This book is the 11th in the Armand Gamache series by Louise Penny, and is set in Three Pines, Quebec in Canada. I like these books no matter where they are set, but when they are in Three Pines, it means that some of my favorite characters will feature: Ruth, Clara, Olivier and Gabriel, and Myrna at the bookstore.
Description from the edition I read:
Hardly a day goes by when nine-year-old Laurent Lepage doesn't cry wolf. His tales are so extraordinary no one can possibly believe him–including Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache, who now live in the little Quebec village of Three Pines.
But when the boy disappears, the villagers are faced with the possibility that one of his tall tales might have been true. And so begins a frantic search for the boy and the truth.
In this case, Laurent Lepage says that he has found a huge gun hidden deep in the woods around Three Pines. As usual everyone dismisses this as a fantasy and a way to get attention, but in actuality he did find a very unusual weapon there. After the discovery of the artifact, agents from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) have a role, although they seem more like librarians than agents at times.
Some Random Thoughts:
I always have some quibbles with a book from Louise Penny. Sometimes I find that the mystery plots are unnecessarily complex and/or the investigation is drawn out too long. But, no matter what quibbles I have, I enjoy the characters and the writing. I am hooked after reading a few chapters. This book was more thrillerish than usual, but that did not bother me. I like the variety in her books. Penny is very good at creating characters I want to read about, and she has some new ones in this book that are very interesting.
Armand Gamache's role in this book is unusual. Now retired in Three Pines, he is available to his former colleagues, Isabelle Lacoste and Jean Guy Beauvoir, during the investigation but he is not in charge.
What is the theme of this book? It certainly seemed to have one. Good vs. evil? Right vs Wrong? War is bad, or the weapons of war are bad? Censorship? I am still not sure what she was aiming at in this book, but she often presents some thought-provoking issues in her books.
This was the ninth book I read for the 20 Books of Summer Challenge.
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Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2016 (orig. publ. 2015)
Length: 374 pages
Format: Trade paper
Series: Inspector Gamache, #11
Setting: Three Pines, Quebec, Canada
Genre: Police Procedural
Source: I purchased this book.
16 comments:
I really like the series, too, Tracy. And I agree with you that it's best when the story's taking place in Three Pines. I admit, this one tested my disbelief a little too much, but as you say, it's a bit more of a thriller, so maybe that's what Penny had in mind. Still, the writing is always excellent and I do like the Three Pines characters.
Margot, I have read some reviews that agree with you, but for some reason I had no problem accepting the premise. And like you say, the writing is so so good.
When I read this one back in 2015, I saw it as kind of a transition between two phases of life for Gamache. He had just retired but was finding the transition to life in Three Pines a little bit more of a struggle than he expected it would be. I didn't know at the time, that this was all going to prove to be just a lull in Gamache's career before he headed back into an even more important crime fighting job than the one he retired from.
The plot was a bit far fetched, but considering some of the ones that have followed this book, maybe not as far fetched as I thought at the time.
I'm at the point where I'm trying to get that horrible Three Pines Amazon series out of my mind so that I can resume thinking of all of Penny's characters the way I pictured them before having my brain burned by those TV actors. I've read one book since struggling through that series, and it still caused me a problem.
Sam, there are hints in this book that Gamache will get back into crime fighting in some way, and I look forward to seeing where that takes him. I already have copies of all the remaining books in the series except for the most recent one.
I am sorry that your reaction to the Amazon series has affected your enjoyment of the books. I did not mind the portrayal of Gamache by Alfred Molina, but I cannot think of any other portrayals of the characters in the books that I liked in the series, and the portrayal of the community Three Pines was so different from the book.
Hi Tracy, I love Louise Penny's Three Pines series but I know what you mean about some of the books having plots that are too drawn out or far fetched. That's why I liked Bury Your Dead so much where the 3 storylines worked so well together. Thrilled to hear that Armand Gamache has retired to Three Pines. I love that little town and it's characters and Gamache and his wife will make an excellent addition to the town.
I have read about three of her books and liked them well enough but not enough to read the whole series. Whereas I once loved reading a whole series, there is not time enough now.
You're one book ahead of me, my next is book 10, The Long Way Home, so I must get to that because this one sounds very good and I want to read it! LOL
Kathy, I am glad that Gamache and Reine-Marie have retired to Three Pines, but I don't see how they can have that many cases to solve there, realistically. So it will be interesting to see what happens next.
I've only read the first book in this series, but it was so good. I'm looking forward to reading further in this series.
Patti, you have a point there. I was looking at my list of series I am "working on" slowly, and it would be impossible to read them all. I have a few I really would like to get through: Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer series, Anthony Price's David Audley series; Christie's Miss Marple series. For some reason I have a high motivation for finishing Louise Penny's series, because it is set in Canada.
Cath, I like being in the middle of this series. I have plenty of books to look forward to and I won't run out any time soon. And I don't have to wait a year or two for a book to come out.
Lark, you have some good reading ahead in this series. It took me until about the fourth book before I truly got into the series, but now I am a devotee.
I was disappointed in The Nature of the Beast. It took me two posts to address my discomfort. My greatest concern was that Gamache is not an action hero, Three Pines is not thriller country and the residents of Three Pines are not thriller characters.
I love this series but this was not one of my favorites.
Bill, I went back and read your review posts. I do see what you are saying about the change in direction that this book takes, and it is surprising. I would also hope that the thriller element would not be in all of the future books, but it did not bother me as much.
My biggest quibble while reading this book was that I thought that the CSIS (Canadian Intelligence Security Service) would send more than two agents and they would take over the investigation.
Your review also reminded me that I failed to mention in my review that the weapons designer Gerald Bull was based on a real person and real events. I thought that was very interesting.
Constance, this would not be my favorite book in the series either, but I always get sucked into Louise Penny's books while reading them. My favorites so far are The Brutal Telling and Bury Your Dead which I read as a pair based on Bill Selnes' recommendation.
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