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Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #18
A World of Curiosities
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Agatha Award Winner for Best Contemporary Novel
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns in the eighteenth book in #1 New York Times bestseller Louise Penny's beloved series.
It’s spring and Three Pines is reemerging after the harsh winter. But not everything buried should come alive again. Not everything lying dormant should reemerge.
But something has.
As the villagers prepare for a special celebration, Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir find themselves increasingly worried. A young man and woman have reappeared in the Sûreté du Québec investigators’ lives after many years. The two were young children when their troubled mother was murdered, leaving them damaged, shattered. Now they’ve arrived in the village of Three Pines.
But to what end?
Gamache and Beauvoir’s memories of that tragic case, the one that first brought them together, come rushing back. Did their mother’s murder hurt them beyond repair? Have those terrible wounds, buried for decades, festered and are now about to erupt?
As Chief Inspector Gamache works to uncover answers, his alarm grows when a letter written by a long dead stone mason is discovered. In it the man describes his terror when bricking up an attic room somewhere in the village. Every word of the 160-year-old letter is filled with dread. When the room is found, the villagers decide to open it up.
As the bricks are removed, Gamache, Beauvoir and the villagers discover a world of curiosities. But the head of homicide soon realizes there’s more in that room than meets the eye. There are puzzles within puzzles, and hidden messages warning of mayhem and revenge.
In unsealing that room, an old enemy is released into their world. Into their lives. And into the very heart of Armand Gamache’s home.
Agatha Award Winner for Best Contemporary Novel
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns in the eighteenth book in #1 New York Times bestseller Louise Penny's beloved series.
It’s spring and Three Pines is reemerging after the harsh winter. But not everything buried should come alive again. Not everything lying dormant should reemerge.
But something has.
As the villagers prepare for a special celebration, Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir find themselves increasingly worried. A young man and woman have reappeared in the Sûreté du Québec investigators’ lives after many years. The two were young children when their troubled mother was murdered, leaving them damaged, shattered. Now they’ve arrived in the village of Three Pines.
But to what end?
Gamache and Beauvoir’s memories of that tragic case, the one that first brought them together, come rushing back. Did their mother’s murder hurt them beyond repair? Have those terrible wounds, buried for decades, festered and are now about to erupt?
As Chief Inspector Gamache works to uncover answers, his alarm grows when a letter written by a long dead stone mason is discovered. In it the man describes his terror when bricking up an attic room somewhere in the village. Every word of the 160-year-old letter is filled with dread. When the room is found, the villagers decide to open it up.
As the bricks are removed, Gamache, Beauvoir and the villagers discover a world of curiosities. But the head of homicide soon realizes there’s more in that room than meets the eye. There are puzzles within puzzles, and hidden messages warning of mayhem and revenge.
In unsealing that room, an old enemy is released into their world. Into their lives. And into the very heart of Armand Gamache’s home.
400 pages, Paperback
First published November 29, 2022
6445 people are currently reading
35683 people want to read
About the author
Louise Penny
83 books26.3k followersLOUISE PENNY is the author of the #1 New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling series of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novels. 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. In 2017, she received the Order of Canada for her contributions to Canadian culture. Louise lives in a small village south of Montréal.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 7,294 reviews
December 1, 2022
Despite my best intentions to slowly enjoy this book, I devoured it in one huge gulp. Oh well, it just means I have to wait longer for my next Gamache novel.
Penny's worldbuilding and characterization is phenomenal as always. The mystery is intricate and nuanced and kept me invested throughout, even though I did figure some of it out before it was revealed. This series is so interwoven that readers must read them in order. This particular book has ties to some earlier ones in the series.
This novel explores misogyny, nature vs. nurture, art history, and the long lasting effects of abuse. Penny has a way of taking fascinating historical facts and making them a part of the story, so that readers don't necessarily know they are learning something profound until one thinks things through in the end. And above all, this is a tale of family, friendship, and community. It's about finding the humanity in others and revealing yourself to them in return. Isn't that what most of us want in the end?
I listened to the audiobook, and it goes without saying that the narration is superb, but I will say it anyway. Now for the long wait yet again...
Penny's worldbuilding and characterization is phenomenal as always. The mystery is intricate and nuanced and kept me invested throughout, even though I did figure some of it out before it was revealed. This series is so interwoven that readers must read them in order. This particular book has ties to some earlier ones in the series.
This novel explores misogyny, nature vs. nurture, art history, and the long lasting effects of abuse. Penny has a way of taking fascinating historical facts and making them a part of the story, so that readers don't necessarily know they are learning something profound until one thinks things through in the end. And above all, this is a tale of family, friendship, and community. It's about finding the humanity in others and revealing yourself to them in return. Isn't that what most of us want in the end?
I listened to the audiobook, and it goes without saying that the narration is superb, but I will say it anyway. Now for the long wait yet again...
December 5, 2022
Number 18 in the Armand Gamache series has arrived and has already received widespread acclaim. I am, therefore, totally embarrassed to say that I found it to be the least satisfying in the series or next to the least satisfying after ‘The Long Way Home’(#10). It is quite difficult to say why it falls short without giving away spoilers, but it a sloppily put-together, convoluted story that asks the reader to suspend disbelief beyond what I found possible – the hidden room, what happens at the SHU, the copy of the painting, and so on. I feel that Penny is stretching reality way too far these days. The only positive was that I got the clue that revealed the identity of the psychopath that Gamache missed. Wait! Why is that a positive? Is Gamache losing his touch? It’s Louise Penny, and I will read anything she writes and have got so much pleasure from the series. This one was disappointing.
October 15, 2022
This outstanding addition to Louise Penny's Canadian Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, set in Quebec and the idyllic village of Three Pines, illustrates just what a gifted writer she is in this gripping blend of fact and fiction. The memorable characters include Amelia Choquet, a favourite of mine. In this complex and twisted narrative, the chilling past brings grave dangers and to blight the present. We learn of the beginnings of Gamache's police career marked by deadly misogyny with the terrors of the killing of women engineers. The murder of Clothilde Arsenault is the tragic case that first brings together Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir, leaving both marked by the evil horrors of the house where the victim's young children, Fiona and Sam, have been left so severely damaged and traumatised that it is unlikely they will ever be able recover.
In remembrance of the murdered female engineers and the recognition of the resilience of the survivors, Gamache and Reine-Marie attend the latest ceremony where Fiona herself graduates, she has been supported by Gamache through the years and lives in his home. He is unsettled and disturbed when Sam attends and is planning to stay at Three Pines, the troubling Sam is one of only two people who have been able to get inside his head, the other is imprisoned psychopath and monstrous serial killer, John Fleming. A strange historical letter written by a long dead stone mason leads to the discovery of a hidden walled in attic that is opened up by the villagers, within it is a long sought after grimoire and a odd version of the famous painting, The Paston Treasure, with its world of curiosities. The painting has a multitude of worrying hidden messages and puzzles that alarm and alert Gamache to an old foe intent on destroying everything and everyone Gamache holds dear.
It is always a joy to reacquaint myself with the now long established characters in the series, the querulous poet, Ruth Zardo, and her duck, Rosa, the therapist Myrna, the painter Clara and, of course, Olivier and Gabri among others, with their strong sense of community and support of each other. There are big themes touched on here, the difficulties of forgiveness, and the joy and freedom to be found in attaining this much desired quality for humanity, the historical and more recent evidence of misogyny in our world, and our misplaced tendency to concentrate on the historical archives of the powerful and the well known whilst ignoring the lives, knowledge and testimonies of the likes of ordinary people, minorities, women, etc.. This is a riveting read of the past and present, murders, of psychopaths, demons, witches, of a fate that is cruel and kind, love and community. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
In remembrance of the murdered female engineers and the recognition of the resilience of the survivors, Gamache and Reine-Marie attend the latest ceremony where Fiona herself graduates, she has been supported by Gamache through the years and lives in his home. He is unsettled and disturbed when Sam attends and is planning to stay at Three Pines, the troubling Sam is one of only two people who have been able to get inside his head, the other is imprisoned psychopath and monstrous serial killer, John Fleming. A strange historical letter written by a long dead stone mason leads to the discovery of a hidden walled in attic that is opened up by the villagers, within it is a long sought after grimoire and a odd version of the famous painting, The Paston Treasure, with its world of curiosities. The painting has a multitude of worrying hidden messages and puzzles that alarm and alert Gamache to an old foe intent on destroying everything and everyone Gamache holds dear.
It is always a joy to reacquaint myself with the now long established characters in the series, the querulous poet, Ruth Zardo, and her duck, Rosa, the therapist Myrna, the painter Clara and, of course, Olivier and Gabri among others, with their strong sense of community and support of each other. There are big themes touched on here, the difficulties of forgiveness, and the joy and freedom to be found in attaining this much desired quality for humanity, the historical and more recent evidence of misogyny in our world, and our misplaced tendency to concentrate on the historical archives of the powerful and the well known whilst ignoring the lives, knowledge and testimonies of the likes of ordinary people, minorities, women, etc.. This is a riveting read of the past and present, murders, of psychopaths, demons, witches, of a fate that is cruel and kind, love and community. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
May 25, 2023
This is a big week for Louise Penny's Three Pines fans. Her new book, A World of Curiosities, has just been released, and this morning a series featuring stories from her earlier books started on Amazon Prime, and so far seems well cast. The new book is number 18 in the series, and I have read them all from the beginning but feel this works as a standalone. New readers may wish to go back and read some earlier books to get better acquainted with the various recurring characters. Spending time with Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and friends is a relaxing experience, despite all the dreadful crimes he has investigated. Three Pines is a remote Quebec village where I would like to live and participate in the community.
This may be the most outstanding, stunning book in the entire series. If anyone feared that the plotting and splendid writing might be diminished after so many books set in this small Quebec village, need not worry. The characters are well-developed and memorable, with emotions conveyed to the reader. Gamache tries to see the good in humanity. He is thoughtful, kind, focused, and calm. However, a vile, psychopathic serial killer got into his mind in the past. Gamache has been long-haunted with dread that he might seek vengeance on his family and himself. It is comforting to know that the murderer is imprisoned for life.
Now, he is obsessed and feels the same threat from a nine-year-old boy, Sam. We go back to when Gamache and his son-in-law, Jean-Guy, were investigating the murder of a woman. She was a drug addict and prostitute. She rented out her son Sam and his sister, Fiona, to pedophiles. Both children experienced long-term sexual abuse and neglect. They are now severely traumatized and may never recover from the horrors and damage they endured.
Gamache and Jean-Guy disagree about the children. Jean-Guy is sympathetic toward the young Sam, but Gamache is stricken with dread. He considers Sam the more evil of the two and worries about him. After some time, Gamache brings Fiona into his family home and supports her. Later, he and his wife attend a memorial and graduation ceremony at the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal and see Fiona graduate as an engineer. Fact: in 1989, an anti-feminist gunman walked into the school, shot 14 women to death, and wounded others.
In present time, Fiona and Sam have moved back to Three Pines. Sam is now a handsome young man who attracts some young village women. Gamache suspects there is something seriously wrong with Sam and considers him dangerous. He views his presence with apprehension. An antique letter from a stone mason has mysteriously surfaced after 150 years, referring to an attic room that he walled up. Opening this room, the villagers discover a world of curiosities. Among the items is an old bronze elephant stolen from the Bistro, a long-sought-after grimoire ( a book of witch's spells), and a reproduction of a famous painting, The Paston
Treasures, from the 1860s (the original can be viewed online.) On further observation, there are some startling changes noticed in the painting. A woman is wearing a digital watch, and a model plane is depicted. There are almost imperceptible codes embedded in the picture implying vengeance. How is this possible in a room sealed off for more than a century?
This is a fascinating and complex plot with themes of misogyny, fate, demons, witches, irredeemable psychopaths, nature versus nurture, the 'bad seed' theory of born wickedness, the difficulty to forgive, friendship, family, and a supportive community. We learn a legend about the origin of Three Pines and more information about how Jean-Guy and Amelia Choquet came to work with Armand Gamache. We revisit the elderly poet Ruth and her pet Duck, the artist Clara, bookstore owner and therapist Myrna, the Bistro owners Gabri and Oliver, and others. It is like revisiting old friends. Recommended!
