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A Fatal Grace: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel: 2

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It’s a lot like one of those Florida senior villages, where the staff always tries to shut out all the nasty shadows of life. If the village of Three Pines truly existed, would you want to live there? Why or why not? How does Christmas bring out the best or the worst in any of the villagers?

A Fatal Grace: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel (A Chief A Fatal Grace: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel (A Chief

Just because it’s the truth doesn’t make it less insulting. ― Louise Penny, A Fatal Grace The Perfect Murder in A Fatal Grace But her silence remained, eloquent, her face impassive. Anything CC didn't like didn't exist. That included her husband and her daughter. It included any unpleasantness, any criticism, any harsh words not her own, any emotions. CC lived, Saul knew, in her own world, where she was perfect, where she could hide her feelings and hide her failings.Description: Welcome to winter in Three Pines, a picturesque village in Quebec, where the villagers are preparing for a traditional country Christmas, and someone is preparing for murder.

Three Pines Review: Alfred Molina as Gamache, Louise Penny

There is a point near the end of the novel where Gamache sits down to speak with Émilie Longpré, one of the three town matriarchs. It’s not surprising that they talked of life and death, considering Gamach is investigating a murder and considering the way-up-there age of Madame Longpré. The second in the mystery series by Louise Penny set in the small Québécois town of Three Pines, featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police force for Quebec: What do you make of Gamache’s relationships with the different members of his team, from Beauvoir to Nichol? The execution method in question is what prompted the need for Gamache’s expertise on this one. The victim was electrocuted in the middle of a frozen lake while watching the annual curling tournament, right in front of the entire village. Naturally, none of them saw anything, and if anyone did, they might just keep it to themselves considering CC’s reputation.A few days later it is Christmas Eve in Three Pines, with shortbread stars (Louise’s books always make me hungry) and carolers and a midnight service at St. Thomas’s church, where a child starts to sing with angelic purity. The singer is CC’s daughter, wearing a grotesque pink sundress but with bliss on her face. After the service, the whole village can hear CC berating Crie as a “stupid, stupid girl. You humiliated me. They were laughing at you, you know.” CC’s gutless father barely utters a protest. In this same conversation, Madame Longpré says this: “I only became really happy after my family was killed.” Now that I have read every book in the series, I am even more convinced that the village of Three Pines sounds like a perfect place to live and the characters in these books feel like people I have known for years. Every book gets better and I just hope this series never ends!

A Fatal Grace | Chief Inspector Gamache Series Series Re-Read: A Fatal Grace | Chief Inspector Gamache Series

Something I think is very interesting is that Gamache did something in the past that ended any upward movement of his career. He accepts it and is a very happy guy anyway, either because of or in spite of continuous inner reflection. There is trouble brewing in the future and he knows it. People are scheming to take him down even further than a stalled career. I want to know more and I want to know what Gamache plans to do about it. The fictional town is inspired by Penny’s hometown of Knowlton, Que., a tourist hotspot where locals now offer tours for hundreds of dollars a day. To capture the unique cinematography, the Prime Video Canada adaption filmed in Montreal and in the Quebec Eastern Townships in a village called Saint-Armand, which is about 45 minutes from Knowlton. When Gamache meets Émilie Longpré—age 82, captain of the curling team, and one of Clara’s Three Graces—and her dog, Henri, on an early morning walk, she tells him about an encounter with CC at Mother’s meditation center, where CC arrogantly proclaimed that since she was calling her own book and company Be Calm, Mother would have to change the name of her center or perhaps close it altogether. After breakfast, the tiny Émilie gives Gamache & co. a curling lesson that convinces even Beauvoir, who has always scoffed at curling as a sport, that it’s a lot harder than it looks. And Gamache, who finally grasps what it meant when the 78-year-old Mother loudly “cleared the house” at the curling match, suddenly knows how the murderer got away with it. Remarkably, Penny manages to top her outstanding debut. Gamache is a prodigiously complicated and engaging hero, destined to become one of the classic detectives. Saul looked at it, not for the first time. She'd dragged it out of her huge purse every five minutes for the past few days. In busi¬¨ness meetings, dinners, taxi rides through the snowy streets of Montreal, CC'd suddenly bend down and emerge triumphant, holding her creation as though another virgin birth.Unfortunately, my annoyances with the series grew, not lessened. The characterization is all off, it is full of half-researched assertions and pretentious nonsense. The only positives I can find is the writing and a reasonably good ending.

A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny | Waterstones

The book could well have been a novel about a small-town community without the murder mysteries to turn it into a picturesque magical, although imaginery, place. The author enhanced the story with multilevels of intrigue and suspense. For a small romantic village, there seems to be quite an extraordinary number of murders! Welcome to winter in Three Pines, a picturesque village in Quebec, where the villagers are preparing for a traditional country Christmas, and someone is preparing for murder. Nobody likes the victim of the murder, which makes the job harder for Gamache. As a reader, I was cheering for Gamache to solve the crime, but not because of the unlikeable CC de Poiters. She was as different a character from the victim of the first book, Jane, as you could possibly be. I wonder if Louise Penny's editors said, 'Give us another cozy murder, but different.' Well, she delivered.Gamache: “I knew then I was in the company of people who loved not only books, but words. Spoken, written, the power of words.” CONCLUSION I also love the way Louise focuses on the power of words, from the literal handwriting on more than one wall, to the hidden meanings of names like Mother, Elle, and Crie (what kind of parents would name a child that?), to the ways that words can kill or heal. I also marvel that someone like me, who is at least as much of a skeptic as Jean-Guy Beauvoir, can find myself wondering about such mysteries as lemon meringue pie. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

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