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CC de Poitiers managed to alienate everyone in the hamlet of Three Pines, right up to the moment she died. When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache begins his investigation, it seems like an impossible murder: CC was electrocuted on a frozen lake, in front of the entire town, during the annual curling tournament. With compassion and courage, Gamache digs beneath the idyllic surface of village life to find long buried secrets, while his own enemies threaten to bring something even more chilling than the bitter winter winds to Three Pines.
Penny's newest mystery returns to Three Pines, the bucolic but hardly idyllic hamlet south of Montreal where Inspector Gamache has his hands full contending with a pair of murders including that of a spiritual and domestic diva. Veteran reader Cosham isn't the best choice for this project, although his rich baritone voice can mesmerize listeners. The entire town plus the local office of the Sûreté de Québec is swept up in these murders, but unfortunately, the citizens all sound alike, as do Em, Kay and Mother, who are referred to as the Three Graces. Cosham's French is perfect, if a bit formal, but he uses the language spoken in Europe, not the Québécois dialect and pronunciation that would be used by the locals. His British accent is also a bit tony for this corner of Canada and its artistic but down-to-earth inhabitants. Despite the apparent miscasting, Cosham's pace makes the witty narrative frothy and irresistible, like a good café au lait. Simultaneous release with the St. Martin's Minotaur hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 12). (May)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationIn this follow-up to Penny's acclaimed debut, Still Life, Québec Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his thoughtful team of sleuths from the Sûreté du Québec tackle the murder of Martha Stewart wannabe CC de Poitiers. Electrocuted as she watched a neighborhood curling match in the tiny village of Three Pines, the diva of the emerging "Be Calm" lifestyle empire was nobody's favorite. Suspects abound: her long-suffering husband, her opportunist lover, her dysfunctional daughter, and pretty much everyone else in the village who encountered the self-absorbed CC. But why work so hard to kill her? Mourning is minimal. Gamache and his team are thoroughly perplexed. As the investigation proceeds, a strangely manufactured life is revealed, and CC is linked to yet another unsolved murder. By the story's end, Gamache is provided an excellent opportunity for mentoring, he makes peace with his prickly boss, and readers get a traditional and highly intelligent mystery. Still Lifewas a Debut Dagger honor book in Britain, and Penny's new title is sure to create great reader demand for more stories featuring civilized and articulate Chief Inspector Gamache. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ1/07.]
—Susan Clifford Braun
LOUISE PENNY is The New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling author of seven novels featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Her debut, Still Life, won the John Creasey Dagger and the Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys Awards, and was named one of the five Mystery/Crime Novels of the Decade by Deadly Pleasures magazine. Penny was the first author ever to win the Agatha Award for Best Novel four times—for A Fatal Grace, The Cruelest Month, The Brutal Telling (which also received the Anthony Award for Best Novel), and Bury Your Dead (which also won the Dilys, Arthur Ellis, Anthony, Macavity, and Nero Awards). She lives in a small village south of Montréal.
ONE
Had CC de Poitiers known she was going to be murdered she might have bought her husband, Richard, a Christmas gift. She might even have gone to her daughter's end of term pageant at Miss Edward's School for Girls, or 'girths' as CC liked to tease her expansive daughter. Had CC de Poitiers known the end was near she might have been at work instead of in the cheapest room the Ritz in Montreal had to offer. But the only end she knew was near belonged to a man named Saul. 'So, what do you think? Do you like it?' She balanced her book on her pallid stomach.
Saul looked at it, not for the first time. She'd dragged it out of her huge purse every five minutes for the past few days. In business meetings, dinners, taxi rides through the snowy streets of Montreal, CC'd suddenly bend down and emerge triumphant, holding her creation as though another virgin birth.
'I like the picture,' he said, knowing the insult. He'd taken the picture. He knew she was asking, pleading, for more and he knew he no longer cared to give it. And he wondered how much longer he could be around CC de Poitiers before he became her. Not physically, of course. At forty-eight she was a few years younger than him. She was slim and ropy and toned, her teeth impossibly white and her hair impossibly blonde. Touching her was like caressing a veneer of ice. There was a beauty to it, and a frailty he found attractive. But there was also danger. If she ever broke, if she shattered, she'd tear him to pieces.
