2023/158: A Fatal Grace — Louise Penny

[tamaranth]

2023/158: A Fatal Grace — Louise Penny

It was almost impossible to electrocute someone these days, unless you were the governor of Texas. To do it on a frozen lake, in front of dozens of witnesses, was lunacy. Someone had been insane enough to try. Someone had been brilliant enough to succeed. [loc. 1134]

Having very much enjoyed the first of the Inspector Gamache books, Still Life, I decided to treat myself to the second. (After reading The Brutal Telling, out of sequence and finding it jarring, I'm determined to read in order.) A Fatal Grace, set over the Christmas period in Three Pines, is at least as intricately plotted as the other two novels I've read: it also expands on Gamache's backstory, especially the mysterious Arnot case which, as of Still Life, was blighting Gamache's career.

The primary plot thread, though, deals with the demise of CC de Poitiers, New Age influencer and generally despicable human being. Nobody liked her, so the list of suspects is long: and as Gamache investigates it becomes clear that CC's whole identity, as well as her death, is intrinsically connected to the picturesque little village of Three Pines, where she'd recently bought a house. Gamache enjoys the reunion with his friends in Three Pines, suffers the reappearance of the awkward and uncooperative Agent Yvette Nichol, and painstakingly unravels the clues -- antifreeze, niacin, The Lion in Winter, a Christmas bauble -- to reveal the murderer's identity in the nick of time. All good: but unknown to the Inspector, his opponents are at work...

I enjoyed this novel, though had some reservations about the description and characterisation of CC's overweight daughter Crie. There's backstory for Yvette Nichol as well as for Gamache, and the latter's wife Reine-Marie is introduced, as are some intriguing hints of what might come next. I'm not going to rush into the third novel, but I'm looking forward to reading it.

Comments

[purplecthulhu]

I'm not suggesting you should look at it until you've finished the series (there may be spoilers!) but your description of the book makes it sound as if the TV adaptation has stuck fairly closely to the plot of at least this one. Once you're finished with the books it would be interesting to know what you think of the series.