Bury Your Dead - Louise Penny

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny is number 6 in the Armand Gamache mystery series.  It is also far and away the best one so far - I still have A Trick of the Light and The Beautiful Mystery to get to, both of which have won much acclaim and awards - A Trick of the Light won the Anthony Award in 2011.  Bury Your Dead won the Nero Award, the Anthony Award, the Agatha Award, Macavity Award, and the Canadian Arthur Ellis Award, all in 2010.  It deserved every one of them, too. It is an outstanding mystery, weaving it's way between historical Quebec City, modern day Three Pines, Samuel de Champlain, the English and French in Quebec City, and redemption.

 Much of the novel occurs in the deepest part of winter in Quebec City, in the deep freeze which descends on the city in February.  The Carnivale d'Hiver - Winter Carnival- plays a background role in the setting. The Winter Carnival is one of the biggest festivals in winter in Canada (and the US), drawing in tourists from all over the world to celebrate winter. In the midst of all this revelry, Armand Gamache gets up at 3:30 am, and wanders in the deep heart of the winter night, unable to rest.  He has come to Quebec City to heal, staying with his former mentor Emile from the Surete de Quebec, who has long been retired. Gamache cannot forgive himself for a mistake in judgement he made, a judgement that had terrible consequences for some of his team.  Much of the story is told in an unfolding chapter switching sequence, with Armand dipping back into painful memories, finding his way to the central image that has so devastated him. It's the way the mind works with something painful, and it is fascinating to watch him make his way back to and through the events.  He is trying to find some way to live with the memories. At the same time, this question of judgement has caused him to look back on the case he solved just previous to the events of this novel, in The Murder Stone, where Olivier from the Three Pines was discovered to be guilty of a terrible crime. He sets his second in command  Jean-Guy Beauvoir, who is also recovering in his way from the events that torment the Chief,  to discover if Olivier is innocent, if Gamache's team overlooked some evidence.  This is all because Olivier's partner Gabriel refuses to believe Olivier did it and sends a letter every day to Armand that says only, Why did he move the body?  This kind of faith also moves through this book - faith that people have to sustain them, faith in the face of adversity, faith that something can be found that is good and worth protecting.

This is a book about uncovering the evidence to lead to the truth, and about the dead.  How the dead are venerated, how they are kept alive in our memories, how they can shape a place and a time, and even a province - Samuel de Champlain was the discoverer and founder of Quebec City, helped by the aboriginal peoples in the area (the Huron mainly) to survive the first winters. While Gamache is recovering, a laughable mad man who is determined to find Champlain's body somewhere under the earth in Quebec City, is murdered. In the unlikeliest of places, in a hidden corner of the English community that still survives in Quebec City.  So  in order to find out who killed him and not set of hysteria and chaos in the media, Gamache is asked to lend unofficial assistance as he is there and can speak better English than the officers in the Quebec City police force investigating the crime do. Gamache is able to speak to the tiny English community where the murder took place.  The English in Quebec city are an endangered minority, and the book delves into some of the reasons why, dating back to the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, when Montcalm lost to Wolfe. Gamache wonders through the book, how did Montcalm feel, when the English did the impossible, the unexpected, and climbed the cliff walls to surround the much larger French army on the Plains?  When he sent for reinforcements, but they never came? While a small part of the novel, it is this interest in the history around him that makes this mystery stand out. Gamache ponders Wolfe, Montcalm, and how the battle was won and lost, and how the English came to rule Quebec City and Canada, against the odds. He compares the battle Montcalm lost, with the errors in judgement he made himself. How can he bury the dead if he can't forget what happened?  Much of this book is about characters who can't forget what happened, and how they have to learn to let go and bury their dead, or they get stuck and can't move into what is good in life. Powerful thoughts in this mystery.

This setting, in the heart of old Quebec City, where Samuel de Champlain is thought to be buried, where the battle of the Plains of Abraham was fought that decided the course of a country, is unique in major mysteries published. I can't think of another mystery that covers this kind of politics and history and murder, set in Canada.  It makes for fascinating reading - plus a bit of homesickness for me, for I spent three years as a teenager living in Quebec City, graduating from high school (secondary school in Quebec) there.  It is a beautiful city, and reading this book took me back to Winter Carnivals I had attended long ago, and the old walled city, and the Plains of Abraham, that my school bus drove by every day to and from our high school. I went to one of the three English high schools then in Quebec City.

 Bury Your Dead is a very good title for this book.  It's like a book of Gamache thinking over what happened to him, and this grief gives a kind of purity to his thoughts. We get a glimpse of how he thinks, and sees the world, and of what a kind, gentle, thoughtful man he is - and yet finds so difficult to forgive himself his failures.  There are all kinds of acts of faith in this book, from Renaud, the man digging for Champlain's burial place, to the faith of  Reine Marie and Emile in letting Armand have his space and heal at his own pace, to the Literary and Historical Society deep in the heart of the city, the last bastion of English language books and history that still survives, and the faith of the people who keep the library going against all odds. It's also the faith of Gabri in his partner, and the faith that Jean-Guy places in the Chief, that the whole team places in him.  And how Armand finds his way to peace so he can rejoin life again.  It's a  beautiful mystery,

I read this a few weeks ago, and I have not been able to forget it.  It is an outstanding mystery.  It is one of my books of the year, too, I know that already. 

Books I'm Waiting For, Part 2

Yesterday I posted about some books I was waiting for to come out in softcover, hopefully mass market size.  While I would love to be able to buy new books in hard cover, unfortunately my budget doesn't permit it except on occasion, and right now, my arthritic knees are so inflamed that any extra weight that I carry makes them ache so much more , that hard covers are out right now for me, except at home. So, while I seem impatient for books to come out, its because they are there, only I just can't quite get to them until they are in soft cover!  and sometimes it takes AGES.