This may be the most outstanding, stunning book in the entire series. If anyone feared that the plotting and splendid writing might be diminished after so many books set in this small Quebec village, need not worry. The characters are well-developed and memorable, with emotions conveyed to the reader. Gamache tries to see the good in humanity. He is thoughtful, kind, focused, and calm. However, a vile, psychopathic serial killer got into his mind in the past. Gamache has been long-haunted with dread that he might seek vengeance on his family and himself. It is comforting to know that the murderer is imprisoned for life.
Now, he is obsessed and feels the same threat from a nine-year-old boy, Sam. We go back to when Gamache and his son-in-law, Jean-Guy, were investigating the murder of a woman. She was a drug addict and prostitute. She rented out her son Sam and his sister, Fiona, to pedophiles. Both children experienced long-term sexual abuse and neglect. They are now severely traumatized and may never recover from the horrors and damage they endured.
Gamache and Jean-Guy disagree about the children. Jean-Guy is sympathetic toward the young Sam, but Gamache is stricken with dread. He considers Sam the more evil of the two and worries about him. After some time, Gamache brings Fiona into his family home and supports her. Later, he and his wife attend a memorial and graduation ceremony at the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal and see Fiona graduate as an engineer. Fact: in 1989, an anti-feminist gunman walked into the school, shot 14 women to death, and wounded others.
In present time, Fiona and Sam have moved back to Three Pines. Sam is now a handsome young man who attracts some young village women. Gamache suspects there is something seriously wrong with Sam and considers him dangerous. He views his presence with apprehension. An antique letter from a stone mason has mysteriously surfaced after 150 years, referring to an attic room that he walled up. Opening this room, the villagers discover a world of curiosities. Among the items is an old bronze elephant stolen from the Bistro, a long-sought-after grimoire ( a book of witch's spells), and a reproduction of a famous painting, The Paston
Treasures, from the 1860s (the original can be viewed online.) On further observation, there are some startling changes noticed in the painting. A woman is wearing a digital watch, and a model plane is depicted. There are almost imperceptible codes embedded in the picture implying vengeance. How is this possible in a room sealed off for more than a century?
This is a fascinating and complex plot with themes of misogyny, fate, demons, witches, irredeemable psychopaths, nature versus nurture, the 'bad seed' theory of born wickedness, the difficulty to forgive, friendship, family, and a supportive community. We learn a legend about the origin of Three Pines and more information about how Jean-Guy and Amelia Choquet came to work with Armand Gamache. We revisit the elderly poet Ruth and her pet Duck, the artist Clara, bookstore owner and therapist Myrna, the Bistro owners Gabri and Oliver, and others. It is like revisiting old friends. Recommended!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 21, 2022
The world is fueled by an inner desire to see experiences as a means to fulfillment. But just which side of the dark/light road leads us to that end?
A World of Curiosities takes us back to Three Pines where we readers find solace in the tried and true characters who have lived there throughout Louise Penny's solid novels. It is a place of comfort, at times, and also a place of uncertainty as the world wedges itself tightly intruding along those familiar streets.
Louise Penny will take us back in time with the beginnings of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his relationship with Agent Jean-Guy Beauvoir. It is a brutal case with the murder of the mother of two young children. Clothilde Arsenault lead a very darkened life and it appears that her shady dealings finally caught up with her. Fiona and Sam, her children, had been abused for years. Gamache observes their behavior and wonders if such despicable treatment can ever really be rehabilitated in any acceptable fashion.
Time passes and Gamache and his wife, Reine-Marie, have looked out for Fiona. She is graduating now with a degree in engineering. But Sam has always made Gamache uncomfortable. His cold stares reach into the inner workings of Gamache. Not much unsettles Gamache in life, but this young man does.
Penny likes to layer her stories with high interest dynamics. While checking out the structure of her house for a possible edition, Myrna, the psychologist, reveals a hidden room with a strange painting and many artifacts. None of this is known to the inhabitants of Three Pines including Ruth, Clara, Billy, Gabri and Oliver. And it will be the sifting through this room and its contents that will reveal another corridor to life in Three Pines......those living before and those living now.
Louise Penny's novels should not be just taken for their surface value. She lines each one with deeply sown nuggets of fascination and windows to life itself. "Now here's a good one: You're lying on your deathbed. You have one hour to live. Who is it, exactly, you have needed all these years to forgive?" Sit with that for a moment......
A World of Curiosities takes us back to Three Pines where we readers find solace in the tried and true characters who have lived there throughout Louise Penny's solid novels. It is a place of comfort, at times, and also a place of uncertainty as the world wedges itself tightly intruding along those familiar streets.
Louise Penny will take us back in time with the beginnings of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his relationship with Agent Jean-Guy Beauvoir. It is a brutal case with the murder of the mother of two young children. Clothilde Arsenault lead a very darkened life and it appears that her shady dealings finally caught up with her. Fiona and Sam, her children, had been abused for years. Gamache observes their behavior and wonders if such despicable treatment can ever really be rehabilitated in any acceptable fashion.
Time passes and Gamache and his wife, Reine-Marie, have looked out for Fiona. She is graduating now with a degree in engineering. But Sam has always made Gamache uncomfortable. His cold stares reach into the inner workings of Gamache. Not much unsettles Gamache in life, but this young man does.
Penny likes to layer her stories with high interest dynamics. While checking out the structure of her house for a possible edition, Myrna, the psychologist, reveals a hidden room with a strange painting and many artifacts. None of this is known to the inhabitants of Three Pines including Ruth, Clara, Billy, Gabri and Oliver. And it will be the sifting through this room and its contents that will reveal another corridor to life in Three Pines......those living before and those living now.
Louise Penny's novels should not be just taken for their surface value. She lines each one with deeply sown nuggets of fascination and windows to life itself. "Now here's a good one: You're lying on your deathbed. You have one hour to live. Who is it, exactly, you have needed all these years to forgive?" Sit with that for a moment......
December 5, 2022
This breaks my heart but this book is a hard no from me. I have read and loved the previous 17 books in this series. In this one Penny takes a hard turn into the dark and gritty and it wasn’t for me at all; it has not one but two different and yet equally horrific criminal story lines. I am so disappointed in this book.
Beyond the subject matter, this case was so complex and over the top, I found myself rolling my eyes a few different times. Way too many coincidences were required for this story; and the citizens of Three Pines know absolutely every single random fact. It’s getting old to just have the “crew” sitting together and pieces together super random parts of the case.
And my last critique: introducing super close friends and family that haven’t appeared in 17 previous books but apparently the characters are practically adopted, spent every summer with the family, etc. too convenient for the story.
I’m ready for Gamache to retire and Beauvoir to take over the series!!!
Beyond the subject matter, this case was so complex and over the top, I found myself rolling my eyes a few different times. Way too many coincidences were required for this story; and the citizens of Three Pines know absolutely every single random fact. It’s getting old to just have the “crew” sitting together and pieces together super random parts of the case.
And my last critique: introducing super close friends and family that haven’t appeared in 17 previous books but apparently the characters are practically adopted, spent every summer with the family, etc. too convenient for the story.
I’m ready for Gamache to retire and Beauvoir to take over the series!!!
January 12, 2023
9 🎶🎶🎶
Update 1/12/23
Many times over the years people have commented on reviews with the question Can this or any of the books in the series be read as stand-alones if you're a first timer?
One of my reading buddies gave this a try with no prior experience and her review says Yes! So if you're intimidated by 18 books, I say start here and let me know what you think. You just might find yourself reading backwards 😃
Carmel's 5★ review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
So we all have read those books—the ones that get bogged down in the middle, losing our interest. We start counting how many pages left to go.
Yeah, well, that doesn’t happen here.
At one point, reading in bed late at night, my mouth watering over the wild mushroom ravioli with sage brown butter, relishing a look back at the early days between Jean-Guy and his patron, my heart is racing a bit at developing events, my brain wondering how much further to go. I check my Kindle display to see how much reading time is left,
Merdé!—three and a half hours to go. I need sleep, I cannot burn the midnight oil, not tonight.
Penny does not make you wait for it. Every chapter takes hold and propels you forward. You do not want to put it down.
Despite the ravioli and eclairs, this is no cozy mystery. More nuanced with every development, riding a theme of forgiveness, past and present colliding, it’s a full symphony piece with choir—think Beethoven’s ninth.
An ode to darkness and light, and the joy of reading.
Update 1/12/23
Many times over the years people have commented on reviews with the question Can this or any of the books in the series be read as stand-alones if you're a first timer?
One of my reading buddies gave this a try with no prior experience and her review says Yes! So if you're intimidated by 18 books, I say start here and let me know what you think. You just might find yourself reading backwards 😃
Carmel's 5★ review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
So we all have read those books—the ones that get bogged down in the middle, losing our interest. We start counting how many pages left to go.
Yeah, well, that doesn’t happen here.
At one point, reading in bed late at night, my mouth watering over the wild mushroom ravioli with sage brown butter, relishing a look back at the early days between Jean-Guy and his patron, my heart is racing a bit at developing events, my brain wondering how much further to go. I check my Kindle display to see how much reading time is left,
Merdé!—three and a half hours to go. I need sleep, I cannot burn the midnight oil, not tonight.
Penny does not make you wait for it. Every chapter takes hold and propels you forward. You do not want to put it down.
Despite the ravioli and eclairs, this is no cozy mystery. More nuanced with every development, riding a theme of forgiveness, past and present colliding, it’s a full symphony piece with choir—think Beethoven’s ninth.
An ode to darkness and light, and the joy of reading.
January 19, 2023
Before writing this review I scanned back to see my ratings of the previous seventeen books. As I would say Louise Penny is one of my favourite authors I was expecting a long row of five stars and I was wrong. What I saw was a mix of three, four and five. Apparently I always enjoy her books but....
Well I enjoyed this one too, but.... it just contained too much. I think the editor should have suggested leaving out the two children and just going for the super crazy yet incredibly smart killer. Or vice versa. Either would do. Both was overkill. (pun - sorry).
Nevertheless it was an intense and exciting read and we spent some time in Three Pines with a few of the regular characters which is always nice. It will be interesting to see where the author takes this series next.
Well I enjoyed this one too, but.... it just contained too much. I think the editor should have suggested leaving out the two children and just going for the super crazy yet incredibly smart killer. Or vice versa. Either would do. Both was overkill. (pun - sorry).
Nevertheless it was an intense and exciting read and we spent some time in Three Pines with a few of the regular characters which is always nice. It will be interesting to see where the author takes this series next.
December 3, 2022
This one might be my favorite of the series. It was truly gripping and I was even tempted to bite my nails, especially toward the explosive ending!
December 23, 2022
In her 18th book in the Inspector Gamache series, A World of Curiosities, Louise Penny gives us a look into Armand and Jean-Guy's "origin stories." In 1989 a young Armand Gamache was present at the real-life incident of a man killing 14 woman engineering students at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique, propelling him into a career in homicide. Ten years later Gamache recruits an angry, undisciplined officer, Jean-Guy Beauvior to help solve a murder. Both of these events have reverberations in the current timeline and bearing upon 3 more murders.
In addition to an excellent mystery, Penny explores sexual abuse of children, misogyny, and gun crimes while holding me in the safety and comfort of Three Pines and the familiar cast of characters.
"I was just thinking about Anne Lamarque. . . She was punished for many things, including being happy. So I wanted to capture that. The power of it. Happiness as an act of defiance. A revolutionary act."
I love this idea and want to find a way to bring it into my life.
Anne Lamarque, a woman accused of being a witch in the 1670's, is honored as well as the 14 women slain in 1989 in Ruth's poem:
"I was hanged for living alone,
For having a weedy farm in my own name
And a surefire cure for warts.
O yes, and breasts, and a sweet pear hidden in my body.
Whenever there's talk of demons these come in handy.
