Tag Archives: Canadian fiction

The Murder Stone by Louise Penny

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The Murder Stone by Louise Penny is the fourth book in the Chief Inspector Gamache series and I’m so glad that I decided to read them all in order as the relationships between Gamache and his detective colleagues are developing nicely.

The Quebec village of Three Pines plays hardly any part in this book although Reine-Marie Gamache does stay there in the B&B whilst her husband solves the murder which has taken place when they were on their annual visit to the auberge which they had visited over 30 years ago for the first time.

The Manoir Bellechasse is one of the finest auberges in Quebec and the Finney family has also checked in, they consist of an elderly mother with her four middle aged children, their spouses and Mrs Finney’s second husband. They use the auberge for their annual reunion and this time around it’s a bit different as a huge statue of Mrs Finney’s first husband is being unveilled in the grounds of the auberge. It’s not something which the owner of the hotel particularly wants in the grounds but a large amount of money has been paid to her to accomodate the statue.

The Finney/Morrow family is a poisonous one with even the mother being cruel and vindictive, they all look down their noses at other people, particularly the Gamaches who they have decided are too common for the hotel. They all have long memories and take particular joy in hurting each other psycholgically. When a murder is committed there’s a plethora of suspects for Gamache to question.

I really liked this one despite the fact that I worked out how the murder had been committed long before Gamache did. It was good to discover more about Peter and Clara, the artist couple in Three Pines and to find out more about Gamache’s family background

The Cruellest Month by Louise Penny

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This is the first book by Louise Penny which I’ve read and she was recommended by Joan Kyler who has a good idea of what I like, and I did enjoy this one. I tend to stick to vintage crime and there’s so much of it to read, but recently I’ve been thinking that I should read some contemporary stuff and this fitted the bill. I’m probably the last person in the western world to find out about this Canadian writer. I just wish I had waited and started reading them in order instead of grabbing the first one I saw.

Set in Quebec in the village of Three Pines, the sort of place where people still roll eggs at Easter and the hub of the village is Olivier’s Bistro where people gathered for the company and gossip as much as for the coffee and food.

But there’s an evil doom looming over Three Pines in the shape of a murder house, a dark presence on the hill above the village. In fact nothing about the village and its inhabitants is as it seems to be on the surface.

Gabri who runs the B&B likes to get his money’s worth out of his guests and they often end up being unwilling entertainers for the villagers. His new guest Jeanne has been lined up as a psychic and unknown to her she is expected to perform!

Things get completely out of control and C.I. Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec is called in to investigate.

I’ll definitely have to track down the two books which come before this one so that I can see the development of the village’s characters and get to know them better. There is one character who is portrayed as being a bit weird, or certainly unusual as he has such an affinity with trees that he can hear their cries of pain if they are being abused. I completely understand that, maybe I’m weird too!