I actually fell upon this book while doing some research for something I am trying to write. Ms. Penny has a fabulous website with helps for those trying to get published. Thank you for that! Extremely helpful stuff. Anyway thought I’d pick up one of her books to see what and how she writes. I was thrilled that she writes mysteries. Lovely descriptions of the setting as well as the characters without going overboard. I want to get straight into the story, preferably with a death early on, and not pansying around with the way the leaves look on the trees at different angles. You get what I mean, the whole point of the book is the story so let the games begin. Included are some likeable characters and some not so likeable but everyone living together in a small town in Quebec and mostly tolerating each others’ idiosyncrasies. First of all I was stumped. I really thought I had it figured out but she got me. I love that! Oh to be able to write that way a la Agatha Christie. The plot: a lady is killed in the woods and it is made to look like suicide, or is it? A team of detectives is brought in from the Surete in Montreal to ascertain whether or not it is a suspicious death. The Chief Inspector, Gamache, is a wonderful character and I am delighted that Ms. Penny is going to be bringing him back again.