Dead Cold by Louise Penny is the second book in Penny’s Armand Gamache series, the setting is Three Pines which is a small village in Quebec. This book is absolutely full of twists and turns and kept me guessing right to the end, but apart from that it’s a great read all round.
Three Pines is described as something which looks like it has come alive from a Christmas card design. In fact I was thinking it’s like Brigadoon when that is exactly what the author described it as being like. This is the second Three Pines book which I’ve read and each of them has been set in freezing depths of a Canadian winter. I’m wondering if it’s ever summer in Three Pines.
Summer or Winter, I want to live there, more particularly I want to be sitting on the sofa opposite the wood-burning stove which sits in the middle of the bookshop, and going to Gabri and Olivier’s bistro for my lunch.
Anyway, the first sentence in the book tells you who is going to be murdered and by the time the deed is done I was just about cheering, because she was a truly ghastly character, a bullying egomaniac who was as shallow as they come.
But there are so many other great characters and relationships going on in the book. I particularly like Inspector Gamache and his wife, Reine-Marie, they’re very close and loving which is almost unheard of in detectives where divorced misfits seems to be the order of the day. Mind you, having said that I think that Maigret and his wife might have been a successful partnership, but it must be about 40 years since I read anything by Simenon so I’m not at all sure about that. Can anyone else remember?
Yes I believe Maigret and his wife had a loving relationship. I’ve only read one agama he book and it was good but a new detective, I believe her name was Nicki, was an awful character and I didn’t fancy reading another because of her. Was she in this one? I like the setting too.
Peggy Ann,
She was in this one and must have been in the previous one which I haven’t been able to get my hands on. You’re supposed to really dislike her though and for me characters like that are the ones you hiss at in a pantomime!
This book is also titled A Fatal Grace in some editions. I wish they wouldn’t do that. It’s confusing and unnecessary, unless there’s some legal / copyright reason for it.
I’ve read all the Louise Penny Inspector Gamache books and I’d like to be sitting in the bookstore with you! I love the books so much that I’ve been collecting them to read again, something I almost never do.
It’s been a while since I read any Maigret books, but my recollection is the same as yours, that he and his wife had an amicable relationship, too.
Joan,
I think their excuse for using different titles is just that sometimes they don’t quite translate as well to the other side of the pond, but I think they just want to fool people into buying the same book twice!
I still haven’t been able to get the first book in the series as they are all missing from Fife libraries, so I’ve bought it from Ebay, just waiting for it to arrive.
I got all excited when I saw a new title from Louise Penny then realized it was Fatal Grace. Just finished The Long Way Home, most recently published. This is a wonderful series but if not read in some order, you lose a great deal.
I agree with you, Lorraine. I’ve read them all, too, but not strictly in order. That’s why I’ve been collecting the series and planning to start at the beginning and read them in order. What a treat!
Joan,
I plan to do that with the Thirkell books too as I’ve just read them as I’ve managed to obtain them, sometimes jumping 10 years or so in between books.
Lorraine,
Yes I realised that because the second book keeps referring back to things that happened in the first one, and I’m waiting for that one to turn up in the post. I should have put off reading the second one until I got the first but was too impatient.