A Better Man
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 9/12/2019
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 9/12/2019 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I got this hardcover at Barnes and Noble; it's a special edition with some bonus material, and with really lovely artwork on the endpapers. I've enjoyed the series since I first stumbled across it, and look forward to another visit to Three Pines.
This book follows on the events of Kingdom of the Blind.
Later: While it's nice to visit the cast of characters again, and to see how they're coping with some pretty drastic changes in their work and personal lives, this story wasn't as compelling as some of the previous books. The crux is the mystery surrounding a missing woman, a battered wife whose brutal husband is uncooperative, and whose bereaved father is desperate. One of Gamache's colleagues is a friend of the father and urges him to help - now that he's back in the police force as a mere detective! - and he gives it a shot, though the rising floodwaters that threaten to plunge the entire region into disaster make for a troubling backdrop.
There's a lot of good banter among the friends and colleagues, and some painful examples of social media and the ways in which it can be warped one way or another. The actual plot had perhaps one more twist than was necessary or satisfactory, and I suffered a bit from plot-twist fatigue by the time we got to the actual end. The book does raise some good points about people from abusive households and the challenges they face in making a break for it, but overall I didn't find this one among the best of the series. [The scenes wherein several people make mental notes about the near-legendary closeness of Jean-Guy and Gamache were touching, but did seem to go a teensy bit too far at times. I like their relationship too, but it doesn't need to be a "liege for the ages" kind of thing.]
Oh, I should add that the book started with a veritable flurry of F-bombs - some of them from expected sources (Ruth the curmudgeonly poet and her beloved duck), but others from a variety of sources, so many that I suspect the author may have been having a little fun...
This book follows on the events of Kingdom of the Blind.
Later: While it's nice to visit the cast of characters again, and to see how they're coping with some pretty drastic changes in their work and personal lives, this story wasn't as compelling as some of the previous books. The crux is the mystery surrounding a missing woman, a battered wife whose brutal husband is uncooperative, and whose bereaved father is desperate. One of Gamache's colleagues is a friend of the father and urges him to help - now that he's back in the police force as a mere detective! - and he gives it a shot, though the rising floodwaters that threaten to plunge the entire region into disaster make for a troubling backdrop.
There's a lot of good banter among the friends and colleagues, and some painful examples of social media and the ways in which it can be warped one way or another. The actual plot had perhaps one more twist than was necessary or satisfactory, and I suffered a bit from plot-twist fatigue by the time we got to the actual end. The book does raise some good points about people from abusive households and the challenges they face in making a break for it, but overall I didn't find this one among the best of the series. [The scenes wherein several people make mental notes about the near-legendary closeness of Jean-Guy and Gamache were touching, but did seem to go a teensy bit too far at times. I like their relationship too, but it doesn't need to be a "liege for the ages" kind of thing.]
Oh, I should add that the book started with a veritable flurry of F-bombs - some of them from expected sources (Ruth the curmudgeonly poet and her beloved duck), but others from a variety of sources, so many that I suspect the author may have been having a little fun...
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at Little Free Library, Ohio Rd. in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts USA on Sunday, December 20, 2020
GoryDetails at Little Free Library, Ohio Rd. in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts USA on Sunday, December 20, 2020
Released 3 yrs ago (12/20/2020 UTC) at Little Free Library, Ohio Rd. in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.I left this book in the roomy TARDIS-themed LFL on this snowy day; hope someone enjoys it!
[See other recent releases in MA here.]
*** Released for the 2020 What's in a Name challenge, for the embedded "Bette" in the title. ***
