A Fatal Grace (Chief Inspector Gamache)

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Don't look for the hamlet of Three Pines anywhere on a map of the countryside outside of Montreal, although Louise Penny has made the town and its residents so real.

In book two, there's another murder to solve for Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his crew as the repulsively cruel CC De Poitiers is no more. These people never act silently; there's always an audience, so there's always a pay-off -- when Clara does an act of, again, basic human kindness (in giving Elle/L some food) she ends up believing that God has personally come to earth to reassure her about her art. The tips of the branches seemed to melt or become fuzzy as though even in its confidence and yearning there was a tiny doubt. All ten hairs on her tiny wizened scalp were standing straight up from the winter static in the house.

What interests you most about the two murder victims, CC and the bag lady known only as Elle, and the way Gamache conducts his investigation? The dear old thing had hidden depths, courtesy of an author whose deceptively simple style masks the complex patterns of a well-devised plot. There’s a lot of references to film and literature, so it’s a literary mystery; Gamache watches The Lion in Winter--there’s a Richard Lion in the story--we reference Eleanor of Aquitane, and Leonard Cohen! By the time I got to that meeting, I couldn’t stop talking about how amazing Louise was, except perhaps to ignore everyone else and keep reading more of the story.

Penny ensures the reader is in the middle of the investigation, watching Gamache’s mind spin as more information comes to light at key moments in the narrative. 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.

Gamache is a chief inspector in the Sûreté du Québec, an honorable and complex character whose main approach to solving a murder is to listen. While not known personally to Gamache or his wife, her presence in Montreal’s downtown core could not be missed. He'd begun to suspect this self-absorbed woman had finally finished absorbing herself, her husband and even that disaster of a daughter and was now busy absorbing him. It is Christmas time in Three Pines but CC de Poitiers manages to alienate everyone she comes in contact with.

All of this makes her the perfect Christie-style murder victim -- the reader is glad when she's dead, but justice must still be done, so there's the pleasure of the investigation without the grief of a sympathetic character dying, plus suspects are thick on the ground because everyone disliked her. Heading meaning Three Pines reminds me of the movie Fargo, the people you met but this place Three Pines is so warm and inviting you don't want to leave, or put your book down as you wrap yourself up in the investigation with Chief Inspector Gamache. A Fatal Grace is the 2nd in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamach series by Louise Penny and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The difficulty was the sheer nastinesss of C C de Poitiers - she had absolutely no redeeming feature. She has won numerous awards, including a CWA Dagger and the Agatha Award (seven times), and was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Novel.The only part of this book that I found a bit off-key was a moment between Gamache and one of the town's oldest residents, Em. I was surprised and delighted to find myself back in the village of Three Pines for the second Gamache mystery.