Apparently this was an interesting if not particularly difficult book for Ms. Penny to write. I am not sure if it was because of personal experience or just the subject matter but it is absolutely brilliant. If she is an artist and received a not so glowing review I say ‘whatever’! If you like it and it made you happy to paint it – go for it. This brings us to one of the topics of this fabulous mystery. Art has critics just like any other medium and sometimes this can be a make or break for said artist. I think most of us can still look relatively objectively at something and realize it isn’t the total sum of that person’s work but the artist can and often does have a fragile ego.

One of the heroines of the Penny stories is Clara who lives in Three Pines and has been knocking out art for over 20 years now. She has finally been recognized and has her own solo show. This doesn’t come as a surprise to those who know her but due to bad reviews years before she never really thinks her work is good enough. As a result of this self-deprecating thinking, Clara is physically sick about attending her own show. In fact if she didn’t have friends to literally hold her hand as she walks in, she thinks she would have gone home and missed the entire party. Suffice it to say, she makes it through, endures the false praise as well as the honest and is the guest of honour at a party in her home town afterwards. The next morning she is going over the previous evening and enjoying her garden when a body is found. The body is in her front garden and is a stranger to the town. The stranger is wearing a party dress but no one seems to remember her attending the party, or inviting her either. The more we learn about the victim the more interesting the story becomes. I really don’t want to give away a whole lot because this is such a fun book. There is the completely bitchy element of gallery owners who made bad choices, past relationships brought up as well as people who are doing their level best to change the way they have behaved in the past.

If you have read any of Ms. Penny’s previous books then the character development continues. We catch up with cantankerous Ruth, lovely Myrna as well as Gabri and Olivier at the bed and breakfast. There is a lot of forgiveness to give and take in this story as a result of previous books as well. It leaves you with almost a warm fuzzy. Enjoy!

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is fast becoming one of my favourite coppers. Set in French Canada our extremely humble hero is on leave after a traumatic experience. He is pulled into a local case due to not only his fluency in English and French but also his reputation which is stellar. A man known to all locally has been found dead in the cellar of the English library. He is a historian of sorts who has devoted his life to finding the grave of the man who presumably started colonizing the city many years before. Rumours start flying and the situation immediately becomes yet another French/English problem. We meet a raggedy bunch of volunteers who run the library but none seem like they have much motive. In fact, their entire existence seems to be surrounded by the library and keeping up the tradition so would presume to be the last people to jeopardize their world. Unfortunately they are the ones who have the keys to the place and there was no sign of a break in leaving the police befuddled. Gamache follows all kinds of leads and reads back into the history of the city whilst trying to exorcise the last case from his head. We read throughout the book snatches of conversations and how his last case went down as Gamache thinks of them. He was physically wounded but his emotional scars are far worse.

Meanwhile an old case is bothering Gamache. He gets letters daily declaring the innocence of a man they have convicted of murder. It is not sitting right with him and he sends someone in to investigate but on the quiet. This is where we visit all the wonderful characters from Ms. Penny’s previous books. The policeman he sends doesn’t particularly like any of these people and is dreading going in alone. He finds not only acceptance but also some great dialogue and even friendship from some very unlikely sources. This book is two cases told simultaneously so really two for one. The policeman he sends also is recovering from their previous case and so has a real excuse to rest and heal in this small town. Penny uses just enough description to give you a great picture but not too much that you get bored. How blunt it that? You can probably tell how much I like poetry – could never really get on with much of it. Anyway two thumbs up.