Summary: Gamache and Beauvoir’s first case together is introduced in flashback as a mystery in Three Pines slowly unfolds. This fall, I have reread the entire Inspector Gamache series because I was asked to contribute an essay to an online collection of essays inspired by the Gamache series. Yesterday my essay was posted. And next week, … Read more
Summary: Inspector Gamache and his wife may be on vacation for their anniversary, but murder still follows them. I am a big fan of the Inspector Gamache series, but I have not re-read any of the books until now. I am contributing to a series of essays in celebration of the series for the release … Read more
Summary: After Covid, a researcher proposes mandated euthanasia and eugenics as an economic response, and Gamache is asked to protect her and then solve a murder that may be related. I do not know how authors will deal with the reality of Covid over the coming years. Of course, such a globally important event will … Read more
Summary: As Gamache and his wife visit Paris to await the birth of their grandchild, crime continues to happen. Louise Penny is one of my favorite fiction authors at this point. I can’t think of another author that has managed to keep my attention 16 books into a series. I am been reading far too … Read more
Setup: After his suspension, Gamache returns to head up homicide, overlapping briefly with Jean-Guy Beauvoir before Beauvoir leaves the Sûreté to take a job in Paris. A Better Man is the fifteenth book in a remarkably consistent mystery series. It is a rare series that keeps me engaged over 15 books. I cannot think of … Read more
Summary: Gamache, Myrna and a guy neither of them knows, are called to be executors of a will for someone that none of them knows. I am a huge fan of Louise Penny’s Gamache novels. Not all of them are perfect, but 14 books in, three of the five best books in the series are … Read more
Summary: A novella in the middle of the series. Louise Penny was asked to write this novella by ABC Life Literacy Canada. It was intentionally written with an easy to read vocabulary and structure but with similar themes for adults and older teens that have difficulty reading. This type of book is so important. There … Read more
Summary: Gamache, now head of the Sûreté du Québec gambles. The Chief Inspector Gamache series has been consistently the best mystery series I have read. It is rare series, 13 books in, that still keeps me engaged. And I think the last two books, while a bit unbelievable as mysteries, are probably the best two … Read more
Summary: Stepping out of retirement, former Chief Inspector Gamache, has agreed to take over Surete (Quebec police) academy. A Great Reckoning is not a novel that you want to pickup if you are new to the series. You could read it and I think enjoy it. But there is a lot of assumed back story. Gamache … Read more
Summary: A retired Inspector Gamache continues to need to respond to the deaths around him in Three Pines. Popular murder mystery series always have the problem of very high rates of murder around the protagonist. It is one reason that they tend to be police officers of big cities in order to give some credibility … Read more