#4 Armand Gamache "Three Pines" mystery set in Quebec. Gamache and his wife of thirty-five years are staying at a secluded, exclusive resort in the forest, where they've spent each of their wedding anniversaries. Normally it's a time of relaxation and luxury for them, but this time they end up sharing the resort with the wealthy and snooty Finney family, who are holding their yearly family reunion a bit early. Gamache and his wife are surprised to learn that the youngest son, who arrives a day or two late, is their friend Peter Morrow from Three Pines.

Trouble is brewing within the strained confines of the family, and when Julia Martin, Peter's sister, is murdered--found crushed under a newly-erected statue of their father, Charlies Morrow--Gamache must consider his friend (and Peter's wife Clara as well) a suspect along with everyone else in the family. Gamache moves his crack homicide team in, and they begin digging into the lives of all the cruel and eccentric Finney/Morrows family members, as well as the resort staff.

I love this series more with each book I read. The whole package--the author's writing style, the wonderful characterizations, the whole Quebecois culture, and the mystery itself, which I didn't figure out til the reveal. I did recognize important clues when they came up for the most part, but my brain just couldn't put them all together to solve it. Very clever! I much look forward to the next in series, which I have here and was relieved to see another forthcoming after that. This series ranks among my current top ten favorites. VERY near the top!

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I enjoy these mild mysteries set in Quebec Province. The characters are interesting and there is not a lot of graphic violence.

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First Line: "In the height of summer the guests descended on the isolated lodge by the lake, summoned to the Manoir Bellechasse by identical vellum invitations, addressed in the familiar spider scrawl as though written in cobwebs."

For once the action in this fourth book in Penny's excellent series takes place outside the charming village of Three Pines, thus dodging the "Cabot Cove" bullet.

Inspector Armand Gamache and his wife Reine-Marie are at the isolated Manoir Bellechasse to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Unfortunately the lodge is overrun by the wealthy, entitled and whiny Morrow clan, but the pair are able to shut the Morrows out and enjoy themselves. The obnoxious clan dismisses the pair as "a shopkeeper and his cleaning woman wife", and that's fine with Gamache and Reine-Marie.

In exchange for agreeing to take over some of the operating costs, the Morrows erect a statue of the deceased head of the clan on the grounds of Bellechasse. After a furious late night thunderstorm, one of the gardeners discovers the body of Julia Morrow beneath the toppled statue. How on earth was someone able to knock over the statue without leaving a scratch on its base, and who wanted to kill Julia Morrow...and why?

Gamache bundles Reine-Marie off to Three Pines to keep her out of harm's way as he calls in his staff and begins to investigate. The shock when the Morrows discover the inspector's true identity is quite pleasurable. What isn't pleasurable is the discovery that Peter and Clara of Three Pines are members of the Morrow clan. No wonder they've kept that fact hidden, for this clan was tailor made for Gamache to investigate:

'And Gamache? He knew he was neither the hound nor the hunter. Armand Gamache was the explorer. He went ahead of all the rest, into territory unknown and uncharted. He was drawn to the edge of things. To the places old mariners knew, and warned, "Beyond here be monsters."'


One of the delights of reading A Rule Against Murder was learning more of Gamache's background, of discovering what happened in his youth to make him the rather strange and very understanding man that he is in these books. What isn't so delightful is learning about the odious Morrow clan, one of whose members named her child Bean and hasn't told anyone Bean's sex-- and no Morrow has even asked!

"Are you kidding? A Morrow ask a question? Admit ignorance?" She leaned forward conspiratorially and despite himself Beauvoir leaned forward to meet her. "That's the brilliance of this. Their own ignorance is my best weapon."


That's quite a crew, isn't it?

The more I read, the more I sank into the characterizations. They reign supreme in this book. I sank so far that I totally forgot to gather clues and when the identity of the murderer was revealed, I was shocked. The explanation for moving the statue almost made me smack my forehead. Penny had neatly planted clues from the very beginning as to the killer's identity and methods, but I was oblivious to them all.

That's the power of Louise Penny. She's created an entire world, her own version of Shangri-La, and peopled it with so many fascinating characters that it's all too easy to forget that you're reading a mystery and supposed to be gathering together the pieces of the puzzle. For me, A Rule Against Murder is the strongest book in the series so far, and I look forward to the next, The Brutal Telling, with a great deal of anticipation.

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Another able installment in Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache series. These books make great light reading, with well-paced plotting and characters you'd like to know. The best "character" by far is the setting--the charming, quirky, friendly village of Three Pines. I want to go to there.

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Fourth in the Armand Gamache series. Gamache and wife Reine-Marie are celebrating their anniversary at a remote hotel, Manoir Bellechasse. They have been coming to this hotel for many years and are happy to take any room. This time they are joined by the Finney clan, who take up all of the remaining rooms. It is a reunion of sorts, in this case to honor the passing of the patriarch of the family. It is clear to Gamache from the start that these family members have issues.

A big part of the memorial to the father is the installation of a huge statue of the man in the garden. The small hotel is happy to accept this addition given how generous the family has been to the hotel. The statue is revealed in a ceremony but the next day daughter Jules is found dead, crushed by the statue. It had somehow come off its base.

It isn't long before Gamache has undertaken the case and brought in his team as well as local police to help. An unexpected help comes from Clara, artist friend from the village of Three Pines, who is married to Peter, one of the Finneys. The couple is there reluctantly as is the case for most of the other siblings.

It was not an accident. But how it was done is a mystery to Gamache. In interviews with the family members and hotel staff, he finds many possible motives, unfortunately.

I enjoyed getting to know Gamache a bit more with this case, and to learn more about Clara as well. Clara seems to be the main character in Three Pines, the one we really get to know. Their mutual friendship seems to be based on compassion and love of beauty.

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I have read all of the books in order, except the last one, which I will read next. I really liked books 1-3, but this one not as much. I think one of the reasons is because most of the story does not take place in Three Pines. However, Three Pines is a VERY small and cozy town and I'm beginning to wonder how many murders could take place there before all of the citizens decide to move. I also feel that maybe there is a deeper meaning to these books that is going over my head. I still don't understand why Bean used so many alarm clocks. Also, why does the chef feel the need to hide away from the real world? Could someone please enlighten me?

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