Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is fighting a losing battle. His once respected homicide department, the pride of the Quebec de Surete, has been decimated, good officers replaced by those who don’t care. People he nurtured and trusted may no longer be in his camp. The investigation into a bigger conspiracy is going nowhere and the always stable facade of Armand Gamache is starting to crack. What better time for a murder  to take his mind off of his current problems?

It is Christmas time and a Montreal murder with ties to his favorite idyllic village takes Armand Gamache back to Three Pines and the comfort of long-time friends. As he struggles to unravel the threads of a life suddenly and violently ended, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache senses that the shadowy events that have dogged his every step for years will finally be coming to light, for good or for ill.

Louise Penny’s latest novel, the ninth in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, may be her most satisfying read to date, particularly after the controversial choices made in her last novel, The Beautiful Mystery. How the Light Gets In is a layered, complex and compelling novel packed with moments of gut-wrenching drama and heart-racing suspense. By setting it in the village of Three Pines, Penny is able to bring in beloved characters from previous novels which gives the tension-filled story a much needed foundation of comfort and familiarity upon which to build. Though I questioned the legitimacy of the handling of one of the series’ prime characters in The Beautiful Mystery, the end result of those choices makes How the Light Gets In the kind of page-turning novel that kept me up until 1 a.m. this morning, having tread the last two hundred pages of this roughly 400-page novel in one sitting.

I closed the book after reading the last dozen or so pages with tears streaming down my face and the kind of satisfied smile that can only come from being immersed in a cracking good read. Those reviewers who were disappointed by The Beautiful Mystery and vowed to never read Louise Penny again are missing out on a novel that reaffirms just why people fell for Louise Penny’s creation in the first place.

My rating: 10/10 stars

Continue reading How the Light Gets In ~Louise Penny →

With their financial woes and the ongoing mystery of their missing mother Harriet, the de Luce family is ripe for any kind of distraction and the 500th anniversary of the death of their beloved St. Tancred, coupled with the Easter holiday is just the distraction they need.

To a degree.

For nothing really distracts eleven-year-old chemist and amateur sleuth Flavia de Luce except a really good mystery. Fortunately for her, that comes along fairly quickly with her discovery of the missing church organist, Mr. Collicut, in the burial chamber of St. Tancred himself! Or fairly near it, at any rate. As is always the case in the life of Flavia de Luce, one mystery begets another and before the crime, or crimes, are solved she will acquire more knowledge about life, the human condition, her family relationships and herself than she ever bargained for.

This, the fifth novel in the Flavia de Luce series, is arguably the best yet, though to be fair the ongoing de Luce saga in each novel provided the foundation for the character growth in Speaking From Among the Bones. With a shocking set up for the next novel, due out in January 2014, this story arc is set to wow when The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches is released.

The mysteries in the Flavia de Luce series are always entertaining, but the real treasure of Alan Bradley’s novels is the de Luce family themselves, with Flavia in the forefront and faithful retainers Dogger and Mrs. Mullet along for good measure. I fell in love with this 1950’s world and all its characters with the release of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and that love has grown with each volume, enhanced over the course of these last two stories by experiencing them through their unabridged audio versions. Jane Entwhistle is a delight in her voicing of the characters. I cannot get enough of her reading, listen to the books like my life depends on it, then lament the fact that they are over when I am done in a matter of days.

Another 10/10 star effort for Alan Bradley

Continue reading Speaking From Among the Bones ~Alan Bradley →

Eschewing the idyllic, yet strangely murderous, village of Three Pines, author Louise Penny takes Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his second in command, Jean-Guy Beauvois, deep into the remote forests of Quebec to the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups where a group of cloistered monks from an order long thought dead live, and work, and make music.

For over four hundred years the Gilbertine monks have been thought to be an extinct order. Then one day a recording of Gregorian chant seemingly burst upon the music scene, announcing to the world that the Gilbertine’s still existed, although no one but them knew where. That secret is soon to be revealed, however, when the monastery’s normally quiet existence is shattered by an act of murder.

Louise Penny explores music and the beautiful mystery of the way in which music can enchant and entrance us in her latest book, her eighth, following the life of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surete de Quebec and the group of officers and family members who orbit around this singularly fascinating character.

Some of you may remember that last August I discovered the work of Louise Penny and promptly read the first seven of her Gamache novels one right after the other. For a month and a half I was fully immersed in this world Penny created and I loved every page of it. I had actually started this novel at that time and then decided to hold off and save it for later. With the upcoming August release of the ninth Gamache novel, and unexpected autumn-like temperatures, it felt like the perfect time to return to this series.

By and large I liked the book. Much of the story was interesting and engaging in the way that I’ve found to be consistent with all of Penny’s Gamache books. However she makes story choices with her characters, particularly the relationship of Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir that not only deeply frustrated me but also rang false with the time frame in which this investigation was to have taken place. I am thankful I waited until this close to the release of the next book to read The Beautiful Mystery. What follows is a SPOILER-FILLED discussion of the novel. If you haven’t read the Louise Penny books, please consider doing so. The first book, Still Life, is wonderful despite a few debut novel issues. The second book, A Fatal Grace, sets things on a course in which each book builds beautifully on the next.

Don’t read on if you haven’t read these books. If you like good character development these books are a must-read, and being spoiled is something you want to avoid if at all possible.

My rating: 6/10 stars

Continue reading The Beautiful Mystery ~Louise Penny →

“I am half sick of shadows,” said
The Lady of Shalott.

~Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Lady of Shalott

Alan Bradley’s fourth book in the Flavia de Luce series takes place during the heart of the yuletide season, with the dilapidated manse of Buckshaw acting as movie set for a cinema cast and crew while the de Luce family is expected to stay out from underfoot. While this directive may be quite simple for Captain de Luce and his two eldest daughters, 11 year old Flavia de Luce is too curious an observer of the human condition to do anything but insinuate herself into the very inner workings of the happenings at Buckshaw.

For those who may be unfamiliar with Bradley’s works, this series of cozy mysteries set in England in 1950 features the eleven year old science-obsessed…or more accurately poison-obsessed…Flavia de Luce. With boundless curiosity, a sharp mind and the assistance of her faithful bicycle Gladys, young Flavia stumbles across mysterious deaths with the frequency of her literary predecessors Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. If you can get past the idea that folks are dropping dead at a very unhealthy, pardon the pun, rate then you are sure to love this delightful young lady. In Bradley’s ongoing series the death du jour is rarely the main focus of the story. Instead we find a family broken by the possibly suspicious death of wife and mother, Harriet de Luce, and a dysfunction that may be very real or may be the result of a story told through the eyes of an eleven year old child. With each successive novel we learn more about the de Luce family and their complicated relationships and the overarching mystery of what happened to Harriet.

While I am Half-Sick of Shadows stays true to form in the larger sense of the series, the holiday theme gave Bradley an opportunity to take a bit of a breather from form and in the course of so doing the reader is given an engaging glimpse into the Christmas season in a country not yet recovered financially, psychologically or emotionally from the devastation of World War II. The result is pure satisfaction.

Continue reading I am Half-Sick of Shadows ~Alan Bradley →