Louise Penny – Carol's Notebook

A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny

January 3, 2023January 3, 2023 by Carol11 Comments

The Paston Treasure, commissioned by either Sir Robert Paston or his father Sir William Paston in the early 1670s A painting, a copy of The Paston Treasure, is found in a bricked-up attic room, but it contains hidden messages and puzzles. During the graduation ceremony at the École Polytechnique, the women who were killed and injured during the Montreal massacre in '89 are remembered. Fiona, a woman found guilty of murder when she was 14, has been paroled, thanks in part to Gamache, and is staying along with her brother in Three Pines after her graduation from that same school. Harriet, the niece of Myrna, the bookstore owner, is also graduating and spending time in Three Pines. A local woman has been murdered, staged as a suicide. Penny takes so many threads and pulls them all together in a complex, tension-filled story. Gamache knows he and his family are under threat, but the damage could come from any of several directions. Sam,...

The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny

September 17, 2021December 3, 2021 by Carol6 Comments

My mom and I both read Penny's Gamache series. She loves all of them; I like the "smaller" mysteries, the ones that don't involve institutional corruption or cross-country drug trafficking. The Madness of Crowds is one of those smaller, more personal mysteries. We're back in Three Pines, which is always nice, and Gamache and his whole family are there for the holidays. Gamache is asked to provide security for a professor's lecture, but, of course, it's not quite as simple as it sounds. The professor's visit and talk lead to moral dilemmas, violence, and ultimately a death. The mystery itself was fine. We have several suspects, even if I question why a couple of them would make the list- the motives seem rather weak. The clues are revealed slowly, allowing us to discover them along with Gamache as he and his team pull back the layers of people's lives, discovering their secrets and past choices. Penny does touch on COVID, or the...

All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny

November 20, 2020November 19, 2020 by CarolNo Comments

I've read every one of Louise Penny's Three Pines series. I loved the quirky village residents, the small-town setting, and the intricate, well-plotted mysteries. I like Gamache as a main character and and appreciate his thoughtfulness and calmness. Granted, some of the books I've enjoyed more than others. All the Devils Are Here is somewhere in the middle of the pack. The mystery was well-done and I enjoyed getting to know more of Gamache's family. I missed some of my favorite people though. All the Devils Are Here is set in Paris, where Gamache's children now reside. Gamache's son-in-law, friend, and former protege, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, has also relocated to the city and is working for a private engineering company. Of course, Reine-Marie has come to the city with Gamache, and we also get to meet his billionaire godfather Stephen Horowitz. The action begins when the elderly Horowitz is hospitalized after a car deliberately hits him. Not long afterward, a body turns...

A Better Man by Louise Penny

October 11, 2019October 11, 2019 by Carol6 Comments

With A Better Man, Penny is back to the kind of mystery I enjoy, the small, personal mystery where the fate of Canada is not hanging on the outcome, which I was happy about. When the stories are too big, too political, it makes me think maybe I should step away from the series, but then one like this brings me back. It starts as a missing person case, but quickly changes to a murder investigation, all while the waters are rising around Quebec. The dead woman was abused by her husband, so suspicion quickly and naturally falls on him - and stays there. But proving he's the killer is another matter altogether. I knew the "who" although not necessarily the why or how. That's not the fault of the book, really the mystery was well-done. The trio, Gamache, Beauvoir, and Lacoste think they have a decent case against the husband, but it's blown out of the water and they...

Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny

January 10, 2019January 10, 2019 by Carol11 Comments

Penny's Inspector Gamache series is definitely one that is best to read from the beginning. However, this is #14, which makes it a bit difficult, so it you want to jump in here, I'd recommend you at least read Glass Houses, #13, as it connects closely with some of the events in Kingdom of the Blind. We've got two story lines in this one. There's the mysterious will and dead man in a collapsed house. Then, there's secondary one involving the drugs Gamache allowed to get onto the streets of Montreal in the previous. The Baroness, Bertha Baumgartnor, a cleaning woman who lived near Three Pines, wrote the will mentioned in the blurb, splitting between her children a vast fortune and properties that she clearly did not have. The dead man is her son. The piece about the collapsed farmhouse, about the search and rescue, is one of the tensest scenes on the book. Winter in Quebec can be dangerous. I loved...

Glass Houses by Louise Penny

September 22, 2017September 22, 2017 by Carol10 Comments

I love Louise Penny's Armand Gamache series. If you haven't read it, you should. Do start at #1 though, you'll appreciate them most that way. That being said, this was not my favorite of the series. I liked the whole concept the book is built around, the ideas of Conscience and guilt and judgement. As always, the characters are well-done and I am happiest when a large part of the book revolves around the familiar village of Three Pines, as it does here. There are some new folks in town, most of whom have secrets, but finding out who they are and what they know/have done was interesting. Our old friends are all pretty much the same as always, which is good. Things that didn't work for me: 1. The construction of the story. This story jumps back and forth in time too much and too abruptly. We are at a courtroom trial in the present, but for half of the book we...