But her exterior wasn't the issue. Watching her caress her book with more tenderness than she'd ever shown when caressing him, he wondered whether her ice water insides had somehow seeped into him, perhaps during sex, and were slowly freezing him. Already he couldn't feel his core.
At fifty-two Saul Petrov was just beginning to notice his friends weren't quite as brilliant, not quite as clever, not quite as slim as they once were. In fact, most had begun to bore him. And he'd noticed a telltale yawn or two from them as well. They were growing thick and bald and dull, and he suspected he was too. It wasn't so bad that women rarely looked at him any more or that he'd begun to consider trading his downhill skis for cross country, or that his GP had scheduled his first prostate test. He could accept all that. What woke Saul Petrov at two in the morning, and whispered in his ears in the voice that had warned him as a child that lions lived under his bed, was the certainty that people now found him boring. He'd take deep dark breaths of the night air, trying to reassure himself that the stifled yawn of his dinner companion was because of the wine or the magret de canard or the warmth in the Montreal restaurant, wrapped as they were in their sensible winter sweaters. But still the night voice growled and warned of dangers ahead. Of impending disaster. Of telling tales too long, of an attention span too short, of seeing the whites of too many eyes. Of glances, fast and discreet, at watches. When can they reasonably leave him? Of eyes scanning the room, desperate for more stimulating company.
And so he'd allowed himself to be seduced by CC. Seduced and devoured so that the lion under the bed had become the lion in the bed. He'd begun to suspect this self-absorbed woman had finally finished absorbing herself, her husband and even that disaster of a daughter and was now busy absorbing him.
He'd already become cruel in her company. And he'd begun despising himself. But not quite as much as he despised her.
'It's a brilliant book,' she said, ignoring him. 'I mean, really. Who wouldn't want this?' She waved it in his face. 'People'll eat it up. There're so many troubled people out there.' She turned now and actually looked out their hotel room window at the building opposite, as though surveying her 'people'. 'I did this for them.' Now she turned back to him, her eyes wide and sincere.
Does she believe it? he wondered.
He'd read the book, of course. Be Calm she'd called it, after the company she'd founded a few years ago, which was a laugh given the bundle of nerves she actually was. The anxious, nervous hands, constantly smoothing and straightening. The snippy responses, the impatience that spilled over into anger.
Calm was not a word anyone would apply to CC de Poitiers, despite her placid, frozen exterior.
She'd shopped the book around to all the publishers, beginning with the top publishing houses in New York and ending with Publications Réjean et Maison des cartes in St Polycarpe, a onevache village along the highway between Montreal and Toronto. They'd all said no, immediately recognizing the manuscript as a flaccid mishmash of ridiculous self-help philosophies, wrapped in half-baked Buddhist and Hindu teachings, spewed forth by a woman whose cover photo looked as though she'd eat her young. 'No goddamned enlightenment,' she'd said to Saul in her Montreal office the day a batch of rejection letters arrived, ripping them into pieces and dropping them on the floor for the hired help to clean up. 'This world is messed up, I tell you. People are cruel and insensitive, they're out to screw each other. There's no love or compassion. This', she sliced her book violently in the air like an ancient mythical hammer, heading for an unforgiving anvil, 'will teach people how to find happiness.' Her voice was low, the words staggering under the weight of venom. She'd gone on to self-publish her book, making sure it was out in time for Christmas. And while the book talked a lot about light Saul found it interesting and ironic that it had actually been released on the winter solstice. The darkest day of the year.
'Who published it again?' He couldn't seem to help himself. She was silent. 'Oh, I remember now,' he said. 'No one wanted it. That must have been horrible.' He paused for a moment, wondering whether to twist the knife. Oh, what the hell. Might as well. 'How'd that make you feel?' Did he imagine the wince?
But her silence remained, eloquent, her face impassive. Anything CC didn't like didn't exist. That included her husband and her daughter. It included any unpleasantness, any criticism, any harsh words not her own, any emotions. CC lived, Saul knew, in her own world, where she was perfect, where she could hide her feelings and hide her failings.
He wondered how long before that world would explode. He hoped he'd be around to see it. But not too close.
