Summary: Inspector Gamache and his wife go away to their favorite vacation spot for their 35th anniversary, murder follows them.
This is my fourth Inspector Gamache book in as many weeks and the series seems to be getting better. Inspector Gamache and his wife traditionally go to a small quaint upscale wilderness inn for their anniversary. Again this year for their 35th, after a rough year, they are able to get away.
The only other guests at the inn are a wealthy extended family. The matriarch and second husband, the adult four children and corresponding spouses and one grandchild round out the guest list. Returning characters Peter Marrow, and his wife Clare, from Three Pines is one of those children. Peter, the third of the four and in his early 50s is still in many ways traumatized by his family as it seems are the rest of the family.
After several days, a statue of the children’s father is installed at the inn. The next morning the second child (the oldest daughter) is found crushed by the statue in the garden.
Gamache, being on the scene, takes charge of the investigation. Because it is a small and remote inn, the only suspects are the family and the small staff. There are a number of reasons why many of those present could have had motive to killed, but the big question is how anyone could have pushed a heavy statue to crush the woman.
The story reveals even more of Gamache’s back story including his relationship with his father (that was killed along with his mother in a car accident when Gamache was a child.)
There was a too convenient solution to identifying the killer, but overall this was a great psychological mystery and I have moved onto the fifth book in the series.
A Rule Against Murder: A Chief Inspector Gamache #4 by Louise Penny Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook, Scribd Audiobook
