This book serves as an introduction to Inspector Armand Gamache and takes place in a small town in Canada known as Three Pines. An elderly woman who has never been married is enticed into entering an art show. After the painting is accepted by the jury for inclusion in the show, she is found murdered, a hunting arrow through her heart.

A typical cozy mystery, the inspector and his team rummage through town turning up all the usual suspects - misled teens, disgruntled family members, old nosy friends with past jealousies, and a local gay couple who run the cafe. But no one seems to have a real motive for killing the beloved former school teacher.

A secondary story line runs through the book dealing with a young police woman, new to Gamache's team. She starts off strong but changes into being brusk and rude. While she has good instincts for police work, the inspector finally has his fill of her and sends her home over what seems like a trifle. And, in fact, she solved the case.

Anyone who loves a good cozy mystery who-done-it will love this series.

The setting.

The changes in voice that occur frequently without warning throughout the book. They were confusing to read, especially in the beginning when I had no idea who was who.

I also didn't like the secondary story line which seemed to be added because she needed some conflicting element in her novel. The story line doesn't actually end, we get no conclusion for it, and yet we waste an inordinate amount of time reading it and weaving it into the other story. It's just weird.

Read something else by a different author.

This book didn't make me feel anything expect overly curious as to how on earth this author has won so many awards for mystery writing.

has won multiple awards including the Agatha Awards in 2007 for best novel. (if I could add googly eyes I would)

The writing is not very good. The voice is confusing to sort out, the plot lines seems forced, and the conclusion has nothing to do with anything that's happened in the novel. The character of Gamache is boring. He sits on a bench for most of the story and we don't even know what he's looking at or seeing. He's just sitting there. Shrug. And the most interesting character of the book, the secondary story line, just disappears without any conclusion.

I read this because I found it on sale and wanted a new series to read in mysteries, but I won't be buying more of them.

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Created Jan 20, 2015 at 3:26pm • Submit your own review...