People are cruel and insensitive, she'd said. Cruel and insensitive. It wasn't all that long ago, before he'd taken the contract to freelance as CC's photographer and lover, that he'd actually thought the world a beautiful place. Each morning he'd wake early and go into the young day, when the world was new and anything was possible, and he'd see how lovely Montreal was. He'd see people smiling at each other as they got their cappuccinos at the café, or their fresh flowers or their baguettes. He'd see the children in autumn gathering the fallen chestnuts to play conkers. He'd see the elderly women walking arm in arm down the Main.
He wasn't foolish or blind enough not to also see the homeless men and women, or the bruised and battered faces that spoke of a long and empty night and a longer day ahead.
But at his core he believed the world a lovely place. And his photographs reflected that, catching the light, the brilliance, the hope. And the shadows that naturally challenged the light.
Ironically it was this very quality that had caught CC's eye and led her to offer him the contract. An article in a Montreal style magazine had described him as a 'hot' photographer, and CC always went for the best. Which was why they always took a room at the Ritz. A cramped, dreary room on a low floor without view or charm, but the Ritz. CC would collect the shampoos and stationery to prove her worth, just as she'd collected him. And she'd use them to make some obscure point to people who didn't care, just as she'd use him. And then, eventually, everything would be discarded. As her husband had been tossed aside, as her daughter was ignored and ridiculed.
The world was a cruel and insensitive place.
And he now believed it.
He hated CC de Poitiers.
He got out of bed, leaving CC to stare at her book, her real lover. He looked at her and she seemed to go in and out of focus.
He cocked his head to one side and wondered whether he'd had too much to drink again. But still she seemed to grow fuzzy, then sharp, as though he was looking through a prism at two different women, one beautiful, glamorous, vivacious, and the other a pathetic, dyed-blonde rope, all corded and wound and knotted and rough. And dangerous.
'What's this?' He reached into the garbage and withdrew a portfolio. He recognized it immediately as an artist's dossier of work. It was beautifully and painstakingly bound and printed on archival Arche paper. He flipped it open and caught his breath. A series of works, luminous and light, seemed to glow off the fine paper. He felt a stirring in his chest. They showed a world both lovely and hurt. But mostly, it was a world where hope and comfort still existed. It was clearly the world the artist saw each day, the world the artist lived in. As he himself once lived in a world of light and hope.
The works appeared simple but were in reality very complex. Images and colors were layered one on top of the other. Hours and hours, days and days must have been spent on each one to get the desired effect.
He stared down at the one before him now. A majestic tree soared into the sky, as though keening for the sun. The artist had photographed it and had somehow captured a sense of movement without making it disorienting. Instead it was graceful and calming and, above all, powerful. The tips of the branches seemed to melt or become fuzzy as though even in its confidence and yearning there was a tiny doubt. It was brilliant.
All thoughts of CC were forgotten. He'd climbed into the tree, almost feeling tickled by its rough bark, as if he had been sitting on his grandfather's lap and snuggling into his unshaven face. How had the artist managed that?
He couldn't make out the signature. He flipped through the other pages and slowly felt a smile come to his frozen face and move to his hardened heart.
Maybe, one day, if he ever got clear of CC he could go back to his work and do pieces like this.
He exhaled all the darkness he'd stored up.
'So, do you like it?' CC held her book up and waved it at him.
lostwithoutabook
Posted Thu May 06 00:00:00 EDT 2010
Louise Penny is one of the few authors who can combine strong and singular characters, lyrical writing style and satisfying plots into an immensely readable book. Her characters in the Three Pines series become neighbors that you grow to both love and sometimes, not so much, as each develops into complex and very human dimensional character. The plots are vehicles for the character development, but they are well thought out and progress at a pace that does not bore. It is with the side plots where I feel she truly excels - this is where you will Penny offering day-to-day situations and exploring the motivations for our actions that all people deal with. There are endless topics here for book clubs to discuss. But foremost for me is her style of writing. She is a wordsmith. The well- crafted sentences, finding the precise word and turning a phrase that conveys meaning in a near poetic manner makes her works a joy to read. She is an author who will remind you why it is you love to read. The series does not have to be read in order, but if you do, the characters will unfold in a graceful way. "A Fatal Grace" is the 4th of the series I have read, and it's one of my favorites so far.