Death sits on my shoulder like a crow
. . . Or a judge, muttering about sluts and punishment.
And licking his lips.
Before I was not a witch.
But now I am one."
The underlying theme of this book is forgiveness
“holding on to resentments only binds you to the person you hate. You need to let go of it. For your own sake . . . Not anyone else's. For yourself.”
Fortunately, I have never had anything as horrendous as the actions in this novel to forgive. I have a tendency to hold onto something and gnaw on it for quite a while until I finally am ready to stop and begin moving forward. I find as I am getting older (and hopefully wiser) this time is shortening. Giving forgiveness, including to myself, allows me to grow and continue on my path in a meaningful way instead of stagnating.
While this book is about terror, it is also about goodness, courage, decency, integrity, love, friendship, and community. Penny's optimistic view of humanity shines through and bolsters my own.
In addition to an excellent mystery, Penny explores sexual abuse of children, misogyny, and gun crimes while holding me in the safety and comfort of Three Pines and the familiar cast of characters.
"I was just thinking about Anne Lamarque. . . She was punished for many things, including being happy. So I wanted to capture that. The power of it. Happiness as an act of defiance. A revolutionary act."
I love this idea and want to find a way to bring it into my life.
Anne Lamarque, a woman accused of being a witch in the 1670's, is honored as well as the 14 women slain in 1989 in Ruth's poem:
"I was hanged for living alone,
For having a weedy farm in my own name
And a surefire cure for warts.
O yes, and breasts, and a sweet pear hidden in my body.
Whenever there's talk of demons these come in handy.
Death sits on my shoulder like a crow
. . . Or a judge, muttering about sluts and punishment.
And licking his lips.
Before I was not a witch.
But now I am one."
The underlying theme of this book is forgiveness
“holding on to resentments only binds you to the person you hate. You need to let go of it. For your own sake . . . Not anyone else's. For yourself.”
Fortunately, I have never had anything as horrendous as the actions in this novel to forgive. I have a tendency to hold onto something and gnaw on it for quite a while until I finally am ready to stop and begin moving forward. I find as I am getting older (and hopefully wiser) this time is shortening. Giving forgiveness, including to myself, allows me to grow and continue on my path in a meaningful way instead of stagnating.
While this book is about terror, it is also about goodness, courage, decency, integrity, love, friendship, and community. Penny's optimistic view of humanity shines through and bolsters my own.
December 4, 2022
Still a good book, but rating this 3 stars based on the series. Guys, why is no one talking about the fact that someone escaped from the S.H.U. AGAIN?!?! Seriously. Again! How? Just how?! Why write that again?! Also, how is it that Myrna’s niece has been visiting every summer but we’ve never heard of hear until now? Oh, and the fact that the Gamaches “practically adopted” a girl that we’ve also never heard of until now? This is book 18. If these girls are so important, they would have been mentioned by now. Still a good book, but this felt like sloppy story telling to get another book out, and respectfully no where near the best in the series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 2, 2022
The actual murder mystery was great and as always, I love being transported back to Three Pines.
However, when I pick up a fiction novel, I want to escape the world, and in this case, escape to Three Pines. But in this book and the last one, there are some heavy political overtones that just cloud the story. Women being refused abortions, more gun control, inequality for women, the pandemic, etc... When I turn on the news or even open social media, I get all of that in spades, I don’t want to read about it in fiction novels too.
However, when I pick up a fiction novel, I want to escape the world, and in this case, escape to Three Pines. But in this book and the last one, there are some heavy political overtones that just cloud the story. Women being refused abortions, more gun control, inequality for women, the pandemic, etc... When I turn on the news or even open social media, I get all of that in spades, I don’t want to read about it in fiction novels too.
December 11, 2022
So disappointed. I am a hardcore Gamache fan and have read all of the books (at least once). I understand the need for a mystery writer to include some peripheral characters and stories to increase the "whodunnit" factor, but this book had so many characters and sub-plots, it was bogged down and confusing. I can't imagine someone trying to sort through this who didn't already know Armand, Reine-Marie, Jean-Guy, Ruth, Myrna, Gabri, Amelia..., and then had to figure out who Fiona, Sam, Harriet, Godit, the pastor and his wife, Nathalie, witches, John, the caretaker... were (are we supposed to remember what's wrong with Harriet?).
When you have to spend the last several chapters sorting out and explaining why the "whodunnit" did it, you completely lose me. I have never (until now) quickly skimmed through words or chapters in a Gamache book. A little editing could have gone a long way here. So disappointed.
When you have to spend the last several chapters sorting out and explaining why the "whodunnit" did it, you completely lose me. I have never (until now) quickly skimmed through words or chapters in a Gamache book. A little editing could have gone a long way here. So disappointed.
December 13, 2022
When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache first had Jean-Guy Beauvoir in his sights, Jean-Guy was a green, arrogant young man although Armand could see something in him that he wanted to nurture. The first case they worked together was a horrific one - the abuse of two young children and the death of their mother. Now, all those years later, those two young people were in Three Pines and Armand was uneasy. But it was when a long hidden room was discovered, one that had been hidden for one hundred and fifty years, that events in the lives of the Three Pines villagers, as well as Armand, Jean-Guy and the Surete du Quebec investigators, changed.
The past raised its ugly head and some of Armand's very worst fears were realised. How could it happen? And could he stop the out-of-control train wreck that was headed his way?
A World of Curiosities is the 18th in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, and it was breathtaking! How does author Louise Penny keep finding these ideas, the plots, the brilliant writing that turns into a book like this? The world of curiosities that Armand and Jean-Guy turned up, setting a huge puzzle which needed to be solved, was excellent. Highly recommended.
With thanks to Hachette AU for my ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.
The past raised its ugly head and some of Armand's very worst fears were realised. How could it happen? And could he stop the out-of-control train wreck that was headed his way?
A World of Curiosities is the 18th in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, and it was breathtaking! How does author Louise Penny keep finding these ideas, the plots, the brilliant writing that turns into a book like this? The world of curiosities that Armand and Jean-Guy turned up, setting a huge puzzle which needed to be solved, was excellent. Highly recommended.
With thanks to Hachette AU for my ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.
December 12, 2022
Not the Penny I was expecting.
Louise Penny succumbs to the Woke culture. There is little character development, almost no humor, the award winning style of her other books is entirely missing. The usual murder intertwined with Three Pines life and a social problem is abandoned. Now she spends her time arguing for gun control, better support for emotionally damaged children and other social problems in a manner that makes one think she is shaking her finger at you. This story is about pedophilia, of course supported by corrupt police and a killer the tortures his victims before decapitating them.
She reuses the bad cops want to kill good cops as well as a an escape from prison due to corrupt jail warden. The killer is a psychopath who decapitates his victims. She repeatedly alludes to photos showing his horrific crimes, planting images in your mind.
This is not a feel good read. I’d stay away if you are not into psycho murder thrillers that also lectures you about social problems where there is not yet consensus.
I should have just written blah, I have never been more disappointed.
Louise Penny succumbs to the Woke culture. There is little character development, almost no humor, the award winning style of her other books is entirely missing. The usual murder intertwined with Three Pines life and a social problem is abandoned. Now she spends her time arguing for gun control, better support for emotionally damaged children and other social problems in a manner that makes one think she is shaking her finger at you. This story is about pedophilia, of course supported by corrupt police and a killer the tortures his victims before decapitating them.
She reuses the bad cops want to kill good cops as well as a an escape from prison due to corrupt jail warden. The killer is a psychopath who decapitates his victims. She repeatedly alludes to photos showing his horrific crimes, planting images in your mind.
This is not a feel good read. I’d stay away if you are not into psycho murder thrillers that also lectures you about social problems where there is not yet consensus.
I should have just written blah, I have never been more disappointed.
September 27, 2024
3.5 stars
In this 18th book in the 'Chief Inspector Armand Gamache' series, the detective faces off against an old foe. The book can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the series is a bonus.
*****
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, head of the homicide department at Montreal's Sûreté du Québec.....
......has a close relationship with his son-in-law, and former second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir.
In this book we learn that Gamache first met Jean-Guy at an outlying Sûreté station when Gamache was investigating the murder of a woman named Clothilde Arsenault. Agent Beauvoir - whose behavior verged on insubordination - had been relegated to a desk job in the department's basement, but Gamache saw something in the young man and made him part of the Sûreté homicide squad.
Gamache and Beauvoir determine that Clothilde Arsenault, whose body was found in a lake, was bashed in the head with a brick.
When the investigators inform Clothilde's children, Fiona (14) and Sam (10), the kids behave oddly. Afterwards the detectives learn the Arsenault home was so abusive the siblings might never recover. The detectives also sense something 'off' about the youngsters, with Gamache thinking Sam is a sociopath and Beauvoir believing the same about Fiona.
In the following years Gamache and his wife Reine-Marie take Fiona under their wings, and make her feel like part of their family in Three Pines. Now Fiona and another young woman from Three Pines, Harriet Landers - niece of bookstore owner Myrna Landers - are graduating from engineering school and the village plans a big celebration.
The only fly in the ointment for Gamache is that Fiona's brother Sam, whom Gamache dislikes and distrusts, is coming to town for a visit.
After the graduation festivities, Myrna Landers, who lives in a cramped apartment above her bookstore, mentions she's thinking of moving to a larger place outside Three Pines.
Myrna's friends are aghast, and budding engineer Fiona suggests opening the attic room above Myrna's apartment. What?? What attic room?? Myrna knows nothing about an attic room.
It seems Fiona observed a roof feature showing the presence of an attic loft. Moreover, a 150-year-old letter recently showed up in Three Pines, which mentions bricking up a creepy room in the 1800s. The whole village gathers to break into the previously unknown chamber, and a surprise is revealed - a copy of a 17th century painting called The Paston Treasure, which depicts valuable objects owned by the Paston family.
The attic space also contains other odds and ends, including a medieval grimoire - a book with magic spells and incantations.
The attic copy of the Paston painting is subtly altered with sinister additions, and Gamache is certain it's the work of his sworn enemy, serial killer John Fleming. Gamache believes the painting is a death threat from Fleming, but the killer's been incarcerated for years.
And how could the picture get into a room sealed over a century ago? There are a lot of mysteries to be solved here, and the presence of Fiona and Sam Arsenault make things even murkier.
The book is a thriller filled with assaults, murders, corrupt cops, and more. The story also refers to the (real life) 1989 massacre of fourteen female engineering students at Montreal's École Polytechnique, by an anti-feminist gunman.
All the favorite Three Pines residents appear in the story, including mad old poet Ruth Zardo and her duck Rosa;
artist Clara Morrow;
and B&B owners Olivier and Gabri.
I enjoyed the novel, my major criticism being too much talk about evil people 'getting into' Gamache's head and doing damage, which seemed like psychobabble. Still, this is a good book, recommended to fans of the series.
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Robert Bathurst, who does a good job, though his 'women's voices' are a bit off.
You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com
April 12, 2023
Penny has always had the incredible gift of keeping the backstory of her characters tucked in her secure files, releasing some of these gems throughout the series. We've learned what makes Gamache roll, what demons Beauvoir wrestles daily. We still don't know why Reine-Marie retired so early, or what the general store owner and Sarah’s Boulangerie owner do in their off hours. They don't hang out at the Bistro.
This 18th book in the series brings all that secure file stuff out in front. The novel begins with a woman we don't know, who jogs. I guess it's important we know that. Check.
We're thrown face-up into the shallow water of the murder investigation Gamache and rookie Surete officer Beauvoir worked together first. Then back - or is it forward? - to present day, or wait, sort of present day but not really, and an event based on an actual event that impacted the people sitting in an auditorium present day, but wait, is it now, or now adjacent?
And then somebody discovers a... and then another... and, oh wait...
Feels like all the notecards taped to the wall that cover characters, plot points, twists and cycle-back arcs were put in a bowl and hauled out like a storytelling bingo game.
