A bit contrived...

This was not Louise Penny at her best. The plot was contrived, and because of that, the characters who have become old friends to the reader seemed somehow out of character.
We got to know Myrna better and Ruth was her wicked old self, but Clara and Peter's misfortunes around which the plot is built just did not work for me. Ralph Cosham's narration works every time!

11 people found this helpful

Only kept listening because I love the characters.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I think this is the weakest of the series. Slow and slower. Penny's books get into trouble when she leaves "Three Pines". I can't tell you how many times I fell asleep listening to this book. I adore the characters and only kept listening to be with them. Ruth would have tossed this book in the fireplace after the third chapter!

34 people found this helpful

Louise, what were you thinking?

I have long been a Louise Penny fan, although Ralph Cosham's superb narration has as much to do with that as the writing, perhaps even more. I admit to a growing weariness of the continued plot-line of "Conspiracies and Plots Against Gamache and Beyond", and was delighted when the resolution of that particular thread was resolved. It seemed that at long last we could get back to Three Pines and the gang, with a tantalizing mystery attached to a solid resolution as in Still Life and The Cruelest Month. Alas, it was not to be. An unbelievably far-fetched (farcical?) murder method, gratuitous violence which infuriated me, and an ending that had me feeling like I was watching a shell game (This! No, that! No, the other!) left an overall - and deep - disappointment. Guess I'll just have to go back and read the first few - excellent - books. Bummer!

39 people found this helpful

Ralph Cosham, rest in peace.

This review is all about the narrator, Ralph Cosham, who died 5 weeks after the publication of The Long Way Home. Cosham, a Brit by birth and an American by choice, was a journalist, actor, and audiobook narrator. He retained his British accent. Among the 125+ books he narrated are the first 10 in Louise Penny's wonderful Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series.

After listening to Book 11 in Penny's Gamache series, The Nature of the Beast narrated quite well by Robert Bathurst, I decided to listen to The Long Way Home again. For many of us who love the Gamache series by Canadian writer Louise Penny, Ralph Cosham was the voice of Armand Gamache. Listening to him performing The Long Way Home again reminds me of just how good Cosham was.

By the way, the novel is outstanding.

RIP Ralph Cosham; you will be missed.

35 people found this helpful

Disappointment in the series

Just how much can a person say with his eyes and his demeanor? The constant references to how much each character can intuit from the look of another character approach clairvoyance. The story line is not credible and if I had to hear one more reference to how a certain series of paintings made the characters feel sick, I would start to feel sick myself. The fear with which Armand approaches the problem he is asked to solve does not make sense. Now that he has retired, maybe it is time for the story line to be retired, much as I love Three Pines. The narrator is good, as always.

12 people found this helpful

Oh, so very boring....

Has The Long Way Home turned you off from other books in this genre?

Only if there is a genre for navel-gazing repetitive books that a word-processor could have written by randomly choosing passages from other books by this author. This line is spent, move on!

5 people found this helpful

Miss the complexity

Would you listen to The Long Way Home again? Why?

No, which is unusual. I can listen to or read every other book in this series and pick up nuances or just great writing I hadn't noticed before.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

No, there was no edge at all. But this kind of suspense is not what makes the Inspector Gemache stories so captivating.

What does Ralph Cosham bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He is Inspector Gemache - and everyone else! Truly marvelous, can't imagine anyone else.

Any additional comments?

I can't believe I am not giving Louise Penny/Inspector Gemache 5 stars and then wishing I could add a few more. But the characters were flat and repetitious and there was no density added to any of them. In previous books each became more substantial as the story flowed. Even the plot seemed one dimensional and the "muse" aspect overdone.

8 people found this helpful

Kept waiting for it to get better...

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No. I'm not sure how to write a review for this without giving away details of the plot. The story was incredibly slow, and the ending didn't make up for it. There were elements and plot lines introduced that at first seemed like they would add interest to the mystery but they were never resolved.

Would you ever listen to anything by Louise Penny again?

It's possible, but not likely. The story was too slow, the mystery was boring, and the main female character was so frustrating that I didn't care whether or not her mystery was solved.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Ralph Cosham?

It's possible, but not likely. It took a long time for me to become acclimated to his voice. It's nasally, monotone, and his accent makes him hard to understand at first.

Was The Long Way Home worth the listening time?

Absolutely not. I could have read this book in a fourth of the time it took me to listen to it and that still would have been too much time invested in this story.

Any additional comments?

Without giving away the plot, the resolution to the mystery was so unbelievable with the technology that was available that it actually made me angry.

13 people found this helpful

Better Than Therapy

Louise Penny knows how to transport us physically as well as mentally to places we have never been before. She is uniquely in touch with the human soul and all the anger, joy, angst, hatred, loyalty, betrayal, and love and support that we can imagine.

A very different story than her previous novels, this one is free from the tension and battles surrounding Gamache and others who were determined to ruin his life. It is a more peaceful novel in many ways, but still held my attention completely.

This story answers the questions about what happens with Peter and Clara Morrow. It starts in Three Pines with Clara confiding in Inspector Gamache, who is now retired and living in Three Pines with his wife, Reine-Marie. They take us on a journey with the help of a few other Three Pines residents through some of the earlier years of Peter's life. Art, of course, takes the stage front and center as layers are peeled back to expose the players and motives to bring us to the present. After finishing, and all was revealed, I went back to re-listen to some chapters, as I wanted to see what clues I might have missed. This is masterful storytelling!

The consistent voice of Ralph Cosham through all 10 books is just wonderful. He is the perfect narrator for this series.

Note to those who have not read any of this series--this book will not stand alone, It is the culmination of many previous books, and would probably not make much sense at all if you are not familiar with the characters. A fantastic series, it is well worth starting from the beginning and listening straight through to this one.

Highly recommended!

30 people found this helpful

Pointless Analysis

I wish I would have read the reviews on Amazon before selecting this, my first Inspector Gamache novel. Clearly the positive reviews are from those who have enjoyed the series from the beginning. I did not finish this book. It was slow moving, with endless, meaningless discussion of topics that were of little consequence. Ralph Cosham's performance was the only thing that saved this audiobook.

2 people found this helpful