Tuesday, March 5, 2013

A Beautiful Mystery, by Louise Penny--a Review

I love Louise Penny's writing. The extravagantly emotional and sensual thoughts of a now love-besotted Jean-Guy Beauvoir lift and carry us into the snowy world of a French-Canadian Gilbertine monastery, where the younger man's internal music combines and contrasts with that of his older mentor, the ever patient, stable-to-the-point-of-solidifying, Chief Inspector Gamache.

One of twenty-four monks has murdered a brother inside the cold complex of stones and secrets. And this vile act threatens to take the entire structure down. Only one of the many subtle references to present-day pressures that eternally work to unhinge our happy, peaceful lives from a comfortable old reality.

Though Gamache struggles to contain his equilibrium between the increasingly erratic Beauvoir and the perfectly evil Francoeur--who inexplicably drops in from the sky--we all know that something must give.

Beware of the mind-numbing rhythm of plainchant woven through the plot. Something jarring is this way coming. An apparent setup for the next novel, I resent the tease but know I will buy it the moment it goes into print. Because secretly I long for an end to the torment of our implacable hero Gamache, who must exist in the midst of impossible forces.

It's why he's implacable. (Spoiler alert: keep a fresh bowl of chocolate covered blueberries nearby--only understand, the real thing won't match Penny's uncanny, drool-making descriptions.)

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