I may be a little cranky about one small but impactful phrase. Penny describes Idola as having "flat, saucer-shaped eyes." I'm hypersensitive to portrayals of Down's syndrome folks, yes. But I don't get the "flat." Is that a reference to lack of sparkle? To eyeball shape? To WHAT? And Down's syndrome people have almond-shaped eyes. Not saucers. It took me many pages to get past that. I could have moved to Gamache-like forgiveness if the jumble of this book had been a little more sorted.
Feels like Penny is taking the first steps into woman activism. Taking on misogyny, patriarchy, government complicity in perpetrating same is a grand and applauded endeavor. But it feels scattershot and ineffective in such a complicated story. And our beloved Three Pines women aren't the firebrand women rights champions we need for a story that covers that mission. I think that's why we see so many new women characters. Gamache isn't up to carrying that mission alone. Myrna had the best opportunity to lead this arc, but she is...in love. Feels as though that makes her less effective in the plot.
Clara has more paint in her hair and is working on a bright colorful splash of a new work.
Ruth is more cooperative. Yeah, you heard that. Ruth. Cooperative.
Annie? Only mentioned in the distance.
LaCoste. Is on vacation.
And, oh my golly, the mistakes! Made by ev er y one. It's too many, and perhaps required to keep us from pulling on the thread that unravels the story. Whatever reason there are so many cockups, all this incompetence took me right out of the magic.
It's still one gigantic roller coaster of an ending.
We never do find out why we needed to know that woman jogs.
This 18th book in the series brings all that secure file stuff out in front. The novel begins with a woman we don't know, who jogs. I guess it's important we know that. Check.
We're thrown face-up into the shallow water of the murder investigation Gamache and rookie Surete officer Beauvoir worked together first. Then back - or is it forward? - to present day, or wait, sort of present day but not really, and an event based on an actual event that impacted the people sitting in an auditorium present day, but wait, is it now, or now adjacent?
And then somebody discovers a... and then another... and, oh wait...
Feels like all the notecards taped to the wall that cover characters, plot points, twists and cycle-back arcs were put in a bowl and hauled out like a storytelling bingo game.
I may be a little cranky about one small but impactful phrase. Penny describes Idola as having "flat, saucer-shaped eyes." I'm hypersensitive to portrayals of Down's syndrome folks, yes. But I don't get the "flat." Is that a reference to lack of sparkle? To eyeball shape? To WHAT? And Down's syndrome people have almond-shaped eyes. Not saucers. It took me many pages to get past that. I could have moved to Gamache-like forgiveness if the jumble of this book had been a little more sorted.
Feels like Penny is taking the first steps into woman activism. Taking on misogyny, patriarchy, government complicity in perpetrating same is a grand and applauded endeavor. But it feels scattershot and ineffective in such a complicated story. And our beloved Three Pines women aren't the firebrand women rights champions we need for a story that covers that mission. I think that's why we see so many new women characters. Gamache isn't up to carrying that mission alone. Myrna had the best opportunity to lead this arc, but she is...in love. Feels as though that makes her less effective in the plot.
Clara has more paint in her hair and is working on a bright colorful splash of a new work.
Ruth is more cooperative. Yeah, you heard that. Ruth. Cooperative.
Annie? Only mentioned in the distance.
LaCoste. Is on vacation.
And, oh my golly, the mistakes! Made by ev er y one. It's too many, and perhaps required to keep us from pulling on the thread that unravels the story. Whatever reason there are so many cockups, all this incompetence took me right out of the magic.
It's still one gigantic roller coaster of an ending.
We never do find out why we needed to know that woman jogs.
January 28, 2023
Louise Penny returns with another sensational story once again highlighting the characters of Three Pines, Quebec. While the town may be quaint, the people are feisty as ever, kept together at times by Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. When a case from his past rocks him and resonates into the present day, Gamache cannot help but remember and try to bring new closure before those around him and affected once more. Penny spins her storytelling web and reminds me why I love this series so much with each new novel.
While the community of Three Pines, Quebec is known for its bucolic nature, there are deeply troubling moments that emerge at the least opportune times. Armand Gamache and his son-in-law, reputable members of the Sûreté du Québec, have done well to keep the peace, but when two young people return to the area, it sends them into a tailspin of panic and memories.
These two were children when their mother was brutally murdered, which was only the tip of the iceberg. Revelations soon emerged about countless amounts of abuse, which crippled those working the case. Some wonder just how innocent they were at the time of their mother’s death.
When Gamache discovers an old letter that speaks of a major secret in Three Pines. Soon thereafter, a secret room in one of the community’s buildings is discovered and the whole town wants to be part of the action. Some speculate about what awaits them, while others simply want a glimpse to whet their appetite. All the while, an old foe of Gamache’s makes his return, resonating deeply and forcing the senior Sûreté detective to take notice. Nothing could prepare Gamache for what he learns, or the blowback that awaits him. There is so much to handle and little time too wonder in this chilling mystery that will turn Three Pines into a place of panic once again. Penny does a masterful job in yet another addiction to this highly addictive series.
There are few authors I have discovered over the years who can write so fluidly and enticingly about Canada than Louie Penny. She knows her stuff and keeps the reader in the middle of each story. Strong writing and powerful plots are complemented by characters who evolve and devolve simultaneously, but never to the point of disappearing completely. While Three Pines may be a lovely destination, it is anything but boring with Louise Penny’s pen.
The narrative flow of the book is matched only by the other novels in the series. Penny sweeps in and hooks the reader with the opening phrase, refusing to lessen her grip until the final sentence resonates. Characters with depth and sassy intrigue fill the pages as well as a setting that is second to none. Great plots and complex journeys to follow them is the key to Penny’s writing, which forces the reader to enjoy or be left behind. The Canadiana in the book is like no other, giving me that warm feeling without becoming stereotypical. There is so much to enjoy here and I cannot help but find myself excited to see what’s next for a writer who never seems to run out of ideas!
Kudos, Madam Penny, for proving that Canada does deserve its placate on the map of strong settings for stellar mysteries!
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
While the community of Three Pines, Quebec is known for its bucolic nature, there are deeply troubling moments that emerge at the least opportune times. Armand Gamache and his son-in-law, reputable members of the Sûreté du Québec, have done well to keep the peace, but when two young people return to the area, it sends them into a tailspin of panic and memories.
These two were children when their mother was brutally murdered, which was only the tip of the iceberg. Revelations soon emerged about countless amounts of abuse, which crippled those working the case. Some wonder just how innocent they were at the time of their mother’s death.
When Gamache discovers an old letter that speaks of a major secret in Three Pines. Soon thereafter, a secret room in one of the community’s buildings is discovered and the whole town wants to be part of the action. Some speculate about what awaits them, while others simply want a glimpse to whet their appetite. All the while, an old foe of Gamache’s makes his return, resonating deeply and forcing the senior Sûreté detective to take notice. Nothing could prepare Gamache for what he learns, or the blowback that awaits him. There is so much to handle and little time too wonder in this chilling mystery that will turn Three Pines into a place of panic once again. Penny does a masterful job in yet another addiction to this highly addictive series.
There are few authors I have discovered over the years who can write so fluidly and enticingly about Canada than Louie Penny. She knows her stuff and keeps the reader in the middle of each story. Strong writing and powerful plots are complemented by characters who evolve and devolve simultaneously, but never to the point of disappearing completely. While Three Pines may be a lovely destination, it is anything but boring with Louise Penny’s pen.
The narrative flow of the book is matched only by the other novels in the series. Penny sweeps in and hooks the reader with the opening phrase, refusing to lessen her grip until the final sentence resonates. Characters with depth and sassy intrigue fill the pages as well as a setting that is second to none. Great plots and complex journeys to follow them is the key to Penny’s writing, which forces the reader to enjoy or be left behind. The Canadiana in the book is like no other, giving me that warm feeling without becoming stereotypical. There is so much to enjoy here and I cannot help but find myself excited to see what’s next for a writer who never seems to run out of ideas!
Kudos, Madam Penny, for proving that Canada does deserve its placate on the map of strong settings for stellar mysteries!
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
December 18, 2022
Even though I have read all the Inspector Gamache books by Louise Penny, this is my first review of one (I think)!
I’d rate most of them in the 3-4 star range: they’re engrossing but flawed. The series’ hero worship of Gamache is always too cloying, and it starts out strong in this novel with the narrator reminding us how good, kind, and honest Gamache is. Although he’s been exposed, as the head of homicide, to the worst of humanity, the novel tells us that Gamache remains hopeful, compassionate, and relatively emotionally healthy. I should add that he remains all this even when the series has taken some of the people closest to Gamache and turned them into murderers. For me, that’s a cheap and unrealistic plot device that the series overrelies on.
I found the novel’s early mysteries quite compelling. A few things work. First, in flashback, we get Jean-Guy Beauvoir and Gamache’s origin story in a difficult case where Gamache takes a chance on Jean-Guy, who after one kind word from the head of homicide becomes a loyal lackey who obeys Gamache’s orders and turns on his own corrupt department. It’s always satisfying to learn more about the main characters’ relationships, but this also works because the case centers around two children who have been traumatized. Their behavior and Gamache and Beauvoir’s instincts about the children adds interest, suspicion, and suspense, both in the flashbacks and in the book’s present.
The book’s present is set in Three Pines following a graduation ceremony of college engineering graduates Harriet Landers and Fiona Arsenault, the now-grown female sibling from the earlier case. Fiona is staying with the Gamache family while her charismatic brother Sam, mistrusted by Gamache but not Beauvoir, is staying nearby. This part also works: Sam is clearly a malevolent force, and while we do see Fiona manipulating others, the novel sets up enough question marks that it’s unclear if Sam or Fiona is the ringleader. Gamache believes that Sam has it out for him while Beauvoir worries that Fiona is not to be trusted.
This situation sets the stage for what ends up being the main conflict in the novel. A secret room is found in Harriet’s aunt’s attic, with a huge, seemingly-historical painting that was actually painted recently and which seems to contain clues to some impending doom for Gamache. This room, the painting, and the murder case they begin to unravel through it has great potential that ultimately peters out. It doesn’t end up being a red herring so much as just a big old billboard advertising a murder plan. The Sam and Fiona conflict also gets wrapped into this convoluted murder plan that veers into unrealistic and overwrought.
I always appreciate the poetry sprinkled throughout the series, and the dialogue between our various Three Pines friends is often funny and witty. The series’ romanticism about Gamache and rural village life notwithstanding, the pleasant scenes of home, art, and love are comforting, as is— as always— Gamache coming out right in the end.
There are a few other things that I think are worth critiquing, and be warned, spoilers are coming!
First, the novel appears to be philosophically inconsistent. Unlike other detective fiction, Louise Penny’s books try to be serious about life, beauty, suffering, and death, even if they end up being terribly cavalier with the lives of side characters. With Gamache interpreting the world for us, we understand that good is powerful, that love can redeem relationships, and that trust, though often betrayed, is usually productive. Yet Gamache also says about a ten year old child that he was born bad and that circumstances made him unfixable. The novel tries to maintain through Fiona’s story that trauma produces traumatized behavior that can be redeemed, but then it also insists through Gamache’s instincts about Sam that an abused and neglected ten year old is forever someone to be suspicious of because he probably loves being bad. Fiona’s decision to betray and then to save the Gamache family is also left under-explored; she seemingly sacrifices the life she’s built for no reason other than family ties (as her father turns out to be serial killer John Fleming). The novel explains her decision to betray and then to help rescue Gamache in a throwaway line about having crossed too many lines. But murder was always the plan, and Fiona and Sam both seemed in on it. Why? And how? What were her lines?
The novel’s treatment of Fiona and Sam seems to suggest that goodness and badness are heritable and not a little bit inherent. It’s notable that the unlikable characters the series has “redeemed” like Beauvoir or Amelia Choquet become trustworthy and reliable through their adoration of Gamache. This, the novel suggests, highlights their good judgment and ultimate incorruptibility. On the contrary, anyone’s dislike of Gamache becomes a marker for evil. Sam dislikes Gamache; he’s therefore bad. Fiona seems to like Gamache, and she therefore isn’t bad even if she does bad things.