So there I was, lying in bed after writing my post, and I suddenly thought: The Fault is in Our Stars!  I forgot to mention it!  How could I???  So herewith, is my second list of more books I am waiting come out in soft cover this summer/fall:


The Fault  In Our Stars - John Green July 24/12  (I am so excited!  I've wanted to read this ever since it came out!)
Black Skies (newest title out) - Arnaldur Indridason ***this will be in trade softcover.  Yaay!
Outrage  -           "         "      July 3/12  (as I said yesterday, only a month to go!)           
A Beautiful Mystery - Louise Penny - Aug/12 (hardcover, but for all you lovely Gamache fans who can read hard covers, lucky lucky you....newest one in two months!)
A Trick of the Light - Louise Penny - FINALLY - July 3/12
The Twelve - Justin Cronin Oct 16/12
11.22.63- Stephen King - No date yet...  sob....for the softcover.....
Boy in the Suitcase - Lene Kaarberbol Sept 4/121
Zone One - Colson Whitehead - July 10/12 (zombies!!!!)
Harbour - John Arne Lindqvist Sept 18/12 (At long last.....I  have been waiting so long for this one, it seems.  Ghosts!)
And his Little Star will finally be available here in Hardcover Oct 2/12

And look......Tana French has a new one out!!!
Broken Harbour - Tana French - July 3/12, and it looks awesome.

*happy sigh*  I'm sure if I looked harder, there would be more to come.  Is it good or bad that I have most of these lined up on Amazon so I can see right away if one is coming out? 

Apparently Peter Lovesey''s Stage Struck is already out in paperback (April), so I think I'm going to have to order it since I haven't seen it out here.

The Beaggar's Opera  - Peggy Blair - Feb 2013 (this is in large paperback already, the mass market is next Feb)

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading - Nina Sankovich - June 19/12! another one this month! at long last!

Sigh, happy happy sigh. 

****Edited to add:  for lists of new books coming out :(in any edition, all first time releases,) go to Chris at Stuff as Dreams are Made Of here, and Kailana at  The Written World here.   They both have super lists of upcoming new books.  ****I'll be waiting for the softcover editions a year from now.......lol

My first reviews of the year

I have decided among my personal goals, to review every book I read this year.  So in keeping with the newness of the year and that I've read 4 books only so far, here for review are:

1. The Unstrung Harp - Edward Gorey.  Can I just say, if you are a writer or want to be one, run to your nearest second hand bookstore and start hunting for this book?  It's perfect, and perfectly describes everything we go through as writers, from the way we do anything but put pen to paper, to the way we react when we see our book in the sale bins.  Fabulous and funny.  One of my favourite quotes:

"Mr Earbass belongs to the straying, rather than the sedentary, type of author. He is never to be found at his desk unless actually writing down a sentence.  Before this happens he broods over it indefinitely while picking up and putting down again small, loose objects; walking diagonally across rooms, staring out windows, and so forth."

This also has the benefit of being accompanied by Gorey's wonderful pen and ink drawings.

This was a Library book so I have one completed already on my Library Challenge! Recommended, recommended, recommended!

2. Lifelode - Jo Walton.  I couldn't  figure out why I couldn't find this book anywhere, until I found it at the library and discovered it had been written expressly for Boskone, the Boston Science Fiction convention held every year.  The New England Science Fiction Association are the publishers of this book, a limited hardcover edition of 800, of which Ottawa Public Library holds # 589. All this to say, it might be hard to find, but if you see it, grab it.  For anyone who likes fantasy, this is a fantasy book quite unlike any other, sort of like every other book Jo Walton has written recently.  It's fantasy, set in a medieval invented world, with a different kind of religion and making of the world, and the story is small: an ancestor comes back to her ancestral home and her actions threaten to destroy it.  One of the particular beauties of this story is that it is set in the domestic domain: much of the magic comes from Taveth, who's lifelode (life path) is to keep the house of her lord.  It is a path she has chosen willingly, as any does in the world of this book.  Everyone has the right path that fulfills them, and one of the fun and interestng ways in which this is domestic fantasy, is that hardly anyone is doing what they were meant to do.  They have given up their lifelode to do what is demanded of them by family, by relationships, by circumstances.  The wonder of this fantasy tale is that so many people find a way to step into their right path anyway.

I really enjoyed this fantasy.  The religion, the gods, the setting of the manor house, the way in which the harvest is depicted, the villagers helping the lord out in return for his protection, and most of all, the long look  at the heart of the manor, which is the kitchen and all that goes on there.  Taveth is the main heroine. Part of her magic is that she can see all the past and future of a person by the shadow selves that pop out around someone.  Everyone in this world has a gift, and part of their growing up is learning about it as well as about what they are to do in the world.  It sounds simple, and it's not.  It's magic, and what life is about - happiness, love, choice, where guests are going to sleep, is there enough food, and making sure everyone is cared for.  Even though Teveth can see the future selves, she can't prevent or even act to change the future because she doesn't know what leads to it.

Very fun, and a little bit different, and recommended.

This is part of the Library Challenge, and the Canadian Challenge 4.

3. Hypothermia - Arnaldur Indridason.  Detective Erlendur investigates a suicide that isn't quite normal - just the slightest intuition that something is off.  He also goes back over one more time two old missing person cases, because it's been over 20 years now, and the parents are dying in one case.

Hypothermia is a state that Canadians grow up being cautioned about from the earliest days in childhood: what the danger of extreme cold is, what the signs of freezing are, and when you should come in from the cold.  Hypothermia is the state of slowly growing colder, of the body parts shutting down until you freeze to death.  Hypothermia is also what almost killed Erlendur when he was lost in the blizzard when he was a boy.  It still affects him today, the nearness of death and escaping when his brother didn't, and in this book we see Erlendur talk about what it has done to him, and why he couldn't stay in his marriage.  It is fascinating and sad, and even if you have never experienced cold, you will have suffered loss at some point in your life and so this becomes a story about grief and loss, and how people never really recover from tragedy, though they do find ways to move on.  In the end, I was most surprised to discover that I think Erlendur is a romantic, because he won't, he can't, give up on these cases.  He is not a flowers-and -cards romantic, far from it!  It's in his soul though, the ability to care and keep caring long after all hope is gone. This series, and the writing also, keep getting better and better. If I didn't already have my love Harry Hole, Erlendur would be a close competitor.  I must have a thing for lonely police detectives who stand guard against the darkness of the world. 