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Wed Jan 27 00:00:00 EST 2010
I Also Recommend:
I am now in my 3rd Three Pines mystery, so obviously, I like them. Armand Gamache is a character that I really love and want to continue reading about. In fact, the goings-on at his police dept. trump the dramas at Three Pines. One has to keep reading to see if he figures it all out. This particular Three Pines mystery was a good one. I just had a problem with the murderer--I'm not convinced that that person had the intelligence and cunning to pull that off. Other than that, I have only praise for the book and highly recommend it to anyone who loves mysteries and doesn't love gratuitous violence and gore.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.-JACKI-
Posted Tue Dec 08 00:00:00 EST 2009
I Also Recommend:
Penny has a real insight into people and a wonderful way of creating a cozy atmosphere, small town living. Compelling characters and brain teasing who-dun-it. Thoroughly enjoyed it! Another hit!!
A couple of other books that are on my "masterpiece shelf",...EXPLOSION IN PARIS, by Linda Pirrung and THE HELP, by K. Stockett.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Sat Sep 26 00:00:00 EDT 2009
I Also Recommend:
Once I read one book by Louise Penny, I ordered all her others from B&N -- I wasn't disappointed... as a matter of fact, I've ordered her next one!
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Sun Dec 06 00:00:00 EST 2009
Penny's books are so enjoyable to read and I can't wait for each new one to come out. This book is entertaining and a great read. Her characters are interesting and I find myself really caring about them.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Sat Jul 25 00:00:00 EDT 2009
I enjoyed the setting and the style which reminded me of Elizabeth George.
The "suspects" were well done and hard to pinpoint which made it exciting.
I liked the characters very much.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.KrisPA
Posted Mon Nov 23 00:00:00 EST 2009
I really didn't think I would like these books because I am not crazy about cozy village mysteries, but I like the characters and Gamache. Even though I had figured out who the murderers were fairly easily, I still enjoyed the book. I'm very caught up in Gamache's problem with this previous Arnot case and the continuing fall out from it. Also I'm very intrigued by Agent Nichol--she is a puzzling and unlikeable character, but you think she might be redeemable. I'm very much looking forward to reading the next book to see who is working against Gamache and trying to bring him down and how he will handle that problem. The only thing I don't like about this series is how long it takes to get into the plot, and the excerpts of (character) Ruth Zardo's poetry is getting excessive. A little of that goes a long way. Otherwise, I enjoy the time I spend in Three Pines and would love to visit and get a bite to eat at Oliver's bistro.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.This series could be described as 'Lake Woebegon' with murders. The writing is sharp with effective dialog. The reader is transported to Three Pines and becomes immersed in the idylic life of the village. The mysteries are believable, the tension builds nicely and the endings are realistic and satisfying.
If you're looking for several hours of enjoyment, these books are well worth the investment.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.In Three Pines, Quebec socialite CC de Poitiers runs a successful personal guidance business based on her book Be Calm until she participates in the local Yuletide curling competition only to be electrocuted. Montreal Chief Inspector Armand Gamache arrives at the tiny village to lead the official inquiry into what appears to be a tragic accident.----------- Armand interviews the victim¿s submissive spouse and overweight daughter, a lover, a rival self-help guru, curling competitors and officials, and some townsfolk. All seem to have alibis, but share in common a universal loathing of CC. In fact each person questioned paints a picture of an abusive ugly person and that the culprit should be honored not arrested. Thus everyone he has talked to especially the family members has a motive for killing the apparently odious CC de Poitiers most had an opportunity though they offer alibis.----------------- When Gamache is front and center investigating the death, A FATAL GRACE is a superb police procedural when the plot refers to the past especially that of the odious deceased it loses momentum. Still the story line contains a fine whodunit as it appears that much of Quebec wanted the nasty CC dead and several had the opportunity to fix her equipment and that make for a bunch of suspects for the police and readers to sift through and find out who, of all those who wanted her dead actually, acted on the desire.----------- Harriet Klausner
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Fri Feb 15 00:00:00 EST 2013
I have truly enjoy the Gamache books that were recommended to me by an employee at BN. This second one is holding true to the form, style and grace that Louise Penney delivers. You are never quite sure who the murderer is until the very end. Its hard to fool me and she manages to do it. Wonderful series, I am actually reading #5 right now.
