conflict among the Gilbertine Order, conflict between Gamache and his superior Francoeur, and conflict within Beauvoir as he unravels with a drug dependency...
How the Light Gets In returns to Three Pines just before Christmas when villager Myrna Landers reports that an expected guest has failed to arrive for the holidays. Gamache is intrigued when Myrna seems reluctant to reveal who her guest is, and agrees to stop by her Montreal home, where he finds her body. Although her murder and true identity are the main plot line, even more riveting is what is happening to Gamache. His elite team has been decimated, his right hand man Beauvoir has turned against him, and it seems evil in the department is going to bring Gamache down. Although Penny writes each of her novels as a "stand alone" you really owe it to yourself to read them in order, as the relationships between the Sûreté officers and the conflict in their department has been steadily building and it comes to a head in this novel. You'll get a lot more out of this book if you understand how they got to this point...
Maintaining momentum in a lengthy series is not easy but Penny has no trouble keeping her readers coming back for more. I for one am hooked, and bedtime is coming earlier each night as I head upstairs with book in hand...
 
Peace,
Linda

"There's a crack in everything.. that's how the light gets in." ~ from Anthem by Leonard Cohen.
RIP Leonard