4. The Serpent Pool - Martin Edwards.  This is the 4th Hannah Scarlett and Daniel Kind mystery novel.  I have to admit up front that I found it disappointed me in one area, though overall it is good.  The problem I have with this mystery is that Hannah's partner, Marc Amos, should be questioned when it turns out he has a link to an old case Hannah is investigating.  Hannah decides she doesn't want to question him that night, and then the action takes over.  Not only do I have a problem with Hannah's decision, but I found myself distracted, thinking that Hannah should at least go to her superior and let her know of her conflict-of-interest and have someone else assigned to questioning Marc, if not get herself removed from the case. She doesn't, and I don't like this, because wouldn't normally the first accusation be that she was hiding information about him from the investigation? Impeding it? Otherwise, it is quite an interesting mystery, with gruesome killings and the slow falling apart of Hannah's and Marc's relationship.  Despite the flaw this is still a good mystery and given the high quality of the previous books, I hope it's a one-off.  Recommended, with reservation.

This leads me to the last review for tonight, another mystery I read last year from a favourite author who also had a problem with her mystery, I thought.

5. The Murder Stone - Louise Penny.  Normally I love Armand Gamache and the Quebec woods setting.  The Murder Stone is no different - set in an historic hunting lodge deep in the Quebec woods, Armand and his wife Reine-Marie have gone to celebrate their wedding anniversary, as they do every year.  Only this time a whole other family have also come at the same time, and when one of them turns up dead, and it's plainly not accidental or suicide, the Surete du Quebec must be called in.  So far, so good.  But stop me if I'm wrong, shouldn't Armand and his wife be investigated?  This is a 'locked-room' mystery, where there is a known set of guests, hotel workers etc in the remote countryside.  Even though Armand and his wife have no obvious links to the murdered victim, they should still be investigated and cleared.  However, Armand is put in charge of the investigation!  I really think he wouldn't be allowed to lead it.  He should have been side-lined and worked from the inside (because he is Armand and Chief Inspector, he would never stand idly by, but get involved anyway) to find the killer. So once again, I am left wondering, is it me? do both of these mysteries seem to have a fairly large hole in the investigative process?  Despite this, this was a very good mystery.  I enjoyed the locked room feel, the setting of the hotel in the far woods, the closeness of nature (there is a violent thunderstorm the night of the murder), the mosquitos that torment his second in command Guy Beauvoir, and the writing is excellent.  I really enjoyed this mystery over all, except for the blip.  We find out more about Armand's father and see much more of Reine-Marie than normal, and I quite like her, and them together, also.  Overall, this is still a wonderful mystery series, very well written.  Highly recommended, with one reservation.

This counts for the Canada Challenge 4.

I hope you are enjoying your first books of the year, my Gentle Readers.

Summer time reading is mysteries

I don't know about you, Gentle Reader, but this is a very warm summer where we are in Ottawa. Certainly the warmest for at least 3 years. We had a heat wave at the beginning of the month, which is over now. The temperatures have to reach 90F for three days in a row to be declared a heat wave. We have been hitting the mid-80's for the past several days. Today it's 88F and all the fans are running. What's a girl to do in the heat but......READ. It's bliss, pure bliss, to be so hot that all I can do is read.

I have discovered that this summer, I want to read mysteries. In January, I had set my goal of reading 50 mysteries this year, and after my abysmal reading in May (one book!!) I've been more determined to get reading. I've read 7 mysteries since May 30, 15 books in total since May 30. 20 mysteries in total this year. Almost half-way there! I have two shelves full of mysteries waiting to be read, series I want to catch up in, new series to start. There are so many mystery series out there, the field has exploded in the past twenty years. My local Chapters store has 5 long shelves devoted solely to mysteries - the middle of the floor shelves, that pack a lot of books in them. So I thought I'd ask you, my dear readers, and try to answer myself, this question: what makes a mystery worth reading? How do you find the series that you love?

Things I Look For in Mysteries

- layered plot
-intelligent hero/heroine, cast of characters
-well-written
-clues sprinkled throughout
- sense of morality
- asks why
- the crimes have repercussions experienced through following the victims too. so we see the cost in human terms, and we see the ripple effects in the community.

How do I find mysteries to read?
I mostly find my books through browsing in stores, reading reviews from various sources, and you, my dear book bloggers. You have brought me Susan Hill (I wasn't aware really of this series before), Martin Edwards, Elly Griffiths (still to be reviewed, very good first mystery), Jo Nesbo, Peter Lovesey, Christopher Fowler........My mother is a big source, as are my friends who read mysteries. I'm always looking for a new series to read, new detectives to bond with.

The five series I'm going to talk about are ones I've been reading this summer.

Susan Hill's Simon Serrailler series, Graham Hurley's DI Joe Faraday series, Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series, Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache series, and Martin Edward's DCI Hannah Scarlett series. These are all police procedurals. I've realized that I am attracted to the search for justice within the police services. In real life, men and women who join the police do so usually because they want to protect, to defend, and to solve mysteries. The detectives in mysteries represent the same ideals, I think. Each author brings something different to the their detectives and to the themes or issues they are interested in exploring.

Susan Hill: Like PD James' Adam Dalgleish, Simon Serrailler has a secret other life: he is a painter. He goes away on breaks to his hideaways and sketches, that he develops later into paintings. It sounds faintly ludicrous, that a DCI could be an artist as well as chief Inspector, but in Susan Hill's hands, it more than works. It is thrilling and like with Dalgleish's poetry, I really wish I could see Serrailer's art! I think that because Simon is at some remove from his detective work - he enjoys it, is passionate about finding the killers and bringing closure to cases - that, also like Adam, neither are defined solely by their police work. They bring a detachment that allows them to view colleagues and the crimes with intelligence unmarred by political ambition. It is also a way for them to hang on to their souls when faced with the hideous crimes and actions they witness every day.

I really like the Simon Serrailler mysteries. They are quite addictive. I have to know more about Simon and his twin sister Cat Deerborn, who is a GP and happily married to another GP. Their house is another sanctuary for Simon, who is single. They are actually part of a set of triplets, but the third child, Ivo, is in Australia and so far (end of book three) we haven't met him yet. There is a deep sense of humanity in the Simon Serrailer mysteries. The crimes, when they occur, are sometimes terrible. Hill is good at depicting all the characters involved in each mystery, all the secondary characters and their inner lives, and how the crimes affect them. I find this fascinating. The killer in books 2 and 3 is an amazing portrait of a psychopath. I can't recommend this series enough. The first three books I've read so far - and if you note, Book 2 and Book Three do follow on one another, so this series should be read in order.
The Various Haunts of Men (read and reviewed last year **can't find it, still looking)
The Pure in Heart - 5/5
The Risks of Darkness - 5/5

Graham Hurley - DI Joe Faraday is a widower raising a deaf son. He is also a bird-watcher, and the first book in the series, Turnstone, takes its name from one of the many birds that live on the shores of the beaches around Portsmouth, where this series takes place. It's how he gets away from it all, when he needs to. It's interesting that in today's crime novel, detectives need to have some interest away from work, in order to keep their sanity. Something to balance the horror.

