In Bury Your Dead, book six of Louise Penny's excellent Three Pines mystery series, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of Surete du Quebec is on leave from the Police Department. He is trying to recover emotionally and physically in the aftermath of a tragic police raid that went very wrong. Gamache in an effort to recover is staying in Quebec City spending his time at the Literary and Historical Society doing research and trying to forget.
But then a murder happens. Augustin Renaud, a historian obsessed with finding the burial site of Samuel de Champlain, the founder of Quebec, turns up dead in the basement of the Literary and Historical Society. Gamache realizes he will have to begin iinvestigating who killed Renaud since the Literary and Historical Society is an old English institution and tensions are high in Quebec between the French and English populations.
There is also a separate investigation involving Gamache's second in command, Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir. He is in Three Pines trying to discover whether Olivier Brule, who runs the local bistro with his partner Gabri, really did kill the reclusive antique collector he was convicted of killing. Gamache is having doubts and wants Beauvoir to look into it.
And so in Bury Your Dead, Louise Penny juggles three separate story lines: who killed Augustin Renaud, the guilt or innocence of Olivier Brule and finally the police raid that continues to haunt Gamache. Louise Penny handles all three of these stories beautifully. Bury Your Dead won the Agatha and Anthony Awards in 2010 and 2011 for best mystery novel and I have to agree. I have really enjoyed all of the books I have read in this series and Bury Your Dead is the best yet.
The best yet...that's saying a lot. I've only read the first book in this series, but I really liked Gamache. And I intend to read more of Penny's mysteries...it's just hard trying to fit in all the books I want to read. You know how that goes. ;D Great review as always.
ReplyDeleteHi Lark, it really was the best novel I have read so far in the series and you get a real insight into Gamache in this book. I like him too. He's very smart and a good and decent man. He holds the series together which is want you want in a lead detective. I know what you mean about trying to fit in all the books and I have to pace myself better. I am too slow a reader.
DeleteLouise Penny not only writes gripping mystery novels and terrific character portraits, but she also educated us in history, philosophy, gastronomy and humanity. She does it all making is NEED to learn what happens to the characters we love and how the seeds she scatters in earlier books bloom in later books. Rereading is an added pleasure
ReplyDeleteThat's true Iris and I had no idea there was this much tension between the French and English residents of Quebec until I read Bury Your Dead. I knew there is a movement in Quebec to separate but Louise Penny really fills us in.
DeleteThis was the second or third, I think, Gamache book that read and it locked me in to going back and reading the rest of the series in order no matter how long it goes on. This book is really hard to put down, and the Gamache character is one I really love. I'm a real fan of the books, but I found Amazon Prime's television adaptation of the series to be appallingly bad. Was very disappointed.
ReplyDeleteHi Sam. I have been reading the series in order and with the section of Still Life, Bury Your Dead is the best book I have read in thecseries so far. I did watch the first episode of the TV adaption. I thought Anthony Molina who very good and fit the role but the problem for me was with the other characters. Clara and Peter for example weren't at all like they are written in the books. And the portrayal of Ruth was totally off the mark. She was turned into a caricature.
DeleteGlad you are enjoying these. I have yet to read the Three Pines series but I like how you are going about them in order. It sounds like this one had more development of the character. The French/English tensions would be an interesting component as it seems highly prevalent in places in Quebec. Will you save the next one for awhile?
ReplyDeleteHi Susan, it is important that the series be read in order because you follow the villagers in Three Pines from book to book and they have their own stories and we watch them grow and change. Another great thing about the series is that you learn so much about history and current events in Penny's books. In Bury Your Dead the subject was French/English tensions in Quebec but prior books have dealt with famous sculptures and medieval history etc. I will save the next book for the end of the year. I think 6 months between books in this series is the way to go.
DeleteThis book, along with the preceding book, The Brutal Telling, was where I got hooked on the Inspector Gamache series. I am reading them in order and now have read 10 books, and will read number 11, The Nature of the Beast, this summer.
ReplyDeleteI also did not understand the rift between the French and English residents of Quebec until reading this series. I would still like to understand more about that topic.
This is a very good review, as usual.
Thanks Tracy, and it's great that you have gotten to book 10. It really is best to read them in order. I worry about separatism wherever it rears its head. It's here in the US too and separatists believe that things will be better if they split off and form their own country. That's not necessarily true.
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