BS: Louise Penny, Three Pines mystery series

Subject: RE: BS: Louise Penny, Three Pines mystery series
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 Jan 17 - 12:58 PM

I guess I am the last person to notice this, but I will link to it anyhow.

death of Louise Penny's husband   NOT WORKING

sorry about that. Easy to pull up with a Google search. He died in late September.

Subject: RE: BS: Louise Penny, Three Pines mystery series
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Sep 16 - 03:09 PM

Not all of the Three Pines murder mysteries are of equal weight or appeal. Some of the installments seem to wander far afield, and these polarize readers, who either hate them or love them.

Two good examples of same are: The Beautiful Mysteries, and The Long Way Home. The first focuses largely on Gregorian plainchant, which is not to every taste: the murder takes place inside a strictly enclosed monastic community. The second focuses on the visual arts and speculative thought, and literally flies from Quebec to Scotland and back. I had a hard time with that one myself.

While I would not dream of spoiling A Great Reckoning, this is an opportune moment to direct readers to an earlier book that holds a key to the big reveal in A Great Reckoning's final pages. That earlier book is A Trick of the Light. Both that earlier book and this book make much of falling from grace, repentance, and redemption, or the refusal of redemption. What Inspector Gamache learns while solving the Three Pines murder in A Trick of the Light directly informs Gamache's unorthodox decision in A Great Reckoning. And the latest book is one of those which, once you know who did what to whom and why, you want to go straight back and read all over again from the beginning: recommended.

Subject: RE: BS: Louise Penny, Three Pines mystery series
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Sep 16 - 03:09 PM

Not all of the Three Pines murder mysteries are of equal weight or appeal. Some of the installments seem to wander far afield, and these polarize readers, who either hate them or love them.

Two good examples of same are: The Beautiful Mysteries, and The Long Way Home. The first focuses largely on Gregorian plainchant, which is not to every taste: the murder takes place inside a strictly enclosed monastic community. The second focuses on the visual arts and speculative thought, and literally flies from Quebec to Scotland and back. I had a hard time with that one myself.

While I would not dream of spoiling A Great Reckoning, this is an opportune moment to direct readers to an earlier book that holds a key to the big reveal in A Great Reckoning's final pages. That earlier book is A Trick of the Light. Both that earlier book and this book make much of falling from grace, repentance, and redemption, or the refusal of redemption. What Inspector Gamache learns while solving the Three Pines murder in A Trick of the Light directly informs Gamache's unorthodox decision in A Great Reckoning. And the latest book is one of those which, once you know who did what to whom and why, you want to go straight back and read all over again from the beginning: recommended.

Subject: RE: BS: Louise Penny, Three Pines mystery series
From: JennieG
Date: 03 Sep 16 - 06:45 PM

A bit like the Midsomer villages, Roger......

Subject: RE: BS: Louise Penny, Three Pines mystery series
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 03 Sep 16 - 04:49 AM

I've always enjoyed them, waiting for the new one. Village seems idyllic but full of murderers!
RtS

Subject: RE: BS: Louise Penny, Three Pines mystery series
From: JennieG
Date: 02 Sep 16 - 10:22 PM

I love them......would love to visit Trois Pines, even though I know it's fictional!

Subject: RE: BS: Louise Penny, Three Pines mystery series
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Sep 16 - 03:15 PM

My better half is such a murder mystery fan that a smarter person would be worried about their spouse. I will refer this.

Subject: BS: Armand Gamache and company
From: keberoxu
Date: 02 Sep 16 - 01:48 PM

Just this week Louise Penny's latest murder mystery was released to the bookshops. I am losing count, this is either number eleven or number twelve. Over the years I have read each one of the books in the series. As I don't buy them usually, rather read what is available to borrow from the local library, I had to read them out of sequence: it is common for the library to have only the most recent books and not to carry the earlier books at the beginning of the series.

The author of these mysteries about Quebec and its heterogenous population has been playing a very long game indeed. This book, A Great Reckoning, is a climactic confrontation between two people who have known each other from childhood into their present grandfather-aged years. I went back to look at the earlier books, and found this relationship, with its conflicts and covert behaviors, raising its head in book number two, "A Fatal Grace." But this longtime relationship -- yes, one of the people is protagonist Armand Gamache, and yes, he makes it out of this book alive -- has bonds both personal and professional, and influences so many developments in the ongoing saga connecting the mystery books.

This book was a deeply satisfying read for someone who has read all of its predecessors. Vitally important to read at least some of them before reading "A Great Reckoning;" for example, "Bury Your Dead." You will need to read about the shootout at the factory in that one, in order to appreciate "A Great Reckoning" 's mock-up exercise for the Surete Academy cadets.

Would love to hear from anyone else who has enjoyed Louise Penny's mysteries.