Faraday is set up against DC Paul Winter, who is a lone wolf in the detective force. Winter sets his own rules, and has directly wrecked one of Faraday's investigations in revenge for trying to reel him in. In the Portsmouth police force, there is as much betrayal within the police department as without. Most of all though, is Joe Faraday, who still makes the effort to connect to the people affected by the crimes, and through whose eyes Portsmouth the ancient port, once proud Naval bastion of England, comes to grips with grim, modern life. It's not a pretty city, but it does have its places of charm and beauty, despite the rampant crime the police face. This is a nitty-gritty police series, where every step of the investigation is detailed, and it's fascinating and gripping. There are 10 books in the series now, I've read three:
Turnstone
The Take
Angels Passing 4.5/5

Louise Penny: Inspector Gamache is from the Surete Du Quebec, the provincial police force called out on major crimes. The first three books are centered around Three Pines, which for a tiny village has alot of serious crime! Three Pines is so beautiful and cosy that everyone who reads about it wants to move there, myself included. It's not a real place, but is set in the real countryside of Quebec.

Inspector Gamache himself is unusual - quiet, charming, intelligent, and very, very observant. He also has a team of detectives under him, and pulled from nearby forces for local knowledge and help, that come with him when he goes out on cases. Over the three books I've read so far in the series, we've seen Gamache fight for his life with both the criminals and from betrayal within his force. He is so good at his job that he has incurred much jealousy, and in the third book, The Cruellest Month, it comes to a head. How Gamache escapes, and how a seance features, makes for a very creepy ending. The Cruellest Month was very good. Gamache's team are interesting because they vary from novices to experienced detectives, so we get a range of what working on an investigation - and the mistakes made - as well as the leaps of intuition that Penny has so skillfully written that we feel brilliant too, reading these books. Very, very entertaining. Penny is my personal favourite of our Canadian mystery writers.
All three of her books that I read, are linked in the post I did on Louise Penny last fall:
Still Life
Dead Cold
The Cruellest Month

Martin Edwards: DCI Hannah Scarlett heads up the newly formed Cold Case Review Team in England's beautiful Lake District. Aiding her is Daniel Kind, son of Scarlett's former detective partner, Ben Kind. When the series opens, Daniel comes to the Lake District in an effort to understand a little bit about his recently dead father, and ends up buying a cottage and staying with his girlfriend. As he gets to know the locals, he often investigates on his own initiative, though by The Cipher Gardens, the second book, both Hannah and Daniel are beginning to be aware they are attracted to one another. DCI Scarlett views her position on the Cold Case team as a setback, a punishment for failing on a big case before the series opens. She wants to get back to the real work, in the serious crimes division, but has realized that Cold Cases have their own satisfaction when they are solved.

Hannah Scarlett is interesting and I almost wish we could have more of her. I like her personal struggles as well as her professional ones. She is not a detective who has it all together, but because of this, we get to see her learn about herself as well as her team and the part of the Lake District she lives in. Daniel Kind is a fun character. He is a historian, which in the books they make comparisons to being a detective. Because these are cold cases, of course Daniel is used to questioning and looking for clues in historical facts and stories, and he easily slides into finding local knowledge, though not without some personal risk to himself. It's going to be interesting to see how this relationship develops. There is danger of course, as secrets long held are finally exposed. I'm really enjoying watching the Cold Case team decide if they should follow anonymous tips or letters received about old unsolved crimes or not. I've read two out of the existing 5 books in the series so far.
They are:
The Coffin Trail (read and reviewed earlier)
The Cipher Garden 5/5

The others are on my shelf, waiting their turn to be read this hot summer!

Jo Nesbo: You all know from my previous reviews (see links just below) how much I love Harry Hole. He's the detective I've fallen in love with. He is the loner here, the wild card, the one who goes off on his own, protected by his immediate boss when he would be thrown out of the force - mostly for insubordination, and not always telling his bosses exactly what he's doing until he's done it. But he gets results, almost always because Harry is persistent. Dogged. Determined. Heroic in the best sense of the word. Certainly not angelic and brings about his own problems. I love how he wants the truth, no matter how much it costs.
The Redbreast
Nemesis

All the above detectives wonder at times what they are doing in the police force, and that the job isn't what it used to be. There is a melancholy about these detectives as they fight their often lonely battle against crime, against criminals who don't care they are breaking the law, and often battle elements within the police force itself - pointless paperwork and staying within the law.

Mostly, these characters have become characters I care about, revealing the world we live in, often standing between us and the darkness that crime threatens to pull us all into. All of these books are very well-written, gripping adventures, heart-breaking in places, with excellent characters and interesting stories to tell. I have the next books in all the series lined up on my shelves to be read shortly. It seems to be a mystery reading summer for me.

What are you reading this summer? Is it unusual for you to be reading what you're reading, or do you have a normal summer fling - beach read - that you reach for when the temperature is hot and all you can do is read? Where you are, have you found you've been doing more reading or less, in our above-average hot summer?

Monday Mystery Spotlight - Louise Penny

As promised in my post last week, I've decided to start a series of reviews featuring Canadian mystery authors. Even to dedicated Canadian mystery fans, there seems to be a whole field of our own authors that are sadly neglected, except in the occasional write-up in a local newspaper. I also had quite a few comments from last week's post that many of you, my dear Gentle Readers, are interested in reading Canadian mysteries. So I am thrilled and delighted.

My first author is Louise Penny. She is fairly new to the Canadian mystery scene; her first book was published in 2004. Since then she has put out a book a year, to ever-increasing acclaim and mystery award nominations. Her official site is here, Louise Penny. On here you will find her books listed, and the awards for each of them. I'm going to list them all here anyway, since I want to make this part of the regular features that I do. Her site is very friendly and welcoming, and she is giving a free draw away for her latest book, A Brutal Telling. Here is a link on CBC Canada to Louise talking about her books, here.

