Revisiting Louise Penny

 A friend of mine, new to Louise Penny, called me in shock at the outcome of book five in the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny. 

The Brutal Telling 

"Chaos is coming, old son.

With those words the peace of Three Pines is shattered.

Everybody goes to Olivier's Bistro - including a stranger whose murdered body is found on the floor. When Chief Inspector Gamache is called to investigate, he is dismayed to discover that Olivier's story is full of holes. Why are his fingerprints all over the cabin that's uncovered deep in the wilderness, with priceless antiques and the dead man's blood? And what other secrets and layers of lies are buried in the seemingly idyllic village?

Gamache follows a trail of clues and treasures - from first editions of Charlotte's Web and Jane Eyre to a spiderweb with a word mysteriously woven in it - into the woods and across the continent before returning to Three Pines to confront the truth and the final, brutal telling."

A shocking thing happed and my friend was in disbelief. Well, I didn't believe it. I couldn't remember if I read that book. I thought I had read them all but I was thinking maybe I skipped over a couple of the earlier ones. I was pretty sure I knew the outcome though, so without saying anything, I listened to book six: 

Bury Your Dead

"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-smoldering 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 astonishing novel, Gamache must relive the terrible event of his own past before he can bury his dead."

I didn't remember this book at all, so I was glad I listened to it. Just as good as all of the books in the series, we follow Gamache as he tries to heal from the events that took place in the previous book - a very traumatic experience, mentally and physically. He tries to have time to relax and reflect with Henri, his dog, but gets asked to help with a local incident that occurs. Meanwhile back in Three Pines, Gamache has asked Jean Guy to look more into what happened to Olivier. Ruth gave me plenty of laughs in what is a serious and somber mystery.

If you haven't delved in to Inspector Gamache and the Three Pines series, I highly recommend it. It is an excellent traditional mystery series. 

Book 17; The Madness of Crowds comes out August 24, 2001! 

"You’re a coward.

Time and again, as the New Year approaches, that charge is leveled against Armand Gamache.

It starts innocently enough.

While the residents of the Québec village of Three Pines take advantage of the deep snow to ski and toboggan, to drink hot chocolate in the bistro and share meals together, the chief inspector finds his holiday with his family interrupted by a simple request.

He’s asked to provide security for what promises to be a non-event. A visiting professor of statistics will be giving a lecture at the nearby university.

While he is perplexed as to why the head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec would be assigned this task, it sounds easy enough. That is until Gamache starts looking into Professor Abigail Robinson and discovers an agenda so repulsive he begs the university to cancel the lecture.

They refuse, citing academic freedom, and accuse Gamache of censorship and intellectual cowardice. Before long, Professor Robinson’s views start seeping into conversations. Spreading and infecting. So that truth and fact, reality and delusion are so confused it’s near impossible to tell them apart.

Discussions become debates, debates become arguments, which turn into fights. As sides are declared, a madness takes hold.    

Abigail Robinson promises that, if they follow her, ça va bien aller. All will be well. But not, Gamache and his team know, for everyone.

When a murder is committed it falls to Armand Gamache, his second-in-command Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and their team to investigate the crime as well as this extraordinary popular delusion.

And the madness of crowds."