I think it’s magnificent on so many levels: as a complex and masterful detective story, as a glorious character study, and as an exploration of universal hopes and fears.

He does solve the murder, and connects it with another murder in the city of Montreal, with the help of his dedicated team of excellent investigators. It is Christmas time in Three Pines but CC de Poitiers manages to alienate everyone she comes in contact with.

While not known personally to Gamache or his wife, her presence in Montreal’s downtown core could not be missed. Then Inspector Gamache came on the scene, late in my judgment, but once he made his appearance, the story took off, with an accelerating pace that lasted all the way through. It is a book in which the values the story claims to be promoting (compassion, love, generosity, respect for human dignity) are actually entirely undercut by the text itself.

Also the manner of her death was so contrived and far fetched it made the whole thing almost comical.He got out of the car and stared down at the village, each home glowing with warm and beckoning light, promising protection against a world sometimes too cold. Come sempre il villaggio di Three Pines e i suoi abitanti sono al centro della narrazione e aiutano Gamache a risolvere il mistero. By the time I got to that meeting, I couldn’t stop talking about how amazing Louise was, except perhaps to ignore everyone else and keep reading more of the story. This is a fine mystery in the classic Agatha Christie style, and it is sure to leave mainstream fans wanting more.

In fact in one way or another, CC has deeply upset many of the inhabitants of the small Canadian village of Three Pines, so when she is murdered during the Boxing Day curling match, no one seems particularly sorry and several people appear to have a very good motive for wishing to see the back of her. I have to ask, am I the only one besides Gamache who can’t understand all of what Billy Williams is saying? All of this occurs in the dead of winter and the weather itself becomes an important factor in the story.

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache solves more murders while surrounded by the sparkling personalities that compose the small town of Three Pines in Canada. What kind of world is this, when the expectation is that everyone is a self-entitled jerk, and doing anything else makes you a saint?