Writing: 4/5 Characters: 3/5 Plot: 3/5
If you have liked every Louise Penny book so far, you will probably like this one, too. Gamache gets pulled into a mystery that smacks of domestic terrorism and calls into question everything (and almost everyone) he thought he could trust.
Penny writes taut, suspense-filled crime fiction with very accessible prose — this was an easy read for me — but I did not find myself enjoying it, and I’m not sure I will keep reading the series (despite the fact that I’ve read them all and pre-ordered this book in my enthusiasm!).
As the series has progressed (this is book 19), the stakes have gotten higher — too high. I preferred the highly psychological, small-scale, surprisingly twisted murder mysteries to these large-scale, conspiracy oriented, thrillers. At the same time, this book had a lot of filler. I love Three Pines (the town) and the many interesting characters we have come to love over the past two decades, but there were far too many filler scenes emphasizing the bounty of their lives: Many (too, too, many) food and wine descriptions, children bouncing around doing cute things, the love between our aging inspector and his (too) saintly wife. Somehow in this book this filler simply became too repetitive and too content-free to keep my interest during the many pages they occupied. Lastly, I honestly had a hard time believing that there could be a conspiracy to do something as deadly as planned, without any motive other than (apparently) power, that managed to attract so many previously decent people.
So in summary — second half a good crime thriller, characters had far less depth than they had in the earlier works; writing a little less polished — but an entertaining enough read.
Books to look forward to ... 