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The Beautiful Mystery
- A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
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The Beautiful Mystery
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Still Life
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 475
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 401
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The discovery of a dead body in the woods on Thanksgiving Weekend brings Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his colleagues from the Surete du Quebec to a small village in the Eastern Townships. Gamache cannot understand why anyone would want to deliberately kill well-loved artist Jane Neal, especially any of the residents of Three Pines - a place so free from crime it doesn't even have its own police force.
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On a cold November morning, a jogger runs through the woods in the peaceful Quebec village of Three Pines. On his run, he finds a dead man hanging from a tree. The dead man was a guest at the local Inn and Spa. He might have been looking for peace and quiet, but something else found him. Something horrible. Did the man take his own life? Or was he murdered?
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After a tumultuous period in American politics, a new administration has just been sworn in, and to everyone’s surprise the president chooses a political enemy for the vital position of secretary of state. There is no love lost between the president of the United States and Ellen Adams, his new secretary of state. But it’s a canny move on the part of the president. With this appointment, he silences one of his harshest critics, since taking the job means Adams must step down as head of her multinational media conglomerate
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 475
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The discovery of a dead body in the woods on Thanksgiving Weekend brings Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his colleagues from the Surete du Quebec to a small village in the Eastern Townships. Gamache cannot understand why anyone would want to deliberately kill well-loved artist Jane Neal, especially any of the residents of Three Pines - a place so free from crime it doesn't even have its own police force.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The accent mistakes were frustrating!
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On a cold November morning, a jogger runs through the woods in the peaceful Quebec village of Three Pines. On his run, he finds a dead man hanging from a tree. The dead man was a guest at the local Inn and Spa. He might have been looking for peace and quiet, but something else found him. Something horrible. Did the man take his own life? Or was he murdered?
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After a tumultuous period in American politics, a new administration has just been sworn in, and to everyone’s surprise the president chooses a political enemy for the vital position of secretary of state. There is no love lost between the president of the United States and Ellen Adams, his new secretary of state. But it’s a canny move on the part of the president. With this appointment, he silences one of his harshest critics, since taking the job means Adams must step down as head of her multinational media conglomerate
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There's a serial killer targeting the streets of Newcastle, seemingly picking his victims at random but subjecting them all to the same torturous end. When the Chief Inspector on the case goes missing, it falls on DCI Ryan to track down the man who is brutally murdering women and goading the police to 'catch me if you can'. As everyone becomes a suspect, Ryan and his team get drawn further and further into the case, but for Ryan the nightmare gets closer to home than he could ever have imagined.
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England, 1920. Eleanor Swift has spent the last few years travelling the world: taking tea in China, tasting alligators in Peru, escaping bandits in Persia and she has just arrived in England after a chaotic 45-day flight from South Africa. Chipstone is about the sleepiest town you could have the misfortune to meet. But then, from the edge of a quarry, through the driving rain, Eleanor is shocked to see a man shot and killed in the distance. Before she can climb down to the spot, the villain is gone and the body has vanished.
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The Great War is still raging when Francesca Hatton’s adored grandfather dies on his estate in England’s isolated Exe Valley. She is his sole heir, for her five cousins are dead now on the battlefields of France. Among his effects, Francesca is stunned to find a letter cursing the Hattons. And at the funeral, a stranger publicly accuses Hatton of murder. Who was her grandfather? The kind man who raised her - or a secretive killer? For in the back garden where she and her cousins once played, there is a white stone they always called the Murder Stone
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A warm summer Saturday. An amusement park. David Harwood is glad to be spending some quality time with his wife, Jan, and their four-year-old son. But what begins as a pleasant family outing turns into a nightmare after an inexplicable disappearance. A frantic search only leads to an even more shocking and harrowing turn of events.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Loved reading this book in print. Hated the audio.