Second, the novel’s main antagonist, the serial killer Fleming, is imbued with too many contradictory characteristics. A religious fanatic, his initial imprisonment was for creating a seven-headed beast of Babylon by murdering and stitching together seven victims, yet his murder plan for Gamache is altogether areligious. That seems inconsistent. Additionally, Fleming isn’t charismatic or charming; he’s terrifying, and the novel describes both Gamache and Beauvoir’s feelings of horror in Fleming’s presence. The book characterizes Fleming, in jail, as simply radiating evil. Yet, he is able to pass for some time as the loving, kind, and wise minister of Three Pines’ local church, caring for and loving a dying wife. Nobody so much as says, “Yeah, I don’t like that guy” in the novel. He also seems to have unlimited funds and resources: How else are you able to have your entire identity in prison swapped with someone else’s so you can escape, leaving a trail of murder behind as you tie up loose ends and send your wife traveling as far as the UK to help set up your murder plan? Where does this money come from? How is he able to create totally new identities for himself? Finally, the reveal that Fleming is related to Fiona (but not Sam) doesn’t add anything to the plot or the characters, because ultimately that relationship is unrelated to the reasons he decides to target Gamache in the first place.
Third, how are there any townspeople left in Three Pines to murder or to become murderers? If I lived there, I’d try to get the Gamaches to leave because the longer they live there, the more people I know will die.
I’d rate most of them in the 3-4 star range: they’re engrossing but flawed. The series’ hero worship of Gamache is always too cloying, and it starts out strong in this novel with the narrator reminding us how good, kind, and honest Gamache is. Although he’s been exposed, as the head of homicide, to the worst of humanity, the novel tells us that Gamache remains hopeful, compassionate, and relatively emotionally healthy. I should add that he remains all this even when the series has taken some of the people closest to Gamache and turned them into murderers. For me, that’s a cheap and unrealistic plot device that the series overrelies on.
I found the novel’s early mysteries quite compelling. A few things work. First, in flashback, we get Jean-Guy Beauvoir and Gamache’s origin story in a difficult case where Gamache takes a chance on Jean-Guy, who after one kind word from the head of homicide becomes a loyal lackey who obeys Gamache’s orders and turns on his own corrupt department. It’s always satisfying to learn more about the main characters’ relationships, but this also works because the case centers around two children who have been traumatized. Their behavior and Gamache and Beauvoir’s instincts about the children adds interest, suspicion, and suspense, both in the flashbacks and in the book’s present.
The book’s present is set in Three Pines following a graduation ceremony of college engineering graduates Harriet Landers and Fiona Arsenault, the now-grown female sibling from the earlier case. Fiona is staying with the Gamache family while her charismatic brother Sam, mistrusted by Gamache but not Beauvoir, is staying nearby. This part also works: Sam is clearly a malevolent force, and while we do see Fiona manipulating others, the novel sets up enough question marks that it’s unclear if Sam or Fiona is the ringleader. Gamache believes that Sam has it out for him while Beauvoir worries that Fiona is not to be trusted.
This situation sets the stage for what ends up being the main conflict in the novel. A secret room is found in Harriet’s aunt’s attic, with a huge, seemingly-historical painting that was actually painted recently and which seems to contain clues to some impending doom for Gamache. This room, the painting, and the murder case they begin to unravel through it has great potential that ultimately peters out. It doesn’t end up being a red herring so much as just a big old billboard advertising a murder plan. The Sam and Fiona conflict also gets wrapped into this convoluted murder plan that veers into unrealistic and overwrought.
I always appreciate the poetry sprinkled throughout the series, and the dialogue between our various Three Pines friends is often funny and witty. The series’ romanticism about Gamache and rural village life notwithstanding, the pleasant scenes of home, art, and love are comforting, as is— as always— Gamache coming out right in the end.
There are a few other things that I think are worth critiquing, and be warned, spoilers are coming!
First, the novel appears to be philosophically inconsistent. Unlike other detective fiction, Louise Penny’s books try to be serious about life, beauty, suffering, and death, even if they end up being terribly cavalier with the lives of side characters. With Gamache interpreting the world for us, we understand that good is powerful, that love can redeem relationships, and that trust, though often betrayed, is usually productive. Yet Gamache also says about a ten year old child that he was born bad and that circumstances made him unfixable. The novel tries to maintain through Fiona’s story that trauma produces traumatized behavior that can be redeemed, but then it also insists through Gamache’s instincts about Sam that an abused and neglected ten year old is forever someone to be suspicious of because he probably loves being bad. Fiona’s decision to betray and then to save the Gamache family is also left under-explored; she seemingly sacrifices the life she’s built for no reason other than family ties (as her father turns out to be serial killer John Fleming). The novel explains her decision to betray and then to help rescue Gamache in a throwaway line about having crossed too many lines. But murder was always the plan, and Fiona and Sam both seemed in on it. Why? And how? What were her lines?
The novel’s treatment of Fiona and Sam seems to suggest that goodness and badness are heritable and not a little bit inherent. It’s notable that the unlikable characters the series has “redeemed” like Beauvoir or Amelia Choquet become trustworthy and reliable through their adoration of Gamache. This, the novel suggests, highlights their good judgment and ultimate incorruptibility. On the contrary, anyone’s dislike of Gamache becomes a marker for evil. Sam dislikes Gamache; he’s therefore bad. Fiona seems to like Gamache, and she therefore isn’t bad even if she does bad things.
Second, the novel’s main antagonist, the serial killer Fleming, is imbued with too many contradictory characteristics. A religious fanatic, his initial imprisonment was for creating a seven-headed beast of Babylon by murdering and stitching together seven victims, yet his murder plan for Gamache is altogether areligious. That seems inconsistent. Additionally, Fleming isn’t charismatic or charming; he’s terrifying, and the novel describes both Gamache and Beauvoir’s feelings of horror in Fleming’s presence. The book characterizes Fleming, in jail, as simply radiating evil. Yet, he is able to pass for some time as the loving, kind, and wise minister of Three Pines’ local church, caring for and loving a dying wife. Nobody so much as says, “Yeah, I don’t like that guy” in the novel. He also seems to have unlimited funds and resources: How else are you able to have your entire identity in prison swapped with someone else’s so you can escape, leaving a trail of murder behind as you tie up loose ends and send your wife traveling as far as the UK to help set up your murder plan? Where does this money come from? How is he able to create totally new identities for himself? Finally, the reveal that Fleming is related to Fiona (but not Sam) doesn’t add anything to the plot or the characters, because ultimately that relationship is unrelated to the reasons he decides to target Gamache in the first place.
Third, how are there any townspeople left in Three Pines to murder or to become murderers? If I lived there, I’d try to get the Gamaches to leave because the longer they live there, the more people I know will die.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 30, 2025
Cărți lui Louise Penny au farmec și un aer melancolic deși sunt cărți polițiste. Acesta este cel mai intens volum din serie, vizând direct familia inspectorului Gamache și lumea pe care el o ține departe de cazurile pe care le anchetează, dar câteodată aceste lumi se ciocnesc...
February 6, 2023
I have enjoyed all the books in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mystery series by Louise Penny from the onset of their publications. Who would have ever thought that each new installment was capable of getting better and better? A World of Curiosities #18, was in my opinion, Louise Penny’s, best one to date! It was fast paced and kept me at the edge of my seat with all the twists and turns. All the charming and beloved characters were back together in Three Pines. A World of Curiosity was a little darker and definitely more sinister than most of Louise Penny’s prior books. That only added to the enhancement, though, of this well plotted mystery series. I listened to the audiobook of A World of Curiosities that was very well narrated by Robert Bathurst. His narration totally immersed me in the story and managed to put me right among the characters in the quaint village of Three Pines.
A World of Curiosities was able to combine several mysteries within its pages that seamlessly wove together by the conclusion. Some stemmed from the past and some were from the present. Recollections of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir’s first case they worked on and solved together brought memories of young and abused Fiona and Sam back. That case involved identifying a dead woman. The woman was discovered to be Clothilde Arenault, Fiona’s and Sam’s mother. She had been an addict. That was not her worst crime, though. She had unimaginably profited from making both of her children participate in sexual acts. It was later revealed, that Fiona had viciously murdered her own mother. Fiona was prosecuted as an adult and had served time in prison for the murder. Armand was never fully convinced that Fiona had committed the murder. His suspicions were on Sam but Fiona had confessed and Sam was only ten years old at the time. Armand visited Fiona while she was serving her sentence and was instrumental in helping her obtain a degree in engineering. Fiona now lived with Armand and his wife in Three Pines. To Armand’s surprise and terror, Sam showed up at Fiona’s graduation ceremony. Armand felt that Sam’s presence in Three Pines signaled fear, anger and extreme caution. Why had Sam suddenly appeared after all these years? Armand knew Sam’s presence could only represent danger.
When a letter that was written 160 years ago was delivered to Three Pines, curiosity and surprise was felt by all. It had been written by a stone mason that had been commissioned to brick up an attic room all those years ago. When the residents realized which house and attic the letter was referring to they unanimously decided to take down the brick wall. What they discovered set off an explosion of intense questions, fears, dangers, triggers, puzzles and hidden messages. There was a reproduction of the painting of A World of Curiosities on the wall. In the reproduction of the paintings, there were hidden clues for the viewers. Modern elements had been added to the painting. Some of the things Armand saw sent chills down his spine. Armand was terrified that the misogynist who Armand had helped put behind bars all those years ago for killing seven women engineers was playing with his mind. How could that be, though? He was safely behind bars for life? Wasn’t he?
A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny was my most favorite book by her so far. I enjoyed every twist that was thrown in. Several times I thought I had everything all figured out only to find that I was completely wrong. I love this series and can’t wait for the next one to be published. Without any hesitation, I highly recommend this book.
A World of Curiosities was able to combine several mysteries within its pages that seamlessly wove together by the conclusion. Some stemmed from the past and some were from the present. Recollections of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir’s first case they worked on and solved together brought memories of young and abused Fiona and Sam back. That case involved identifying a dead woman. The woman was discovered to be Clothilde Arenault, Fiona’s and Sam’s mother. She had been an addict. That was not her worst crime, though. She had unimaginably profited from making both of her children participate in sexual acts. It was later revealed, that Fiona had viciously murdered her own mother. Fiona was prosecuted as an adult and had served time in prison for the murder. Armand was never fully convinced that Fiona had committed the murder. His suspicions were on Sam but Fiona had confessed and Sam was only ten years old at the time. Armand visited Fiona while she was serving her sentence and was instrumental in helping her obtain a degree in engineering. Fiona now lived with Armand and his wife in Three Pines. To Armand’s surprise and terror, Sam showed up at Fiona’s graduation ceremony. Armand felt that Sam’s presence in Three Pines signaled fear, anger and extreme caution. Why had Sam suddenly appeared after all these years? Armand knew Sam’s presence could only represent danger.
When a letter that was written 160 years ago was delivered to Three Pines, curiosity and surprise was felt by all. It had been written by a stone mason that had been commissioned to brick up an attic room all those years ago. When the residents realized which house and attic the letter was referring to they unanimously decided to take down the brick wall. What they discovered set off an explosion of intense questions, fears, dangers, triggers, puzzles and hidden messages. There was a reproduction of the painting of A World of Curiosities on the wall. In the reproduction of the paintings, there were hidden clues for the viewers. Modern elements had been added to the painting. Some of the things Armand saw sent chills down his spine. Armand was terrified that the misogynist who Armand had helped put behind bars all those years ago for killing seven women engineers was playing with his mind. How could that be, though? He was safely behind bars for life? Wasn’t he?
A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny was my most favorite book by her so far. I enjoyed every twist that was thrown in. Several times I thought I had everything all figured out only to find that I was completely wrong. I love this series and can’t wait for the next one to be published. Without any hesitation, I highly recommend this book.
November 30, 2022
I have a rule: I don't give 5 stars to series books. If a book is part of a larger series, I believe it needs to be judged on its merits and that of its fellow books. The highest I will go is 4.5 stars.
