I am like a broken record when I say that the Louise Penny Three Pines Series just keeps getting better and better and The Beautiful Mystery the 8th book in the series is excellent. I rated it five stars on goodreads and after I did I wondered should I reserve five stars for the classics and national book award winners. But then I thought no. A book should be judged within its genre and by that criteria The Beautiful Mystery is a five star read.
And what makes The Beautiful Mystery different than the prior seven novels in the series that I have read is that the fictional little village of Three Pines and its residents: Clara, Peter, Ruth, Olivier, Gabriel, Myrna do not appear in this novel. Instead this book is set in a monastery Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups located on an island in a remote part of Quebec.
Twenty-four monks live at the Saint-Gilbert--Entre-les-Loups. They are entirely self sufficient and were living in isolation with no one knowing of their existence until they decided to make their beautiful music, the Gregorian chants, available to the outside world.
The monks became famous overnight with money from CD sales pouring in but they continued their cloistered life not allowing anyone from the outside to enter the Saint-Gilbert--Entre-les-Loups. But then one of the monks, the choir director Frere Mathieu, is found murdered in the garden. Chief Insp. Armand Gamache and his first lieutenant, Insp. Jean-Guy Beauvoir, make their journey to the monastery to find out which of the monks committed the murder and why.
We learn in The Beautiful Mystery about the monastic life, Catholic Church history, the Gregorian chants and so much more. There is also a sub plot involving Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir and that sub plot interested me a good deal. We get a deep dive into the character and insecurities of Jean-Guy Beauvoir and though he is not an easy character to warm up to, I am starting to find him fascinating and will be eager to get on to the ninth book in this marvelous series.
I say any book you end up really loving is worth 5 stars! No matter what kind of book it is. Because foremost of all, books and reading should make us happy. :D
ReplyDeleteAgree Lark, because if we really love a book it should be 5 stars so that we will have a record of our favorite books and going forward know what kind of books we enjoy. And it's the same with classics. I have a number of classics I have read where people will say oh you have to rate that 5 stars but why if I didn't care for the book and was bored all the way through.
DeleteEven classics aren't perfect. I've read and enjoyed many of them, but there's very few that I've actually given 5 stars.
DeleteThe setting on this one sounds very interesting and it seems much can be learned about their life at the monastery as the story goes along. I like how it differs from the others in the series. I have not started the Louise Penny books ... but you make them seem very appealing. Glad you are enjoying them.
ReplyDeleteHi Susan, I am hooked on this series and though I still say the series is best read in order, The Beautiful Mystery could be read as a standalone because it's not set in 3 Pines and its a really fine novel.
DeleteI agree that this is one of the best books in the series. Very compelling. The last book in the Three Pines series that I read, The Nature of the Beast, was not a favorite, but even a lesser book by Louise Penny is a good read.
ReplyDeleteHi Tracy, I have never gotten so far in a series as I have with Louise Penny' Three Pines. I love the characters and above all Armand Gamache who ties it all together. It's not a cozy mystery series but it's a series that transports you to the village of Three Pines where we can forget our troubles for a bit.
DeleteI do remember being a little taken aback by the fact that all my favorite characters from Three Pines were nowhere to be found and that I'd have to wait yet another year for a new novel they all were in...and then I got hooked on the story and its setting to the point that I forgot all about be a little irked by the choice the author had made. This turned out to be one of my favorites in the series, and one I remember most clearly.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably going to be one of my favorites in the series too and I guess it was only a matter of time before Louise Oenny would need to write a novel in which Three Pines doesn't factor into the story. The Beautiful Mystery is the kind of book I could reread and pick up things that I missed before.
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