A Great Reckoning, Louise Penny

 

A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny is the next Armand Gamache novel.

Started: 7/19/2022
Completed: 7/26/2022
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: My Parents

Review:

This book returns to Three Pines and provides the explanation for the three trees that gave the village it's name.  That part is pretty wonderful.  The rest, well, I dunno.  I would not really call this book a mystery (though it is), it is more an examination of loss and abuse.  This sounds more unpleasant then it actually is, but be prepared--the road is bumpy.  I can only barely recommend this book as it was hard for me to enjoy significant portions of it.  I truly hope that this is the end of Gamache trying to deal with the corruption he is constantly trying to root out of everywhere he goes.  Unlikely.

The Beautiful Mystery, Louise Penny

 

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny is the next book in the Chief Inspector Gamache series.

Started: 6/11/2022
Completed: 6/15/2022
Recommendation: Mild recommendation
Recommended By: My parents

Review:

I am consistently annoyed by how Penny goes after her characters.  The endless attack on Gamache seems stale and the latest feint is nothing less than annoying.  The step off into the monastery gives time for Peter to spend his penance  away from Three Pines, but it feels a bit like I have spent a similar (likely needless) penance as well.  Since Penny has decided that it would be "unrealistic" for a group of people to just like each other and work together, she has found ways to undermine and attack the group through the last couple of books.  I hope this is the end of it.  This book did not leave me upbeat.  The information about Gregorian chants was far more interesting then I would have expected.

Bury Your Dead, Louise Penny

 

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny is the next Inspector Gamash novel.

Started: 10/22/2021
Completed: 10/28/2021
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: My Parents

Review:

I liked this book better than the last, which had me worried.  The idea of Gamash as an action hero is a little hard to wrap my head around and I don't think Penny intended that, but it comes off that way (of course contrasted repeatedly with his fear of heights).  The mystery in this novel was many fold and it is nice that this novel was layered among several characters, several subplots, and several locations.  As the book began I was worried that Three Pines would be abandoned, but that did not happen and familiar characters returned.

Still Life, Louise Penny

 

Still Life by Louise Penny is the first in a series that my mother enjoyed.  Mysteries are not really my thing.  This is the first book in the Armand Gamash Books.

Started: 2/22/2021
Completed: 2/24/2021
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended by: My mother

Review:

This was a good mystery.  The point was not the mystery.  The point was to introduce you to the inhabitants of Three Pines.  They are an interesting crew and the fact that this is the first in a series of books that leverages the complexity of the characters developed in this first book is pretty good.  I am inclined to read the series.