So, how did we get here?
I’m not alone in loving Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache books. I’ve loved all but one (and that one I liked), so the bar was understandably high here. The thing is that this book didn’t just meet the bar. It blew the bar out of the water.
This is Louise Penny’s best book—and what sort of series writer throws in their best book as the 18th entry? Probably the most amazing thing, and I believe the reason this book is so phenomenal, is that it is a book that wasn’t supposed to exist. Penny had told her publishers that, after releasing two books in 2021, she would not release one in 2022. And then inspiration hit.
There are so many elements that create the magic of this book. Penny gives us the Jean-Guy Beauvoir/Armand Gamache origin story. Their relationship is one of the strongest in this series made up of relationships and seeing where it began was a treat for the reader. What is interesting is that Penny resists the common trick of inserting a prequel in a long-running series. Instead, she uses this origin story as the jumping-off point for a current-day mystery-thriller that will keep you turning the pages.
It took me a while to realize this next speck of magic, but Penny did another amazing thing. Armand Gamache has long been a paragon of integrity, but here Penny digs in and finds one of his faults and explores that fault, which is at the center of this story. No, Gamache doesn’t become the big bad—he’s human, and it has always been his humanity that has been his greatest strength. But, like all humans, he has his weak points, and true evil can find those points.
While this is Penny’s best book in the series, it is also the darkest. In addition, to the usual darkness found in these novels, there is an early element of child sexual abuse. This is not shown on the page, but it is written so that the reader knows exactly what happened. In fact, the first introduction of it is so creepy that it sets the tone for the rest of the book.
The greatest strength of this book is the plotting. I read a lot of mysteries, including the classics of the genre. I can confidently say this is the best-plotted mystery I have ever read. I won’t go into specifics to avoid spoilers, but I will say that I could not put this down, and the “reveal” was the experience that I always look for in a mystery and rarely find.
Despite that darkness, or maybe because of it, this book rises above the seventeen that precede it—forcing me into a conundrum. This is a 5-star book, but I don’t give 5 stars to series books…right?
I tried to find a reason to knock a half-point off. The closest I could come to was that there is a series-long character who is essentially absent from the story. The character is conveniently “on vacation.” I felt a bit cheated that one of my favorites was missing. Then I realized that this character couldn’t be involved in this story: not only would it not make sense in the grand scheme, but it might also add an unnecessary layer of complication over an already complex story.
So, what to do? Should I try and manufacture a shortcoming? Should I knock off half a star “just because”? I struggled with this before realizing that a book this special deserves an exception to my personal rules. Five stars it is. And it deserves every single one of those stars.
So, how did we get here?
I’m not alone in loving Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache books. I’ve loved all but one (and that one I liked), so the bar was understandably high here. The thing is that this book didn’t just meet the bar. It blew the bar out of the water.
This is Louise Penny’s best book—and what sort of series writer throws in their best book as the 18th entry? Probably the most amazing thing, and I believe the reason this book is so phenomenal, is that it is a book that wasn’t supposed to exist. Penny had told her publishers that, after releasing two books in 2021, she would not release one in 2022. And then inspiration hit.
There are so many elements that create the magic of this book. Penny gives us the Jean-Guy Beauvoir/Armand Gamache origin story. Their relationship is one of the strongest in this series made up of relationships and seeing where it began was a treat for the reader. What is interesting is that Penny resists the common trick of inserting a prequel in a long-running series. Instead, she uses this origin story as the jumping-off point for a current-day mystery-thriller that will keep you turning the pages.
It took me a while to realize this next speck of magic, but Penny did another amazing thing. Armand Gamache has long been a paragon of integrity, but here Penny digs in and finds one of his faults and explores that fault, which is at the center of this story. No, Gamache doesn’t become the big bad—he’s human, and it has always been his humanity that has been his greatest strength. But, like all humans, he has his weak points, and true evil can find those points.
While this is Penny’s best book in the series, it is also the darkest. In addition, to the usual darkness found in these novels, there is an early element of child sexual abuse. This is not shown on the page, but it is written so that the reader knows exactly what happened. In fact, the first introduction of it is so creepy that it sets the tone for the rest of the book.
The greatest strength of this book is the plotting. I read a lot of mysteries, including the classics of the genre. I can confidently say this is the best-plotted mystery I have ever read. I won’t go into specifics to avoid spoilers, but I will say that I could not put this down, and the “reveal” was the experience that I always look for in a mystery and rarely find.
Despite that darkness, or maybe because of it, this book rises above the seventeen that precede it—forcing me into a conundrum. This is a 5-star book, but I don’t give 5 stars to series books…right?
I tried to find a reason to knock a half-point off. The closest I could come to was that there is a series-long character who is essentially absent from the story. The character is conveniently “on vacation.” I felt a bit cheated that one of my favorites was missing. Then I realized that this character couldn’t be involved in this story: not only would it not make sense in the grand scheme, but it might also add an unnecessary layer of complication over an already complex story.
So, what to do? Should I try and manufacture a shortcoming? Should I knock off half a star “just because”? I struggled with this before realizing that a book this special deserves an exception to my personal rules. Five stars it is. And it deserves every single one of those stars.
December 17, 2022
I was familiar with Louise Penny when she was still a journalist for the CBC. When I heard she quit to become a writer, I was curious and read her first Gamache book "Still Life". I thought it was okay and then moved on. Many years later, when I saw she actually had over 10 books in the series, I thought I would give her another chance - and I was not disappointed. Like all her fans, I got wrapped up in the lives of Three Pines and its residents and visitors. Her story telling, humour, settings and plots were all engaging with a nice balance of familiar and new. I got caught up and for the past few years have had to wait for the next book in the series to be published before going back to Three Pines.
So now to this book... I was disappointed, and struggled to finish it. I don't know if her pacing was off, or if she's getting tired of working with these characters, or if she thinks every subsequent book has to be more shocking than the last (in terms of "the crime(s)"), or if it's me. This time, I was bothered by the cute, light-hearted exchanges of the characters juxtaposed by the heinousness nature of "the crime(s)". In her acknowledgments, Penny mentions the theme of the book was forgiveness and that threw me for a bit of a loop - forgiveness? How about trust? The whole book had the question of which, if either, Fiona or Sam could be trusted. Yes, she managed to shock me - but at what cost? Is Penny now just trying to shock her readers or would she still like to bring ideas to the fore that humble us and make us think? She basically made the reader suspicious of every single character we met and we were only made aware of their innocence
I'm no longer sure I trust Louise Penny to write a story I will enjoy, even if it is set in Three Pines and the food is great. I won't be so eager for the next one and will read reviews before I determine whether it will be worth my time.
So now to this book... I was disappointed, and struggled to finish it. I don't know if her pacing was off, or if she's getting tired of working with these characters, or if she thinks every subsequent book has to be more shocking than the last (in terms of "the crime(s)"), or if it's me. This time, I was bothered by the cute, light-hearted exchanges of the characters juxtaposed by the heinousness nature of "the crime(s)". In her acknowledgments, Penny mentions the theme of the book was forgiveness and that threw me for a bit of a loop - forgiveness? How about trust? The whole book had the question of which, if either, Fiona or Sam could be trusted. Yes, she managed to shock me - but at what cost? Is Penny now just trying to shock her readers or would she still like to bring ideas to the fore that humble us and make us think? She basically made the reader suspicious of every single character we met and we were only made aware of their innocence
I'm no longer sure I trust Louise Penny to write a story I will enjoy, even if it is set in Three Pines and the food is great. I won't be so eager for the next one and will read reviews before I determine whether it will be worth my time.
December 7, 2022
Readers who can handle child sexual abuse (TW), a serial killer, profanity, and frequent nods to witchcraft might enjoy this new installment. While well written, it’s not to my taste.
October 18, 2022
First Sentence: “Oh, merde.”
Going to the past can be painful and dangerous. It is there where Chief Inspector Gamache and Agent Jean-Guy Beauvoir first meet during the case of two children so emotionally damaged they may have murdered their own mother, Clotilde Arsenault. The older sister, Fiona, is sent to prison, while the brother, Sam, is deemed too young to be tried. Returning to the present, Gamache and his wife, Raine-Marie, take in a now-released Fiona and facilitated her enrollment in the École Polytechnique, from which she is now graduating along with Harriet, bookshop owner and ex-psychologist, Myrna Lander. Natalie Provost, a survivor of the Montreal Massacre where 14 were killed and 13 were wounded, all women, is receiving a special award. Sam showing up at the graduation and is planning to stay in Three Pines, is an unwelcome surprise to Gamache, who never trusted the young man.
Myrna and her partner, Billy, are thinking of moving from above the bookshop. Instead, it is suggested they break through to an attic room that had been bricked off by Billy’s ancestor and about which he’d only recently learned upon receiving a letter dated 1862. In the room, they find a trove of unusual objects, some of which had been stolen from Gabi and Olivier’s bistro, and an enormous painting. The painting looks to be “The Paston Treasure,” better known as A World of Curiosities, painted in the 1800s and housed in the U.K. But oddly, the painting in Three Pines is a copy filled with modern objects. Also in the room is something long sought by Raine-Marie; a grimoire, a textbook of magic, inscribed with the name Anne Lamarque, a woman who’d been banished as a witch. After the death of the woman who sent the letter to Billy, Gamache brings in Agent Ameila Choquet to set up an Incident Room in Three Pines in order to learn how all these pieces fit together, and how they lead to a serial killer Gamache arrested years before.
Never has this reviewer written such a long synopsis. Never has Penny written such a book where this long a synopsis was needed. This is not a bad thing.
Penny paints wonderfully visual pictures and is such a lyrical writer. She imbues some of her characters with depth, wisdom and poetry, while others are as basic and ordinary as people often are. “While he’d [Gamache] become an explorer of human emotions, Jean-Guy Beauvoir was the hunter.” Penny also incorporates an informal, yet complete, cast of characters within the story. The reader learns new things about the characters, which keeps them developing and expanding. Ruth, the eclectic poet, provides humor, as well as wisdom and history essential to the plot, while Clara’s information about the painting is fascinating.
The interspersion of literary quotes and poems adds so much to the book. They may inject humor, but they may also connote other emotions, melancholy, sorrow, or a warning. It’s not unusual for the reader to spend time looking up the source material for some of the quotes.
It’s hard not to have favorite characters. One may be the brilliant and fascinating character of Amelia Choquet with her complex history. She is described by Myrna as—"If Ruth and a trash compactor had a child,…” Her use of three particular lines at the end of the book is incredibly powerful.
There can’t be a story in Three Pines that doesn’t include food. While the meals may be simpler than in some previous books, still one is tempted by chilled pea soup, grilled Gruyère and sweet onion sandwiches; salmon, fresh-cut asparagus, baby potatoes, and green salad with vinaigrette; charbroiled steak with chimichurri sauce and frites; and wild mushroom ravioli with sage brown butter.
The story is the most complex Penny has written to date. It begins by jumping back and forth in time yet is easy enough to follow. One must pay attention to the characters and their relationships. There is a lot to this plot that can’t be exposed in a review. It isn’t a book to stop and start but is best read by becoming completely absorbed in the story.
A WORLD OF CURIOSITIES is filled with misdirection and red herrings at every turn, even though the clues are there. Even though one instinctively knows, at least hopes, everything will be alright, the suspense is such that the end may engender tears of relief. The reader is so invested in the characters, one experiences their pain, fear, and anger, but also their love. This is one of the most suspenseful books Penny has written and one that must have required a tremendous amount of research. It may also be one of her best.
A WORLD OF CURIOSITIES (Susp-Chief Insp. Armand Gamache-Three Pines, Canada-Contemp)
Louise Penny – 18th in series
Minotaur Books, Nov 2022, 384 pp.
