Sunday, November 7, 2010

mystery masterpiece

This fall I discovered - and, you know, I honestly can't recall how - Canadian mystery authour Louise Penny.  With her series, she's taken the traditional village mystery and brought it into the 21st century in Quebec's Eastern Townships.  There's so much to love about her books:  the cozy (yet disproportionately murderous) hamlet of Three Pines, her carefully drawn characters - each one lovable yet flawed so that you can imagine any one of them could be the murderer but are devastated to find out which ones are, her clever plots, her descriptions of food and the little nods to Canadian culture (from Tim Horton's double-doubles to the delicate Quebecois-Anglo dance in la Belle Province).

But above all other winning qualities of her books is her protagonist Inspector Gamache who readers not only seem to admire but fall in love with.  Turns out that's no accident.  Louise Penny explains why...

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