I saw A Brutal Telling this past Saturday at Collected Works (one of Ottawa's best indie bookstores), and it looks very good. A Brutal Telling is the fifth in the series, however, I don't have the fourth - or I didn't until Saturday. I looked with big eyes at my husband as I held The Murder Stone in my hands, the 4th one, just out in mass market size. Because I'd had a particularly difficult Friday at work, my husband said, "Go on, you know you want it," after I murmured about her being a Canadian author. The tricks I use to get books in the door sometimes!!! So I can't give a review on The Murder Stone yet, but I will give a brief synopsis on the last two books - including a very brief (one line! but the best ever for ) synopsis for The Brutal Telling.

I will advise here that if at all possible, no spoilers will be given away. I hate knowing what happens in a mystery before I've had a chance to read it! So I'll do my best to do the same for you.

I also have a confession to make: I didn't hear about Louise Penny until I read the review in the paper about her, and if I recall the article, it was featuring The Cruellest Month, and gave the titles for the previous two books. I also chose Still LIfe over another mystery because it had a big red sticker on it proclaiming it was a Winner for the CWA for Crime Fiction, and I thought, ok, it can't be that bad then. See how hard our Canadian mystery writers have to work to get read?

THE BOOKS
The series features Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec, which is the provincial police force. This means he is assigned to major crime outside the main cities - he covers the rural and village territory, where only a local police force exists in the larger towns, which don't investigate serious crime. When a violent crime occurs, the Surete are called in to investigate. He has a team of detectives under him, featuring Jean Guy Beauvoir, who has been his second in command for more than a decade; and starring a new recruit to the team, Yvette Nichol, and an officer from the local police force, Robert Lemieux. Enough about the team. The real star of the books is Three Pines and the people who live in it.

Three Pines is a fictionalized village in the province of Quebec, in the Eastern Townships. The Eastern Townships do exist, east of Montreal, south-east of Quebec City, just north of the border with the US. If you find the village of Sutton on a map, that is where Louise Penny lives, in the Eastern Townships. Here is a link to a description of the area. So for anyone afraid that there wouldn't much familiar - ie mostly French words or names, the Eastern Townships were settled by the Irish, Scots, English as well as the French and other nationalities. Most of the principal characters are either English, or bilingual. This is a mystery written for anglophiles, set in Quebec. which, seeing as that is endangered now (many, many Anglophiles left Quebec in the 1980's and 1990's; I was one of them), makes this a heritage series! What you will find is local Quebec flavour, from the descriptions of the woods, to the seasons, to the different festivities celebrated in each of the books.

One of the charms of the mysteries is that we see the characters, the village, the police, and the crime, through both the villagers eyes, and the police team's. There are many different points of view offered in each book, which gives a complete view of life in Three Pines, as well as allowing Penny to show the effects of the murders on different villagers and members of the investigation team.

One of the other elements is that Gamache has earned some enemies in the Surete, and the first three books is discovering that one of the team, if not more, are planted there, to watch and record his moves, and eventually to find a weakness to bring him down. This adds to the claustrophobic feeling as Gamache is unable to trust anyone outside the village in the police force, or depend on support, as well as having to suspect everyone in the village while investigating the crimes.


Still Life - The first book in the series. Nominated and runner-up for CWA Debut Dagger, 2004. Winner of the New Blood Dagger in Britain, Arthur Ellis Award in Canada for best first crime novel.

On Thanksgiving Sunday, the village awakes to find the body of one of the long-time residents in the woods. Who killed her? And most of all,why? Introduces the permanent residents of the village who we also see the mystery through, particularly Clara, an unconfident artist. She was one of the closest to Jane Neal, the victim, and her death has hit her hard.
Here is
my original review.




Dead Cold - Book 2.
Set in winter, through the Christmas holidays. This is a good mystery to read during winter time, if only so you can experience just how cold our winters can get! And the suddenness of snowstorms. Curling is one of Canada's winter hobby sports, and in this second mystery,it is highlighted. A spectator at the annual Boxing Day curling match is electrocuted, but despite the crowd, there are no clues and no witnesses. This was a thoroughly good mystery to read, with a mystery that was a real who-dunnit and why. So many people wanted the victim dead. At the heart of the village all the regular villagers are there, and we are getting to know them better, particularly the marriage of Peter and Clara, and how these two artists struggle to support each other's work. I find this theme of creativity very interesting to watch, and fully pull for Clara to gain some confidence in her work. I also really enjoy seeing how the village celebrates Christmas. There is a real sense of community with this book, and this series, that I think sets it apart and is part of its charm.
Dead Cold and The Cruellest Month were reviewed by me at the same time, link here. By the way, the Christmas window at Ogilvie's in Montreal does exist.



The Cruellest Month - Book 3. Winner of the Agatha Award for Best Novel. Nominated for the Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards in the US. (notice the absence of any Canadian awards for this book?)

The ghosts from the first book are still not settled. The old Hadley house, the house that is key in book one, the house belonging to the victim from book two, is still empty in Book Three, and everyone is beginning to think it is haunted. They are right; they are all haunted by the events of the past two years, so they decide to hold a seance. But something goes wrong during the seance, and someone dies.

I have to say the scene of the seance is a little chilling. And the village does try to heal from all the deaths it has experienced. Gamache too, also has a time of reckoning; the person behind the whispers, the betrayer, is finally revealed. I will say that I suspected who it was before the Inspector did, though I think this was the author's intention; she wanted to show that even the best of the best (and Gamache is generally taken as the best Chief Inspector the Surete has)has a blind spot, which is echoed by the murder investigation itself. What is the cost of love? And the fear of loneliness? When love comes into your life, in whatever guise, would you protect it no matter what?

This book is set in April, at Easter time. There is featured one of the most delightful Easter Egg hunts ever put into a book. I so want to move to Three Pines and raise my children there!! I'd run Myra's bookstore!!



