The Brutal Telling - Chief Inspector Gamache, Bk 5
Author: Louise Penny

Chaos is coming, old son. — With those words the peace of Three Pines is shattered. Everybody goes to Olivier’s Bistro -- including a stranger whose murdered body is found on the floor. When Chief Inspector Gamache is called to investigate, he is dismayed to discover that Olivier’s story is full of holes. Why are his fingerprints all over the cabin that’s uncovered deep in the wilderness, with priceless antiques and the dead man’s blood? And what other secrets and layers of lies are buried in the seemingly idyllic village?

Gamache follows a trail of clues and treasures -- from first editions of Charlotte’s Web and Jane Eyre to a spiderweb with a word mysteriously woven in it -- into the woods and across the continent, before returning to Three Pines to confront the truth and the final, brutal telling.

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Bury Your Dead - Chief Inspector Gamache, Bk 6
Author: Louise Penny

It is Winter Carnival in Quebec City, bitterly cold and surpassingly beautiful. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has come not to join the revels but to recover from an investigation gone hauntingly wrong. But violent death is inescapable, even in the apparent sanctuary of the Literary and Historical Society--where an obsessive historian's quest for the remains of the founder of Quebec, Samuel de Champlain, ends in murder. Could a secret buried with Champlain for nearly four hundred years be so dreadful that someone would kill to protect it?

Meanwhile, Gamache is receiving disquieting letters from the village of Three Pines, where beloved Bistro owner Olivier was recently convicted of murder. "It doesn't make sense," Olivier's partner writes every day. "He didn't do it, you know."

As past and present collide in this astonishing novel, Gamache must relive a terrible event from his own past before he can begin to bury his dead.

THE BRUTAL TELLING - Finished reading 1/17/20

I have been slowly reading the Inspector Gamache/Three Pines series by Louise Penny since I became aware of them because of a TV piece I saw on the CBS Sunday Morning Show about Louise Penny. Since reading the first book in the series, I have enjoyed revisiting the quaint village located in Quebec Province and its memorable cast of characters. Brutal Telling is the fifth book in the series and to me, one of the best. In this one, Gamache is called to investigate when a strange man is found murdered and left in Olivier's Bistro. It turns out that the man was a hermit who lives in a cabin in the woods and who Olivier has been visiting for years mainly because the cabin is filled with antique treasure including glassware, rare first editions, and even a very valuable violin. So why is Olivier denying that he knew the hermit and was he involved in the hermit's murder? The crime turns out to be more complicated than it first appears with the body being moved more than once and other town residents possibly having motives for the crime. There are also side notes to the story including one about Clara who may finally get her show of her artwork until she finds out that the gallery owner is homophobic and makes a snide remark to her about Gabri, Olivier's gay partner. So what should she do about the remark? Of course she takes her husband Peter's advice who has his own selfish motives in mind and is still jealous of Clara's art.

This was a very interesting addition to the series. The solution to the mystery is somewhat shocking but is it the right solution? The next book in the series is a continuation of some of the events in The Brutal Telling and I am anxious to read it.

BURY YOUR DEAD - Finished reading 1/22/20

Another excellent outing in Penny's Gamache series. This one is a followup to the previous book, The Brutal Telling and ties up some loose ends relating to the killing of the hermit and who did it as related in Telling. Gamache kept getting letters from Gabri telling him it didn't make sense..."why would Olivier move the body?" After giving it much consideration, Gamache sends Beauvoir back to Three Pines to try to prove that Olivier did not murder the hermit.

Gamache and Beauvoir are both recuperating from an investigation gone wrong where several agents were killed and both Gamache and Beauvoir were severely wounded. Beauvoir makes this an excuse for revisiting Three Pines as a form of relaxation. In the mean time, Gamache is staying in Quebec City with his old mentor, Emile, trying to put the faulty investigation out of his mind. So of course, a body turns up murdered in the Literary and Historical (Lit and His) Society where Gamache had been doing some research. The Lit and His is an Anglo library dating back a couple of centuries and accordingly it is scorned by the Quebec separatists. The murdered man was an eccentric who had been looking for the body of the Quebec founder, Samuel de Champlain whose body disappeared centuries ago. So why would anyone want to kill him? Gamache of course gets involved in this somewhat convoluted case and as part of this, Penny really provides some interesting history on Quebec as well as the city itself.

This was a really compelling novel that kept me turning the pages. I was surprised by the results of Beauvoir's re-investigation of the murder of the hermit although there were a couple of clues that almost gave it away. I was also interested in the Quebec history provided which I really knew little about and will probably be reading more on Quebec and Champlain. Also, the city itself sounds like a very interesting place to visit. Maybe someday! Looking forward to continuing with this series.

Including in the Paperback Surprise Bookbox Round 9. Enjoy!

Chosen from Surprise Paperback bookbox Round 9. Thanks for including.

Wow, just wow! New author for me. I was sucked right in. Bought another one of her books just to keep reading about Chief Inspector Gamache.

Releasing into the Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples everywhere bookbox.

I pulled this book from the Indigenous Peoples bookbox. Pretty cool that it is two books in one.