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Written by: Linwood Barclay
Publisher's Summary
Audie Award Nominee, Mystery, 2013
The brilliant new novel in the New York Times best-selling series by Louise Penny, one of the most acclaimed crime writers of our time
No outsiders are ever admitted to the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, hidden deep in the wilderness of Quebec, where two dozen cloistered monks live in peace and prayer. They grow vegetables, they tend chickens, they make chocolate. And they sing. Ironically, for a community that has taken a vow of silence, the monks have become world-famous for their glorious voices, raised in ancient chants whose effect on both singer and listener is so profound it is known as “the beautiful mystery.”
But when the renowned choir director is murdered, the lock on the monastery’s massive wooden door is drawn back to admit Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Sûreté du Québec. There they discover disquiet beneath the silence, discord in the apparent harmony. One of the brothers, in this life of prayer and contemplation, has been contemplating murder. As the peace of the monastery crumbles, Gamache is forced to confront some of his own demons, as well as those roaming the remote corridors. Before finding the killer, before restoring peace, the Chief must first consider the divine, the human, and the cracks in between.
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What listeners say about The Beautiful Mystery
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- C. J. Mccoy
- 2018-05-20
Miss Adam Sims
since i have experienced other Louise Penny books read by Adam Sims this narration was a let down. Still a good story.... but does not make me want to listen to rest of series now. Think I'll just buy the books from now on
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Sheelah
- 2021-06-10
Another great story and disappointing performance
Louise Penny's developement of plot and character are as wonderful as ever, but Mr Cosham's narration is even worse than in the book which proceeds this one. There is a repetitive cadence and rhythm which is both irritating and sedating. But the poor pronunciation of the French names and phrases is inexcusable. i basically skipped through this book to get a sense of the story, but could not enjoy it on any deep or engaged level.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2020-02-24
J’adore Louise Penny et l’inspecteur Gamache
La prononciation au niveau des noms de famille sont à travailler « Francoeur » prononcé « Fransoeur ». L’histoire était un peu longue, mais une fin spectaculaire.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Linda Price
- 2018-05-30
PERFORMANCE
I have read and loved all of the Gamache series so decided to 'listen' to them all as well. Really enjoyed all the previous readings but by the end of this story and hearing Superintendent Francoeur's name pronounced horribly wrong, that's all I could focus on!! Could not believe that this was not picked up when someone 'edits' the reading! Hope this is not the same for the remainder of the series or I won't be listening to anymore. Extremely distracting! But I LOVE ALL THE BOOKS!!!!! Will definitely READ all the future ones!!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ken Seidman
- 2023-09-06
A literary tour de force
For me, as an art historian, psycho-spiritual philosopher, and traveller, who grew up in a country with a major mediaeval pilgrimage cathedral and have been involved with sacred music but not an active member of the church, this book hits so many points of deep importance to me. As a writer, I bow to Louise Penny as my teacher in spirit, for her ability to delve deeply into human nature, historically and in the present, and to feature so beautifully a main character in the inspector who is able to bridge all kinds of cultural and psychological gaps in the process of uncovering a murder. I highly recommend this book to those who are not addicted to quick action plots and the gory aspects of violence and murder. Penny is able to show that popular fiction can at the same time be riveting and beautifully literary. Her intertwining of numerous plots and sun-plots, running along different time lines, her descriptions of the different characters, laying out an array of motives for the murder, her descriptions of the spaces and the music, and how she ties it all together at the end with a surprising use of one of the most unusual symbols I’ve come across, leaves me breathless. And so grateful.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2023-01-09
Fabulous
Fabulous author! Intricately woven storylines and rich well developed characters. Love the voice of the narrator.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Katherine Hall
- 2023-01-03
A new surprise for us
Another great story from Penny leaving us with much to anticipate in the next book!
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Elaine Stubbens
- 2022-11-10
The Beautiful Mystery
At first I didn’t enjoy this book as much as Louise Penny’s other Gamache novels, Listening to the narrator I also fell into an interpretation from another listener who did not appreciate Ralph Cosham’s voice. After time I totally disagreed, his voice is soft, it ebbs and flows as I have imagined Gamache’s voice. I also became absorbed by the book, as Louise Penny drew me in. I missed the usual characters from 3 Pines, but anticipate the continuing story and justice to come!