The Murder Stone Book 4. Named one of Booklists Top 10 Mysteries of the Year.
Set in a hunting lodge not at Three Pines, the Gamaches - Armand and his wife Reine-Marie - have taken their annual summer holiday in late June. Another, very wealthy family, The Finneys, have taken up most of the rooms at the lodge, and when one of them is discovered dead, the Inspector is the logical choice to investigate.....that's all I know since I haven't read it yet! I read about 10 pages, just to get a feel, and now I want to read it all, but I have two other things on the go I promised myself I'd finish first. And Three Pines does show up, though how they connect, I am most curious to discover!



The Brutal Telling- Book 5. A Barnes and Noble Main selection for this fall, in the US. Also an ABA (made up of independent booksellers) choice also for this fall. (But other than being on the CBC book club list, will anyone in the Canadian Literary scene pay attention?)

I know nothing. But any blurb that includes " a trail of clues and treasures from first editions of Charlotte’s Web and Jane Eyre to a spider web with the word “WOE” woven in it" has me hooked right away. I really want this one for Christmas! That I do know.

To end this, this is a wonderful interview in Canada's national book newspaper, The Quill and Quire, with Louise, here.

And no, Three Pines does not exist. I would go live there though, in a minute, despite all the murders!!! It sounds like a wonderful village, and I think that is why it is highly recommended as a traditional closed-setting mystery in the Agatha Christie tradition. I love the different characters, the artists, the poet, the gay couple running the restaurant/hotel and bistro - some of the food described in the mysteries sounds so delicious that I get hungry reading the books!! The shared traditions of the village, the close-knit spirit of the community. And the setting of course, the forest all around. This is an excellent series for getting to know some of rural Quebec - and rural Canada, and how we co-exist with the forest and natural wilderness.

Next week: Giles Blunt

Canadian Mysteries today - Louise Penny up for an award!!

This was supposed to be my Sunday Salon post, but I got sidetracked by sunny weather and took my daughter to the beach to look for things along the water's edge. I found some interesting rocks, and she collected lots of mussel shells. So I find myself today playing catch-up.
What I wanted to write about is the Canadian mystery scene. It was actually a new blog I just found, Crime Watch, that triggered this. I was fascinated to discover that he had posted about Canadian mystery writing! Here is the link to his post, and here is the link to the newspaper article by William Deverell in the National Post that he quotes from. William Deverell is a Canadian mystery writer, and a lawyer, and I thought his article expressed well the dilemma we have in Canada regarding mysteries: they are ignored by our judges and book committees and except for writing programs at universities, ignored by them also. Mysteries aren't worthy of literate discussion in Canada.

I find this sad. I realize this is the state with all countries and their 'literature' vs mystery books being written. The US and England do a great job of promoting the best in crime writing though - the Edgars, the Agathas, the Crime Daggers. Sometimes I base my mystery reading on the award winners! And on the whole, this is excellence in mystery writing. The article and post got me thinking: what do we have in Canada? And why do we wait for others to recognize what writing is good here? And why is it so hard to break out of the genre world into the book world in general?

I don't have all the answers, of course! I'm a reader, a writer, and a former bookseller. I know something of how publishers promote books, I know a lot about people who read mysteries. However, I do not understand why our media pays so little attention to our own crime writers. Very occasionally is a piece done on the more popular writers, like Louise Penny - I found her because there was story on her in one of our newspapers. This was after of course she had won the Anthony and Crime Dagger for the first in the series, Still Life.

So what do we have in Canada? The Arthur Ellis Award. Haven't heard of it? I'm not surprised It's never promoted in the papers, or in the media. There is no spotlight for crime writing excellence in Canada. However, as soon as we are recognized outside our borders, then suddenly there is a newspaper article, or a tiny piece (maybe) on CBC, our national radio/tv broadcaster (but this is not likely), on the author. Here is a link to the Arthur Ellis Awards, from the Crime Writers of Canada site.

And here is something: I went to Louise Penny's website to get a list of her books for you, and she is nominated for another award!!! The Cruellest Month has been nominated for The Anthony Award and the Macavity Awards! Dead Cold (out as A Fatal Grace in the US) won the Agatha award last year, and this year The Cruellest Month won it. But do we celebrate this in Canada? Is it announced in the media? No. I had to go to her site to find this out!!

We write very good mysteries. We write some excellent fantasy and science fiction. But our authors don't get respected or acknowledged within Canada, by the media or by the Canadian Literature establishment.

Here is the link to the Agatha Awards, which are given for the best mystery written in the tradition of Agatha Christie. Fans of Maisie Dobbs will be glad to know Jacqueline Winspear won for Birds of a Feather in 2004. So it is quite an honour for Louise Penny to win for two books in this category, in two years.

So I've decided that as well as reading and talking about mysteries from other countries, I'm going to talk about Canadian mysteries. I thought I would spotlight some of my favourite Canadian mystery writers. I do have to caution you here: I too, had fallen victim to the view that Canada doesn't have good mystery writers. I was wrong. It's taken me a while, but I can finally say (and very happily and proudly): We have a really strong field of mystery writers, some of whom are among my favourite authors now. Every week I will post on a Canadian mystery writer. In honour of Louise Penny's nominations, I'm going to be spotlighting her next week.

One last thing: mystery is in the air. Nymeth over at Things Mean Alot has a post yesterday inquiring about what a good mystery would be to start with. If you have a favourite mystery that meets some of what she is looking for (atmosphere, not too graphic, good characters and not every questioned answered) please go and leave her a comment with your suggestion.

Sunday Salon - Finally, some book reviews!!

Good morning! It's the third day of May, and the leaves are springing out on branches, the geese are flying north, and it's calm here. After last weekend, this is a good way to begin the day! Oh, and it's now officially less than a week until the new Star Trek movie opens!!!!

On top of that, I have been busy reading. I didn't plan on taking a break, it just turned in to one. It has been so stressful at work for me that I would come home and read, and then read some more. This is good for getting to my 100 books read this year goal, bad for socializing in any way with anyone!

So I thought I would give a quick review of some of the books I have read, with my new rating system - 5/5 being the best read, 1/5 being don't bother, etc.