RATING: Ex/A+
Going to the past can be painful and dangerous. It is there where Chief Inspector Gamache and Agent Jean-Guy Beauvoir first meet during the case of two children so emotionally damaged they may have murdered their own mother, Clotilde Arsenault. The older sister, Fiona, is sent to prison, while the brother, Sam, is deemed too young to be tried. Returning to the present, Gamache and his wife, Raine-Marie, take in a now-released Fiona and facilitated her enrollment in the École Polytechnique, from which she is now graduating along with Harriet, bookshop owner and ex-psychologist, Myrna Lander. Natalie Provost, a survivor of the Montreal Massacre where 14 were killed and 13 were wounded, all women, is receiving a special award. Sam showing up at the graduation and is planning to stay in Three Pines, is an unwelcome surprise to Gamache, who never trusted the young man.
Myrna and her partner, Billy, are thinking of moving from above the bookshop. Instead, it is suggested they break through to an attic room that had been bricked off by Billy’s ancestor and about which he’d only recently learned upon receiving a letter dated 1862. In the room, they find a trove of unusual objects, some of which had been stolen from Gabi and Olivier’s bistro, and an enormous painting. The painting looks to be “The Paston Treasure,” better known as A World of Curiosities, painted in the 1800s and housed in the U.K. But oddly, the painting in Three Pines is a copy filled with modern objects. Also in the room is something long sought by Raine-Marie; a grimoire, a textbook of magic, inscribed with the name Anne Lamarque, a woman who’d been banished as a witch. After the death of the woman who sent the letter to Billy, Gamache brings in Agent Ameila Choquet to set up an Incident Room in Three Pines in order to learn how all these pieces fit together, and how they lead to a serial killer Gamache arrested years before.
Never has this reviewer written such a long synopsis. Never has Penny written such a book where this long a synopsis was needed. This is not a bad thing.
Penny paints wonderfully visual pictures and is such a lyrical writer. She imbues some of her characters with depth, wisdom and poetry, while others are as basic and ordinary as people often are. “While he’d [Gamache] become an explorer of human emotions, Jean-Guy Beauvoir was the hunter.” Penny also incorporates an informal, yet complete, cast of characters within the story. The reader learns new things about the characters, which keeps them developing and expanding. Ruth, the eclectic poet, provides humor, as well as wisdom and history essential to the plot, while Clara’s information about the painting is fascinating.
The interspersion of literary quotes and poems adds so much to the book. They may inject humor, but they may also connote other emotions, melancholy, sorrow, or a warning. It’s not unusual for the reader to spend time looking up the source material for some of the quotes.
It’s hard not to have favorite characters. One may be the brilliant and fascinating character of Amelia Choquet with her complex history. She is described by Myrna as—"If Ruth and a trash compactor had a child,…” Her use of three particular lines at the end of the book is incredibly powerful.
There can’t be a story in Three Pines that doesn’t include food. While the meals may be simpler than in some previous books, still one is tempted by chilled pea soup, grilled Gruyère and sweet onion sandwiches; salmon, fresh-cut asparagus, baby potatoes, and green salad with vinaigrette; charbroiled steak with chimichurri sauce and frites; and wild mushroom ravioli with sage brown butter.
The story is the most complex Penny has written to date. It begins by jumping back and forth in time yet is easy enough to follow. One must pay attention to the characters and their relationships. There is a lot to this plot that can’t be exposed in a review. It isn’t a book to stop and start but is best read by becoming completely absorbed in the story.
A WORLD OF CURIOSITIES is filled with misdirection and red herrings at every turn, even though the clues are there. Even though one instinctively knows, at least hopes, everything will be alright, the suspense is such that the end may engender tears of relief. The reader is so invested in the characters, one experiences their pain, fear, and anger, but also their love. This is one of the most suspenseful books Penny has written and one that must have required a tremendous amount of research. It may also be one of her best.
A WORLD OF CURIOSITIES (Susp-Chief Insp. Armand Gamache-Three Pines, Canada-Contemp)
Louise Penny – 18th in series
Minotaur Books, Nov 2022, 384 pp.
RATING: Ex/A+
January 4, 2023
The World of Curiosities (#18 of the Inspector Armand Gamache series) is kind of a tame and playful title for Louise Penny’s most disturbing and violent book. Bestialities might be a better word, truth in advertising. Early on in the series I read others refer to “twee” world-making: (The fictional!) Three Pines, a kind of haven against the horrors of the world, and we all wanted to move there and have Olivier and Gabry serve us amazing food and wine and Scotch and warm ourselves near their fire.
Armand and Ren-Marie are a model loving couple, and their family is by now a model, too. Goodness, kindness, prevails, and as things seem to get worse in the world (and in the books), Gamache’s insistent ethical messages get all the more insistent. “Cosies” were the way the early books were described; even Penny said the murders in the books were sort of incidental to her characters and their world.
This is, at a glance, many of Goodreads Penny fans’ favorite book. It’s obviously well-crafted and very ambitious, (though maybe too much so; see below), as Penny tries to connect the dots between all sorts of important historical and fictional entities:
*The Montreal Massacre--an actual event, The École Polytechnique massacre, an antifeminist mass shooting of 14 women Engineering students, that occurred on December 6, 1989
*A school shooting
*A man (viewed as a psychopath) who kills seven people and is put in a maximum security prison by Gamache--this is an old case
*The killing of a sex worker who had trafficked her own two children (10 and 13); this is a flashback to an earlier case, too, after which Gamache and his wife supported the girl’s education to become (of course) an engineer
*A copy of a painting, the original of which is in England: The Paston Treasure, (yes, it’s a real painting) at Norwich Castle Museum, depicts objects from the collections of a local landed family. The Pastons established one of the most extensive cabinets of rarities and curiosities in seventeenth-century England—it boasted no fewer than six hundred decorative art objects, including shell cups, crystal vessels, a pair of crocodiles, gemstones, musical instruments, and paintings. Some guy (not revealed until later) makes a copy of this painting and has contemporary images superimposed on some of the original objects and hides it in a sealed room in a house in Three Pines.
Here’s the original:
https://britishart.yale.edu/publicati...
*Families, good (Gamache) and bad (you’ll see). Nina Simone: “You Have to be Carefully Taught”
*The usual cast of characters with little to do but create local color: Ruth, Rosa the duck, Olivier and Gabry and the brief mentions of food they make
*Rabbits as good luck charms, magic, beliefs in spiritual and even religious truths as a kind of haven against evil
*A grimoire --a book to summon up demons.
*A letter from a bricklayer
So, it’s a lot, yeah, in a relatively short space. An elaborate, complicated (and/or bloated) plot, where Penny takes on the notion of “evil,” which she knows exists, and “insanity” and “lunatics” that have to be faced.
Penny at one point mentions a painter who became great because she ambitiously stepped outside of her comfort zone and tried something new. So I think Penny, in creating what is a kind of thriller she has not quite done before, is creates a kind of homage to a once popular horror writer here, whose name if i shared it would give away a central plot point (oh, somebody else will tell you).
I am, for the record, sick of the terrible poetry of Ruth/Penny and her profane duck--just an old joke. Though I still like Ruth as a character. The mention of different food and some of the Three Pines regulars just seems perfunctory in this one (and others, but I still like most of these folks). And I’m confused about how to rate it. As a page turner, it is at many points a five star book, I’d agree. Robert Bathurst is an amazing reader, again and always.
Armand and Ren-Marie are a model loving couple, and their family is by now a model, too. Goodness, kindness, prevails, and as things seem to get worse in the world (and in the books), Gamache’s insistent ethical messages get all the more insistent. “Cosies” were the way the early books were described; even Penny said the murders in the books were sort of incidental to her characters and their world.
This is, at a glance, many of Goodreads Penny fans’ favorite book. It’s obviously well-crafted and very ambitious, (though maybe too much so; see below), as Penny tries to connect the dots between all sorts of important historical and fictional entities:
*The Montreal Massacre--an actual event, The École Polytechnique massacre, an antifeminist mass shooting of 14 women Engineering students, that occurred on December 6, 1989
*A school shooting
*A man (viewed as a psychopath) who kills seven people and is put in a maximum security prison by Gamache--this is an old case
*The killing of a sex worker who had trafficked her own two children (10 and 13); this is a flashback to an earlier case, too, after which Gamache and his wife supported the girl’s education to become (of course) an engineer
*A copy of a painting, the original of which is in England: The Paston Treasure, (yes, it’s a real painting) at Norwich Castle Museum, depicts objects from the collections of a local landed family. The Pastons established one of the most extensive cabinets of rarities and curiosities in seventeenth-century England—it boasted no fewer than six hundred decorative art objects, including shell cups, crystal vessels, a pair of crocodiles, gemstones, musical instruments, and paintings. Some guy (not revealed until later) makes a copy of this painting and has contemporary images superimposed on some of the original objects and hides it in a sealed room in a house in Three Pines.
Here’s the original:
https://britishart.yale.edu/publicati...
*Families, good (Gamache) and bad (you’ll see). Nina Simone: “You Have to be Carefully Taught”
*The usual cast of characters with little to do but create local color: Ruth, Rosa the duck, Olivier and Gabry and the brief mentions of food they make
*Rabbits as good luck charms, magic, beliefs in spiritual and even religious truths as a kind of haven against evil
*A grimoire --a book to summon up demons.
*A letter from a bricklayer
So, it’s a lot, yeah, in a relatively short space. An elaborate, complicated (and/or bloated) plot, where Penny takes on the notion of “evil,” which she knows exists, and “insanity” and “lunatics” that have to be faced.
Penny at one point mentions a painter who became great because she ambitiously stepped outside of her comfort zone and tried something new. So I think Penny, in creating what is a kind of thriller she has not quite done before, is creates a kind of homage to a once popular horror writer here, whose name if i shared it would give away a central plot point (oh, somebody else will tell you).
I am, for the record, sick of the terrible poetry of Ruth/Penny and her profane duck--just an old joke. Though I still like Ruth as a character. The mention of different food and some of the Three Pines regulars just seems perfunctory in this one (and others, but I still like most of these folks). And I’m confused about how to rate it. As a page turner, it is at many points a five star book, I’d agree. Robert Bathurst is an amazing reader, again and always.
July 5, 2024
It’s July 4th. Normally I try to have completed a book that is distinctly a slice of United States’ culture to honor the day with. This year the timing didn’t work out, although I did prepare snacks and will be watching baseball and Star Wars later. Other than rain putting a damper on the fireworks, you can’t get much more American than that. To honor Canada Day, which is also this week, I returned to Three Pines. Outside where I live the weather is in the nineties and humid. The humidity probably won’t break for another few months so I stay in and read and watch movies. I have mentioned that I would love to be a summer resident in Three Pines- cooler temperatures, neighbors who are like family, celebrations on the town green, and oh that food in the bistro. Who would not want to live in such a welcoming community? This village has seen its share of crimes and murders, not the image one pictures when evoking a warm village full of friends; however, that is what Three Pines has come to be known for along with its good. I have gone back to Three Pines for an eighteeenth time for all of the good that gives this community its charm. Of course, with the good is also lurking danger.
On December 6, 1989 (in real life) a killer entered the École Polytechnique in Montréal, murdering fourteen female students and wounding thirteen others. The motive: to rid a man’s profession of women intruders, much like the witch hunts of three centuries earlier. If a woman exhibited an extraordinary knowledge or strength, then she must be a witch. As younger professionals just starting out, Armand Gamache had been assigned to an ambulance team assisting the victims and survivors. It is a date he would never forget because the aftermath is what made him decide to enter into a career as a homicide detective. Meanwhile, around this time Reine Marie began a career long search for Quebec’s one known grimoire once belonging to Anne Lamarque, a woman accused of being a witch in 1672, who somehow escaped and found safety in a location that one day would become Three Pines. The grimoire became lost to history but not Lamarque’s story as modern women would preserve her memory, Ruth even evoking her in a poem written to honor the Polytechnique victims. What these people had in common: being women. It is something that Louise Penny does not let the reader forget over the course of this case, in which strong women from both the past and present assist Gamache in solving a heinous crime.