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Teppy
- 2022-10-10
Interesting Story Line
I really enjoyed this booked but I missed my Three Pines characters and I found some sections extremely repetitive in what is the characters were thinking. I enjoyed it bit I was itching to get back to it the way I normally am.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- LP, Ontario
- 2022-09-21
Unfortunate narrator
The story is good, I went back and forth from written to audible as I went through. However, the narrator has a habit of adding "uh" to the start of some sentences, which is distracting. Also, there was virtually no audible difference distinguishing between characters, which was tough when dialog was back and forth. I had not listened to the sample first, unfortunately.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Carole T.
- 2012-08-29
Something Rather Different from Louise Penny
I am a great fan of the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny. "The Beautiful Mystery" is, I think, a not-all-together-successful attempt to move the story along while touching on a different aspect of the French Canadian culture that has been so well presented in the books.
The setting and premise of the basic mystery here are quite intriguing. Murder takes Gamache and his associate to a secluded monastery on a remote island in Quebec. It's a place never visited by outsiders, and the residents have a tradition of silence except for the "beautiful mystery" of their simple yet glorious plainsong chant.
So far, so good. The basic story of this murder is intriguing and interesting, but the problem comes with pulling in the ongoing mystery in Gamache's past. This has been a part of the series' storyline that has always seemed weakest to me -- the conspiracy theory/police corruption incident that has made Gamache something of a saint and a martyr. Penny's attempt to intertwine these two story lines is sometimes quite contrived.
I missed the plots and characters of Three Pines, and hope Penny's next book will go back there! Meanwhile, I think all real fans of the series will want to read "The Beautiful Mystery." But don't start the series here -- it assumes a good bit of knowledge about Inspector Gamache's backstory.
One more picky little thing for those of you who, like me, ask for attention to detail. The music which opens and closes this recording may be nice religious music, but it is not the all-male Gregorian-style chant described in the book.
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65 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sparkly
- 2012-09-04
Engaging, entertaining, and heartbreaking.
Louise Penny has written a tale with all my favorite things - fascinating historical context, complex, emotional characters, and a good story. The cloistered monastery setting is wonderfully detailed, and each monk has a clear, vivid character (even the minor ones). The twists of the story, whether humorous little details or fast-paced dramatic actions, prevented me from putting it down. The murder mystery was a wonderful tale, with an interesting resolution and a strangely hopeful twist at the end.
The parallell story, among the regular characters, will be interesting to new readers, and almost overwhelming for those of us who follow the series. I noticed in her previous book, "Bury Your Dead," that Penny has a gift for imagining the most heart-breaking thing that could happen to Inspector Gamache, and making it so - drawing it out over the course of hundreds of pages, awful yet irresistible. This book is no different. She definitely has a gift for creating characters whose emotions are so engaging, so vivid, that I am invested in their well being.
I loved this book, but I do feel like I need a support group now.
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57 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cookie
- 2012-08-31
A Really Beautiful Mystery
Wow, Ms. Penny hit it out of the park.
Instead of getting stuck in Three Pines (like Cabet Cove), the good inspector is off and running in this lovely "cozy". Set in a monastery on an island in the big woods, where just like Eden, serpents abound. A monk dead, fractions split the brothers into battling groups, a very sad development in a sect devoted to prayer and singing. Mr Cosham give life and lyrics to our favorite characters. Suspend disbelief and enjoy the sun, cool shade and blueberries.
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25 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- connie
- 2012-09-02
You can start here
I usually agree with C Telfair's very good reviews, but in this case I disagree-- You can start here with Penny's Inspector Gamache series. In fact, I have been trying to get into the series for some time but hadn't been able to finish a novel. This one had the added attraction of the monastery setting, and it grabbed my attention from the beginning. Now that I've been introduced to the characters later on in the series, I am more motivated to go back to the earlier novels to fill in the blanks about the characters and continuing story lines.