Riddle of St Leonard's - Candace Robb - Book 5 in the series
4/5 - very good historical recreation, characters, setting (York England in 1369), interesting mystery. I think i had the most fun though envisioning my York with the recreated one, and it was so much fun to know I'd been on Stonegate and worked there, and it was a main thoroughfare back then too. It was most interesting to realize that St Leonard's stretched from the Museum Gardens almost to the Minster in 1369 when in 2000 there is only a partial block of some of the hospital - really a partial stone chamber - left to visit. This was the first of her mysteries I read, which are sadly out of print now, so I will now have reason # 430 to haunt used bookstores in the future! Anyone interested in medieval England, enjoyed The Name of the Rose (for the blending of religion and politics), or has been to York, will enjoy this mystery.
****I forgot to mention the plot: Riddle of St Leonard's is set is 1369, during an outbreak of the plague. There is a series of deaths that may or may not be innocent, involving St Leonard's, which has had thefts and debt, and the victims who died were recently at the hospital. Owen Archer is the series main character, a spy for the Archbishop, and also for the King and Queen of England. He does not want to take the job on, as it is not clear there is a link or anything suspicous, and he is trying to protect his family from the plague. There is of course, a link, and the guilty party is as devious and clever as any modern killer. Very well done, very enjoyable mystery.*****

The Reaper - Peter Lovesey
4/5 - I have to thank the lovely Cath at Read-Warbler for this book. She'd finished it and rather than give it to a charity shop, she asked if I'd like to read it, since I enjoy mysteries so much also. So she sent it over the ocean to me! (Here thanks Cath most gratefully)
I'm not sure I could get this book over here, so this was a double pleasure for me. And it is a very good read. There are plenty of murders, an Anglican priest who is gorgeous, and the feel of a very small village where nothing goes unnoticed......except the unwillingness to and inability to recognize something could be wrong. There is an unexpected twist at the end that is chilling, and in a very fun way, a twisted happy ending. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and will be passing it along to my mother who also enjoys mysteries. I am going to look for more of his books also. Second-hand bookstores, here I come!!

Dead Cold and The Cruellest Month - Louise Penny - series catch-up
4/5 for both. Set in the fictional village of Three Pines, Quebec, featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, these mysteries take place a year apart. Dead Cold takes place right after one snowy and very cold Christmas. The victim is so cold (pun intended with her body that is cold, and the weather outside that is so terribly cold) that no one is unhappy she's dead, not even her family. Death at an outdoor curling event - and no one noticed. I love how this series juxtaposes the quiet calm and beauty of the village and the fondness the villagers have with eachother; part of the charm of these books are the main village characters we meet , Gabri and Olivier B&B and bistro owners, Peter and Clara Morrow the artists, Myrna the bookstore owner, Ruth the famous poet. They provide delightful repartee and solid grounding against which the murder in each book is set. Other characters are introduced in each book, among whom are most of the suspects. There is old history of Three Pines in this book, and characters who leave and come again, as in The Cruellest Month. The author refers to past experiences in the previous books, so reading in sequence is recommended. I find this adds to the warmth and realistic setting of the books, that the characters don't suddenly forget previous actions and history. No one in a village ever does!

The Cruellest Month is set in April and features a delightful description of an easter egg hunt, and how Ruth adopts a duck. Of course, there is most hideous murder, and a thrilling seance in a creepy haunted house on top of the hill. Both mysteries have super atmosphere. The weather is also featured - sudden snowstorms in both books, very cold temperatures, spring blossoms and flowers. This is a delightful mystery series with a very strong Canadian atmosphere and setting. Oh - and Inspector Gamache? Picks the detectives who don't fit anywhere else in the Surete of Quebec (provincial police force) and guides them to becoming the best detectives. Throughout both books he is also being betrayed by someone he trusts in the force, and the reason why, and who is involved, make Dead Cold particularly riveting. I felt that The Cruellest Month didn't resolve in quite the dramatic fashion the author envisioned - in fact the whole setting of the denouement didn't fit and the inspector was entirely too calm throughout for my liking - but overall, it was a very good read again. I am a real fan of this series now, and am hoping my mother will pick up book 4, which is in trade paperback, for my upcoming birthday......I'd also like to move to Three Pines. Right Away. If it existed!!

Blood-Bound and Iron-Kissed - Patricia Briggs. Books 2 and 3 of Mercy Thompson series.
*Sigh*. Those wolves, Samuel and Adam. That vampire, Stefan. How can the author make a vampire seem sexy? when he's cold and dead? and charming and intelligent? and slightly heroic? And Samuel and Adam, who could choose? They are gorgeous and protective and masculine and thrilling and love her. What is even better is that it does get resolved, this tension between Adam and Samuel and Mercy, in Iron-Kissed, and that is done in a way that Mercy learns something about wolves and packs, and in a way that the wolf not chosen doesn't hate her.

Oh yes, the mystery. There was one. Two, one in each book. Right. You mean I have to discuss the mystery? I can't think about - ? Never mind.

Blood-Bound: The second book is chilling. The vampire with a demon controlling it is truly scary. I had no idea how Mercy would get out of it. And how she does makes for truly heart-pounding reading. I know that I couldn't put this down, that I was totally involved in the story, and very interested in the creativity Briggs has put into thinking about vampires and how they could function in their own society, or even if they had one. I definitely would only want to meet Stefan the Vampire, no others, but then I shudder at their victims, what an awful way to go. There is no glossing over that vampires to prey on people to eat - but yet Stefan is a very interesting character and I want to know more about him. He's definitely intriguing and those words he mutters to Mercy......I think book 4 features him more......*fans herself* It seems that even being undead doesn't save one from power politics, something I will remember when I go into work tomorrow. I also like how Mercy chooses her own course of action, refusing to abide by most rules others try to impose upon her.