What readers did not know precisely prior to this case is how Gamache rose to power in the Sureté. His first big case occurred twenty years early when he and a young Jean-Guy Beauvoir successfully accused children of murdering their mother out of self defense. The girl, Fiona, was tried as an adult, although Gamache had advocated for intense therapy instead. The boy, Sam, aged ten, was probably hurt beyond help. Neither child received the support that they needed as children; however, Gamache viewed potential in Fiona and recommended her for early parole and distance classes at the École Polytechnique. He also acted as Fiona’s sponsor, although his role in the original case might have blinded him to her true personality. Both Reine Marie and Jean-Guy warned him over the years that it could be that Sam is the good one and Fiona the bad child, or it could be that both are bad. Gamache’s compassion toward all people and giving them second changes is what makes him stand out as a homicide detective, in a profession where many have succumbed to vice and graft. Not Gamache, yet Fiona is his one blind spot, and now both she and Sam have resurfaced in his life at the same time that a mysterious letter turns up in Three Pines. It could be coincidence or not. It is up to the villagers to decide before it is too late.
When I first started reading Still Life, readers of this series noted that the series could be read out of order as stand alone books. Now that I have caught up, I beg to differ. Yes, most of the action takes place in Three Pines, but there are story arcs that if one went to the library and picked up book ten, they probably would not know what was going on in the characters’ lives. Penny says that after eighteen books, there is more to the stories than meets the eye, as in Clara’s famous portrait of Ruth, a trick of the light. Many books ago, Penny introduced readers to the Whore of Babylon and the serial killer John Fleming. It was Gamache who finally got Fleming behind bars and now the serial killer has somehow escaped and he has come for Gamache, leaving a trail of clues behind. A knowing person would have to crack this code before Fleming kills again, and Gamache says that no one else should become a member of the club. Characters from previous cases return to help crack this mystery, as do all of the quirky villagers of Three Pines. No one knows more about the village than Ruth, and Myrna as a psychologist helps to analyze what might go on inside the head of a serial killer. Clara and Reine Marie use their professional expertise as well, hoping upon hope that Fleming is stopped before the safety and peacefulness of the village is compromised.
When I think of Three Pines in summer my thoughts go to the Canada Day celebration on the town green. The barbecue and bonfire. The Gamaches returning from their anniversary celebration at the Manor Bellchasse. My mind thankfully does not evoke the image of a deranged killer, but that is the monster that Penny has placed in the village. As long as the evil does not win out, the village that is a marker of peace and safety for generations will remain unsullied. Penny says that eighteen books in, readers should understand the complexity of these books. Eighteen is a long series and it also signifies life, in this case the renewed spirit of life that the village of Three Pines has given to villagers looking for a place where they feel safe. It is why declared witch Anne Lamarque felt safe there and why the current villagers do as well. When I pick up a Gamache book, I feel like I am catching up with family. Now that I have caught up and will be reading the series in real time, I will have to savor the books as they are published. Having only read three detective series in my adult life, I am choosy when I select a new detective family to enter into my reading life. I wonder if I will ever find a community that lives up to what Louise Penny has created in Three Pines, although I do not expect anything to measure up.
🌲 4.5 stars 🌲 🌲
On December 6, 1989 (in real life) a killer entered the École Polytechnique in Montréal, murdering fourteen female students and wounding thirteen others. The motive: to rid a man’s profession of women intruders, much like the witch hunts of three centuries earlier. If a woman exhibited an extraordinary knowledge or strength, then she must be a witch. As younger professionals just starting out, Armand Gamache had been assigned to an ambulance team assisting the victims and survivors. It is a date he would never forget because the aftermath is what made him decide to enter into a career as a homicide detective. Meanwhile, around this time Reine Marie began a career long search for Quebec’s one known grimoire once belonging to Anne Lamarque, a woman accused of being a witch in 1672, who somehow escaped and found safety in a location that one day would become Three Pines. The grimoire became lost to history but not Lamarque’s story as modern women would preserve her memory, Ruth even evoking her in a poem written to honor the Polytechnique victims. What these people had in common: being women. It is something that Louise Penny does not let the reader forget over the course of this case, in which strong women from both the past and present assist Gamache in solving a heinous crime.
What readers did not know precisely prior to this case is how Gamache rose to power in the Sureté. His first big case occurred twenty years early when he and a young Jean-Guy Beauvoir successfully accused children of murdering their mother out of self defense. The girl, Fiona, was tried as an adult, although Gamache had advocated for intense therapy instead. The boy, Sam, aged ten, was probably hurt beyond help. Neither child received the support that they needed as children; however, Gamache viewed potential in Fiona and recommended her for early parole and distance classes at the École Polytechnique. He also acted as Fiona’s sponsor, although his role in the original case might have blinded him to her true personality. Both Reine Marie and Jean-Guy warned him over the years that it could be that Sam is the good one and Fiona the bad child, or it could be that both are bad. Gamache’s compassion toward all people and giving them second changes is what makes him stand out as a homicide detective, in a profession where many have succumbed to vice and graft. Not Gamache, yet Fiona is his one blind spot, and now both she and Sam have resurfaced in his life at the same time that a mysterious letter turns up in Three Pines. It could be coincidence or not. It is up to the villagers to decide before it is too late.
When I first started reading Still Life, readers of this series noted that the series could be read out of order as stand alone books. Now that I have caught up, I beg to differ. Yes, most of the action takes place in Three Pines, but there are story arcs that if one went to the library and picked up book ten, they probably would not know what was going on in the characters’ lives. Penny says that after eighteen books, there is more to the stories than meets the eye, as in Clara’s famous portrait of Ruth, a trick of the light. Many books ago, Penny introduced readers to the Whore of Babylon and the serial killer John Fleming. It was Gamache who finally got Fleming behind bars and now the serial killer has somehow escaped and he has come for Gamache, leaving a trail of clues behind. A knowing person would have to crack this code before Fleming kills again, and Gamache says that no one else should become a member of the club. Characters from previous cases return to help crack this mystery, as do all of the quirky villagers of Three Pines. No one knows more about the village than Ruth, and Myrna as a psychologist helps to analyze what might go on inside the head of a serial killer. Clara and Reine Marie use their professional expertise as well, hoping upon hope that Fleming is stopped before the safety and peacefulness of the village is compromised.
When I think of Three Pines in summer my thoughts go to the Canada Day celebration on the town green. The barbecue and bonfire. The Gamaches returning from their anniversary celebration at the Manor Bellchasse. My mind thankfully does not evoke the image of a deranged killer, but that is the monster that Penny has placed in the village. As long as the evil does not win out, the village that is a marker of peace and safety for generations will remain unsullied. Penny says that eighteen books in, readers should understand the complexity of these books. Eighteen is a long series and it also signifies life, in this case the renewed spirit of life that the village of Three Pines has given to villagers looking for a place where they feel safe. It is why declared witch Anne Lamarque felt safe there and why the current villagers do as well. When I pick up a Gamache book, I feel like I am catching up with family. Now that I have caught up and will be reading the series in real time, I will have to savor the books as they are published. Having only read three detective series in my adult life, I am choosy when I select a new detective family to enter into my reading life. I wonder if I will ever find a community that lives up to what Louise Penny has created in Three Pines, although I do not expect anything to measure up.
🌲 4.5 stars 🌲 🌲
December 5, 2022
Wow, I can't believe I've just read the 18th book of the series! I thought it would have been rounded off long ago. Maybe I would have stopped reading the series too, because the author's writing style can be quite annoying. She varies her sentence length. Too much. Sometimes, for no apparent reason. It's a bit less obvious when listening.
In this book Chief Inspector Gamache is more human than ever before. Maybe the author has finally realized that her main character was a little too saintly in his goodness and forgiving nature. In this book, he's taken in an orphan, Fiona. However, Fiona is a recently released child offender, and she has a brother Sam, that Gamache cannot stand. Think of that huh, he finally meets a person he really hates!
The book starts with the murder of Sam's and Fiona's mother. This is the case where Gamache and inspector Beauvoir first meet, back when Beauvoir really had an ax to grind. When that cold case is out of the way, the plot moves on to a more sinister one. It starts with the discovery of a boarded up room and an intricate copy of the painting of "a world of curiosities" and descends into chaos and horror from there.
I enjoyed seeing the darker sides of Gamache. No human is a saint, we're all sinners. And not in any religious sense, we are by nature petty, jealous and vengeful - it's just that we contain this in different measures and some have so many more virtuous traits that their darker streaks rarely show. But they are there.
I suppose this book could be read as a stand alone, but to get a feel for the real depth and breadth of it, you need to know the history of the characters. And for that, you need the back-drop. The other books. Many of them are quite good, so please feel free to start from the very beginning.
In this book Chief Inspector Gamache is more human than ever before. Maybe the author has finally realized that her main character was a little too saintly in his goodness and forgiving nature. In this book, he's taken in an orphan, Fiona. However, Fiona is a recently released child offender, and she has a brother Sam, that Gamache cannot stand. Think of that huh, he finally meets a person he really hates!
The book starts with the murder of Sam's and Fiona's mother. This is the case where Gamache and inspector Beauvoir first meet, back when Beauvoir really had an ax to grind. When that cold case is out of the way, the plot moves on to a more sinister one. It starts with the discovery of a boarded up room and an intricate copy of the painting of "a world of curiosities" and descends into chaos and horror from there.
I enjoyed seeing the darker sides of Gamache. No human is a saint, we're all sinners. And not in any religious sense, we are by nature petty, jealous and vengeful - it's just that we contain this in different measures and some have so many more virtuous traits that their darker streaks rarely show. But they are there.
I suppose this book could be read as a stand alone, but to get a feel for the real depth and breadth of it, you need to know the history of the characters. And for that, you need the back-drop. The other books. Many of them are quite good, so please feel free to start from the very beginning.
August 15, 2023
I really struggled on the rating - do I bump it to a 4 which the vast majority of my reviews of her books where or a 5 since this will be the last of her works I'll read, but ultimately settled on the 3 for the reasons listed below.
I just found 400 pages was once again, alot to read and thought some storylines were put in for the sake of it. Case in point seems to be the residents meeting in the bistro at the end of case to discuss it; like I think they did with each other case in this 18 book series. And, perhaps too many mid-day meals and house parties to discuss the case or "just because".
It took me a bit of time to get the connection and follow the numerous storylines of the two young children who were abused to when they were young adults and then attending the graduation of the young lady from the E'cole Polytechnique. To me, there was no specific break in the chapters that the story was moving from time line to time line.
I re-read the last few pages of the book to see if there were hints Gamache was actually retiring this time and if Beauvoir was moving up the chain of command, what was happening to Lacoste, Choquet.
I just wish there will be a TV series on each book (like "Murder She Wrote") or those written by Agatha Christie seen on Brit Box.
I just found 400 pages was once again, alot to read and thought some storylines were put in for the sake of it. Case in point seems to be the residents meeting in the bistro at the end of case to discuss it; like I think they did with each other case in this 18 book series. And, perhaps too many mid-day meals and house parties to discuss the case or "just because".
It took me a bit of time to get the connection and follow the numerous storylines of the two young children who were abused to when they were young adults and then attending the graduation of the young lady from the E'cole Polytechnique. To me, there was no specific break in the chapters that the story was moving from time line to time line.
I re-read the last few pages of the book to see if there were hints Gamache was actually retiring this time and if Beauvoir was moving up the chain of command, what was happening to Lacoste, Choquet.
I just wish there will be a TV series on each book (like "Murder She Wrote") or those written by Agatha Christie seen on Brit Box.
January 17, 2023
I think I’m done with Three Pines.
The first half of the book focusses on sexual abuse of minors, then the author praises The Mists of Avalon in the second half - which was written by an abuser. This is not okay. I’m out.
On top of that, terrible pacing and slow, ridiculous (yet predictable) plot, poor editing, and half the book is flashbacks.
The first half of the book focusses on sexual abuse of minors, then the author praises The Mists of Avalon in the second half - which was written by an abuser. This is not okay. I’m out.
On top of that, terrible pacing and slow, ridiculous (yet predictable) plot, poor editing, and half the book is flashbacks.
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