Seventh Armand Gamache Mystery As Appealing as the First

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

(Note:  While this review will not contain spoilers for A Trick of the Light, it may inadvertently reveal plot surprises from earlier Armand Gamache mysteries.  As always, I recommend reading books in a series in order.)

While the good folks of Three Pines are gathered at the Morrows' home celebrating the opening of Clara's solo art show, something sinister is happening in the garden.  Lillian Dyson, a venomous art critic, is dead, her neck broken.  The woman's presence is almost as shocking as her death.  What was Lillian, an uninvited guest universally hated in the art world, doing at a casual, small town party?  Why did no one see her until her until her corpse was discovered in the garden?  Plenty of people (including Clara Morrow) had reason to want Lillian dead, but who put their murderous thoughts into action?

Armand Gamache, Chief Inspector of the Sûcreté du Québec, is as flummoxed by the case as everyone else.  In an industry bursting at the seams with ego and artifice, he knows, little is as it seems.  To find a killer, Gamache must do what he does best:  "Gamache went there.  To the end of the known world and beyond.  Into the dark, hidden places.  He looked into the crevices, where the worst things hid" (110).  As he digs into the motives of his Three Pines friends and their colleagues, Gamache will, indeed, discover some shocking secrets.  One of which led to cold-blooded murder.

I adore Louise Penny's Armand Gamache novels, so it's no surprise that I enjoyed A Trick of the Light, the seventh book in the series.  It's always interesting to visit Three Pines and discover more of what lurks beneath its placid surface.  Armand Gamache is a consistent pleasure to be around—his kind, gentleman-ly ways make him a unique character in crime fiction.  I especially liked all the reveals and surprises in A Trick of the Light, even though some of them made me sad.  This series just keeps getting better for me and I can't wait to read the next book.  And the next, and the next ...

(Readalikes:  Other books in the series, including Still Life; A Fatal Grace; The Cruelest Month; A Rule Against Murder; The Brutal Telling; Bury Your Dead; The Hangman [novella]; The Beautiful Mystery; How the Light Gets In; The Long Way Home; The Nature of the Beast; and A Great Reckoning)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for strong language and violence

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find