In Iron-Kissed, the third book of the series, this is finally discussed, for as the fae creature (I don't want to name who, but suffice to say a major Goddess of war makes a surprising appearance) comments, Coyote is the unexpected. Iron-Kissed is about fairy tales and myths, the dangerous kind: we have to go into the woods, but I'm not sure I would want to meet any of the fae that feature in Iron-Kissed. Oh, yes, the mystery: Mercy's former boss (who is a fae) is being framed for a murder he didn't commit, Mercy sets out to clear his name, despite being warned by everyone to stay away, except for one key character, mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph. Mercy is a Coyote - finally a little something about what her nature is, is revealed - but only in cryptic remarks such as the fae drop from time to time. I thought this enriched the books immensely. I really like how the author has created the supernatural world co-existing with 'people world'. The coyote remarks are about Mercy, but also points out about how the supernatural isn't something to play with - it is dangerous, as fairy tales keep trying to tell us. Mercy herself lives only because of her nature, because of who she is and how she can slide between the rules, as Coyote the Trickster does. This was a smart move on the author's part, to bring in her Coyote nature and the role she plays in these books. She also doesn't belong anywhere, and this is a thoughtful way of showing how Native American myths were displaced by the Europeans, and yet - they survive. This gives Mercy an element of natural power that makes it possible for her to survive all the attacks she does survive. Just as Coyote has survived the near-wipeout of His culture, and yet he's still there, surprising us with tornadoes out of nowhere, the clown who brings the truth, the unexpected - there has to be room for surprise, or things get too rigid, as the Goddess of war murmurs thoughtfully to Mercy.

These are very well-written supernatural books, ones I highly reccommend. They both come in at 5/5. My only problem? I want more!!! More!! I went from reading Book Two straight to Book Three because I just couldn't wait to see what happened with Mercy, Adam and Samuel. The mysteries are well-written and very good, it's the werewolf clan structure, the fae world, the vampire sett, that sets this supernatural series well above any others for me. As well, Mercy herself - she is extremely likeable, independent, and bakes brownies and cookies when she's stressed. She's like one of us! (except she doesn't read as much). Though a book does feature in Book Three....


Briar Rose - Jane Yolen (read for Carl's OUaT3 Challenge) - part of the Fairy Tales Series by Terri Windling.
5/5 Lovely. Despite the horror at the heart of the book, this book is about how fairy tales can be used to transmit the truth in a way that the teller can tell it, and the listener hear it, without having to relive the full horror every time. In Rebecca's family, her grandmother Gemma has a personal recreation of the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty that Rebecca, of all the girls, loves to hear. Gemma repeats it over and over. After she dies, Rebecca discovers among her papers that Gemma was in Europe during WW2, and she sets out to find what happened to her grandmother, and who her grandfather could have been. This was a very moving story about survival, love, and courage, and the people who died in Poland in the awful concentration camps, and other small villages where everyone was killed. Who awakened Sleeping Beauty? How did she escape? Why did her Grandmother tell only this story? Rebecca has to go into the heart of Poland to find out. It is as moving and horrific as any story, as every story, about World War Two. As with any story of the Holocaust, be ready to cry.

This is also a story about the power of telling a story, and how a story can give meaning to a life. If you had survived what Gemma had survived, what story would you choose to survive with, to pass on what you had been through in a way that didn't hurt the ones who heard it? It is a story in the end of hope, of survival - just as Sleeping Beauty awakes and goes on to fall in love and have children, so Gemma's life continued on. There is even love for Rebecca, who opens up to possibilities around her as she realizes the real gift- that the story does go on with love and children. "Sometimes living takes more courage than dying," she says to the man she discovers in Poland. And that's what Briar Rose is about, in the end. Both the fairy tale and this superb fairy tale retelling.

The Blue Girl - Charles de Lint (read for Carl's OUaT3 Challenge)
3.5/5 - I wish I could give this a higher rating. I am still surprised that I am disappointed with this one. For the first time that I can remember, I didn't find the two main characters, Imogene and Maxine, entirely believable. Imogene especially bothered me - not her tough nature, but her sudden recreation as she enters a new high school. I know that a teenage girl cannot hide her true character in high school. High school is brutal for the most part, and that's where what a person is made of is revealed. It's like a slice of life. And The Blue Girl fails not in the setting, but because no one guesses that Imogene was ever a tough girl who ran with a gang, despite her attitude and her skipping classes. I do like her for her imagination, her cleverness, and because she faces things head-on. I do like her friendship with Maxine. I know from Charles' afterword that he wanted to explore the friendship between two unlikely girls, and how this would affect both of them. So for trying it, and for telling a really good story, because it is, he gets the 3 stars.

The good points: the dialogue, the other characters, the story - there's ghosts, the dead, fairies, and very scary dark things with teeth in shadows. There's a lot to like in this book. It is a good read. And I like this quote, from Thomas (one of those very interesting secondary characters that Charles does so well that I really want to know more about!): "Oh, sure. It's fairy this and fairy that. We've even got CDs that 'inspired' by the fairies, for god's sake. But it wasn't always like that. The way my grandparents told it, the one thing you didn't ever want was to get their attention. If you did, you made sure you treated them with great respect. And you never show your fear." Now that, I like!

I think I wanted more - less Imogene being saucy, and more explanation of why she is special. Why can she see the dead, when she is not dead herself? where did all her tough manners go when she decided to drop that image? It's not easy to not let attitudes slip. And why isn't she unsure of herself? Most teenagers go back and forth from being secure to being completely insecure, often within the same day. And she's actually mean to Adrian, the dead teenager haunting the school. And I wanted to know more about Pelly, Imogene's imaginary friend who turns out to not be so imaginary, and I wanted to know more about the shadows with fangs. Oh yes, they were very interesting. I think it was the teasing both undergo in the school - the popular crowd and the toughies pick on them both, and other kids, and it is unlike Imogene's character to put up with it. That, and she physically hurts someone, and suffers no emotional repercussions. She says she will have to live with it, but we don't see her suffering from it. That is when the book stopped being realistic for me. Any act of violence scars both the victim and offender, for the offender at the least the first few times, and yet Imogene blithely passes it off and ignores it for the most part. This really upset me, and I thought it was wrong - wrongly handled, and didn't really belong in the book. It ruined her character for me, especially when she says she doesn't want to go to juvenile center if she tells the truth, so she lies. And she has all the answers - for Valerie, the girl she saves, for Brent who she attacks. What 17 year old knows the right thing to say all the time? Still, I liked her, but with reservations by the end.

So this is a solid book, with de Lint's trademark highlights, and wonderful Newford feel and fairies galore of the dangerous kind - they all are.

Well, that's my Sunday round-up. I am reading Possession, and surprisingly, really enjoying it. I tried many years ago when it first came out, and couldn't get past the opening pages. This time, I thought, well, Nymeth likes it, let me try it again, and voilà! So when I get it finished, she will get two points - because she convinced me to try a book I thought I hated!!

I hope you have a delightful day reading and with your family. It's spring, finally!