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Monday, March 01, 2010

A Fatal Grace/ Dead Cold

by Louise Penny

Louise Penny is one of my favorite authors and I absolutely love her Inspector Gamache series.  I listened to this book with Candleman on a trip to southern Utah in Nov.  It was not his choice but he ended up loving it.

This is book 2 in the series.  I'm sure it is advisable to read this series in order especially to follow the continuing story of Gmache's enemies in the force.  Unfortunately, I've been reading them out of order and don't feel like it's detracted from the storyline too much.

I love coming back to this fictitious village just south of Montreal and reconnecting with the people.  They are real, flawed and multi-dimensional - just the type I would love to have for neighbors.  Most of them, anyway.  The setting makes me long to visit that area again.  It reminds me a a beautiful little town called Knowlton we visited that is real and is located just south of Montreal.  Absolutely picturesque and filled with charm.  That's how I think of Three Pines.

The mystery is complex and was hard for me to solve.  One of the things I like best about Penny's books is the wisdom sprinkled throughout.  I am going to need to reread this one so I can book dart those many passages I loved while listening to it.

If you haven't picked up one of these books in the Armand Gamache series, I highly recommend you do.  Start with Still Life.

A Fatal Grace is the title used in the U.S.  Elsewhere it goes by Dead Cold.  Why they can't use the same title is beyond me...

11 comments:

Zibilee said...

I am glad to hear that this author and series continues to impress. I have not read one of these books yet, but I have heard a lot about them and will probably try to pick up Still Life very soon! Thanks for the great recommendation!

Anonymous said...

I love Louise Penny's books. This one was good, I thought. Such a nasty woman in it, huh? Gamache has these icky characters that serve as a contrast to his goodness I think. Thanks for sharing!

raidergirl3 said...

I finished this one last month. Mine was called Dead Cold, but I like the Fatal Grace title better - it makes more sense.
Such a classic type mystery, I'm looking forward to the next one.

Framed said...

Love these books. I still need to read the last one I got for Christmas from my wonderful sister. :)

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

I read Still Life and A Brutal Telling, and hope to read this one too; great review.

Staci said...

I've been planning on reading this series!! Sounds like one I will enjoy for sure!

Bobbie said...

This sounds like a series I would enjoy. I have never heard about it and wanted to say thank you for blogging about it.

Jay Peterson said...

I love a good mystery and this sounds really intriguing. I'll have to check it out!

Cath said...

I've got as far as book 4 with this series and loved every single one of them.

SuziQoregon said...

I've listened to the first two of this series as audio books and just love them. Ralph Cosham is the reader and is just (in my opinion) the perfect voice of Gamache.

This one did keep me guessing a bit and I also liked the underlying back story with Gamache and his superiors.

Shelley said...

This is one of those authors that makes my brain go "ding, ding, ding"--I know I would love her books! But still haven't gotten to any yet. I'm going to look right now and see if there are any available at simplyaudiobooks.