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Posted Sat Feb 09 00:00:00 EST 2013
I am now on #7 in the series and I've loved every book! The ongoing people in the books are interesting and it's also nice to get so much histery and ambiance of Canada in this mystery series.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.GMORROW
Posted Fri Jan 25 00:00:00 EST 2013
I love, love, love this series. I read the first book in book club and was hooked. Louise Penny goes into detail so you get to know the characters and you want to continue being part of their lives. Great books!
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Posted Fri Jan 25 00:00:00 EST 2013
As a mystery/crime novel reader, I read just about all there is to read in that genre, but when I need a mini-break, I head for the Armand Gamache series. The characters are the reasons why I head back to Louise Penny; I know them, love them and wish I were living in Three Pines. Read any one in the series, not necessarily in order, and you'll go back for more. Keep writing, Ms. Penny!
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Posted Fri Dec 14 00:00:00 EST 2012
Ms. Penny's characters are full and well thought out. This series is a must-read for mystery lovers.
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Posted Tue Oct 30 00:00:00 EDT 2012
I have read three if this series with the last one being out of order, so I skipped the factory showdown. Even so, I was able to get the gist of Gamache's team and what LaCoste and Beauvour had gone through in this book (#7). I enjoy learning about art along with solving the crime. The recurring characters are a treat too? I look forward to another adventure with these engaging and relatable characters. Louise Penny is a fine spinner of yarns!
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Posted Fri Sep 07 00:00:00 EDT 2012
I love this series by Louise Penny! It's wonderful to read a great story and not have to wade through vulgar language or implausible plots. You'll fall in love with the characters and will look forward to reading about their next adventure. Well written and a nice bit of fiction for your day!
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Posted Wed Aug 29 00:00:00 EDT 2012
I returned to Inspector Gamache and Three Pines with high expectations after reading Still Life. They rose to the occasion as expected, Gamache being his thoughtful, insightful, conviction-following self, Three Pines being its idyllic, warmly populated small town (well, except for the winter weather). The story primarily revolves around the murder of a relative newcomer to Three Pines, a woman who seems to have a particular knack for irritating others with her strange philosophies, aggressive and sometimes cruel ways, and her compulsive habits. Her death comes at a most odd time, under highly unlikely circumstances that I’ll refrain from identifying. There is another death, this in relatively distant Montreal, where a woman vagrant is killed. Gamache, Beauvoir, and fellow officers take the Three Pines case. Three Pines’ town folks, a varied and enjoyable group, with resident curmudgeon poet Ruth, innkeepers and bistro owners Gabri and Olivier (the interplay between Ruth and Gabri is sometimes very funny), and a best-friends trio of senior women, the artist couple, the bookstore owner, and introduced here, the handy man Billy Williams. The story development is very strong to go with strong character development. If word play is interesting to you, that’s here, too. There is a strand developed in a very low key way that indicates that Gamache’s future may include some challenges. I correctly identified both killers before they were disclosed, but find the details and characters so pleasurable that reading to the end was never in doubt. I’ve already bought book three of the set, look forward to it anxiously, and do believe I have a new favorite mystery series (But not to worry Russ and Clare, and Inspector Rebus, I’ll be back to you, too.).
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Posted Tue Jul 24 00:00:00 EDT 2012
Louise Penny is a fantastic writer, her characters have dimension and the mystery has some thought behind it. Very enjoyable read.
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Posted Mon Jun 18 00:00:00 EDT 2012
I've read the 1st 2 books in this series and can't wait to read the next. They are very well written and keep the reader wanting to find out "what will happen next".
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Posted Fri Jun 08 00:00:00 EDT 2012
Love this series! Great characters, very well-written. One of my favorite authors.
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Overview
CC de Poitiers managed to alienate everyone in the hamlet of Three Pines, right up to the moment she died. When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache begins his investigation, it seems like an impossible murder: CC was electrocuted on a frozen lake, in front of the entire town, during the annual curling tournament. With compassion and courage, Gamache digs beneath the idyllic surface of village life to find long buried secrets, while his own enemies threaten to bring something even more chilling than...