‘Kneeling in the fragrant moist grass of the village green Clara Morrow carefully hid the Easter egg and thought about raising the dead, which she planned to do right after supper.’
Welcome back to Three Pines, a village in Quebec only discovered by those who need it. In this, the third book in the series, the recurring characters are horrified when a villager dies of fright during a seance. It quickly becomes apparent that the victim was murdered, but who killed them and why?
What’s it about?
People’s relationships. The darkness in our souls. The choices we make. The usual, then, for this series and this author. Oh, and solving the death at the seance. Obviously.
This particular book explores jealousy and the concept of the ‘near enemy’. It made for really interesting reading and connected what ought to be the main plot – the death at the seance – to what often felt like the actual main plot, the attempt by the Surrete to ‘take down’ Chief Inspector Gamache. The take home message would seem to be “don’t be a really good, popular person, otherwise some people will hate you and try to harm you”, but that’s not much of a life message, so it’s possible I misunderstood…
What’s it like?
Yes, this is a traditional crime novel. Yes, there’s a final reveal. But Penny herself has been clear that she considers her Three Pines / Gamache stories to be tales about life rather than death, about ‘the price of freedom’ and ‘the struggle for peace’. It’s about the characters rather than the crime, though the crimes are usually nicely complicated too!
Nobody in these books* ever dies because they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Similarly, no one becomes a murderer because they are psychotic or mentally ill. Instead, Gamache is able to detect the emotions that have led to the crime. He ‘found murderers by following the trail of rancid emotions’. If you enjoy your fiction with a dose of philosophising, then this will be perfect for you. If you are looking for more gore or sensation, you’d best leave Three Pines aside.
Final thoughts
Like Midsomer, Three Pines is somewhere you’d never want to live – it must be the murder capital of Quebec and I’m sure by now Gamache ought to just move there and head up a new major crime unit – but it’s lovely to dip into the world of the villagers again. Personally, I wasn’t very interested in the reveals about why the investigating officer is so loathed by his work colleagues, but they help to form part of the overarching series narrative. As always with this particular series, I would advocate reading them in order if you like the sound of them, but this particular case is closed at the end of the book so you could read it as a standalone.
‘The Cruellest Month’,
Louise Penny,
2018, Sphere, paperback
* Not in the four of five I have read anyway!