A Fatal Grace: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel: 2

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I like the way however the author has brought in elements outwith the particular crime that hint at past and forthcoming events in Gamache and his team's lives. In thinking about it, it occurred to me that, on the one hand, you have the world of Three Pines and, on the other, for example, the world of Matthew Scudder's New York City as imagined by Lawrence Block. This may be old, but I am just reading it – I understood why they attempted suicide – it was to take the fall for Crie, but there are several loose ends in this book, such as how Cree could possibly purchase the niacin, and make this elaborate plan, not knowing about the boots and set up and traditions. She emotionally abuses her daughter (Crie) and husband, expresses contempt for her lover, and -- worst of all, the text says -- she wears boots made of baby sealskin, making her not merely a damaged, destructive human being but an actual monster who wears babies on her feet. Sayers and Agatha Christie, drew up a list of rules for crime fiction that included the following: “No clue that is important to the solution of the puzzle may be concealed from the reader.

As for Nichol being somewhat akin to the Hadley House, as you wrote in your post, I’m not quite sure what you mean.

Penny uses not only the peaceful Eastern Townships as her setting, but continues to provide the reader with some great character development of Armand Gamache, a man whose intellect is balanced with a compassionate side. I liked reacquainting myself with the regulars and popping into the bistro and the cozy little homes again.

Having grown up in Michigan amidst many a freezing winter days, I have, and in A Fatal Grace, Louise Penny truly brings a chilling winter alive making the reader feel you are at the enchanted snowy village of Three Pines in Quebec. I know that I started reading the galleys on the train on a Tuesday night, then continued on Wednesday morning, when we always have our editorial meetings. In this case, a particularly unpleasant woman is murdered in a very complicated and public way while attending a curling match.It is a book in which the values the story claims to be promoting (compassion, love, generosity, respect for human dignity) are actually entirely undercut by the text itself. They all feel like a big family and Gamache is received in with open arms among them due to his pleasant personality. The reader learns a sliver more about his family life, with a loving wife and an extended family who cannot comprehend his need to work so much. For a Quebec winter is not only staggeringly beautiful but deadly, and the people of Three Pines know better than to reveal too much of themselves.

A Fatal Grace, by Louise Penny, published in Canada as Dead Cold, is the second novel in the Three Pines Mysteries series, which feature Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, published in 2007. There are some red herrings that I fell for and while I did correctly guess a few pieces of this one, I didn’t have all of the pieces figured out.

Second in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, in which he's back in little Three Pines, Quebec, following the murder of a despicable woman who's recently moved to town for reasons unclear to all. Jean Guy is also worried about old evils resurfacing from the Arnot case and Nichol being their spy and representative. We are in the midst of a "polar vortex" currently so I could relate to the author's description of the brutal winter weather. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté and his wife, Reine-Marie, make their first appearance in the book on the day after Christmas, when they have a tradition of reviewing unsolved cases. Not her quiet husband, not her spineless lover, not her pathetic daughter--and certainly none of the residents of Three Pines.