I think Penny gets the exterior stuff of the monastery right, but I didn't find the portrait of the interior life so convincing compared to other classic detective cozies set in convents/monasteries. The setting still made the mystery for me-- I felt like was visiting the monastery in a northern Quebec autumn. And now I want more Inspector Gamache.
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23 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- judith
- 2012-09-24
Back to Three Pines, Please
Three Pines, Louise Penny's fictional village outside Montreal and its characters are so dear to me. I missed them! The research that went into The Beautiful Mystery was amazing, but I was almost glad when the book ended.
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14 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Susan
- 2012-09-04
Not so much
Having listened to all of Ms. Pennys book, I am a big fan. To be honest this was one I will not listen to again. The ending was so wrong and I would like to go back to the goings on in Three Pines.
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13 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Chip Atkinson
- 2014-12-31
Fascinating Music Lesson, ho hum setting
It's got to be me. I loved learning about the origin of written music and Gregorion chants. It's fascinating and well written into a good mystery. But I found myself bored with the rest of the story.
I wonder if Penny did too. Because she brings in Gamache's nemesis and that of his protege. So I give a low 3 stars.
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10 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Ann
- 2013-02-23
Hits You in the Head and Heart!
What made the experience of listening to The Beautiful Mystery the most enjoyable?
The unique setting; the use of more humor than usual by the author but always in the right setting and which never takes away from the drama of the story itself; the well-defined characters and the interplay that occurs between them; and, as always in a Louise Penny novel but especially in this one, the feeling of evil wending its way throughout the story, maybe just around the next corner, but never where you expected to find it.
Who was your favorite character and why?
There were several great characters, as usual in a Louise Penny mystery, but in the end it was Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. His powerfulness of character, his intellect, and even his frailness are front and center in this novel.
What about Ralph Cosham’s performance did you like?
His performance never takes over the novel, never interrupts it; he is flawless.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I cannot answer this question without giving away part of the plot, but I thought about this story -- am still thinking about this story -- long after I had finished listening to it.
Any additional comments?
Wonderful.
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10 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2013-02-19
Mesmerizing!
This story does not take place in Three Pines but deep in the secluded woods of Quebec in the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, where two dozen cloistered monks live in peace and prayer. The novel covers only a few days and is confined almost exclusively to the monastery. The real villain here is not the murderer but Gamache's boss who ranks high among the evil characters of English fiction. The strong relationship between Jean-Guy and Gamache is tested and the Chief Inspector's patience and real love for Jean-Guy are evident.
I enjoy the "Three Pines" novels but I also welcomed the break to a different world. One warning - this may not be a good place to start reading Louise Penny. Her continual references to the gun battle (see "Bury the Dead") may be confusing especially in an audio book if you do not know the whole story.
Finally I hope Ralph Cosham continues to narrate Louise Penny's books. He does a terrific job.
Now I can't wait for the sequel to this story. There must be one!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Linda P-C
- 2012-09-09
Louise Penny has a Beautiful Mind
Yes, it's a murder mystery, but as with all of the previous Chief Inspector Gamache novels, there is a certain peace that you feel while reading this book. It takes place in an isolated monastery that is accessible only by boat or float plane among a group of monks who have taken a vow of silence - except for their Gregorian-style chants. The pacing is perfect and as the investigation takes place, both the Chief Inspector and Jean-Guy Beauvoir are still dealing with the not only the machinations of the Surete but also the physical and emotional aftermath of a previous raid in which they were both injured.
This book is a lovely 'read' - the narration is perfect - a very good mystery (it took me right until the end to even get a clue!), and a wonderful way to spend some leisure time. I DID miss Three Pines and the people there, but I am hopeful that we will get to "see" them all again soon.
Recommended.
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