A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny
My rating: 3 of 5 stars Dysfunctional & Ideal Families, a Statue, & Milton Sweltering summer. To celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary Chief Inspector Armand Gamache (Head of Homicide for the Surete de Quebec) and his wife Reine-Marie are staying in the Maison Bellechasse, a former robber baron wilderness hunting lodge now the top auberge in Quebec. The only other auberge guests are members of the wealthy and dysfunctional Morrow family, there for a reunion to commemorate the placing of a giant statue of the deceased patriarch Charles (and to frostily ignore or nastily needle each other). This being the fourth Inspector Gamache novel, A Rule Against Murder (2008), the ninth chapter ends with an impossible killing by means of a rare murder weapon. Who did it? Gamache suspects someone from the messed-up family, Agent Jean-Guy Beauvoir focuses on a member of the auberge staff, while Agent Lacoste tries to stay professional. The overarching plot of the first three novels, involving Gamache’s enemy in the police hierarchy and spies on his team, has been resolved, and this novel is the first in the series to mostly occur away from the quirky and cozy village of Three Pines. Three Pines is represented in the novel, though. It’s just over the hill in the next valley from the ex-hunting lodge, and at the start of the first chapter, a postman carries an ominous letter of invitation to a house there… WHAT I LIKED ABOUT THIS NOVEL 1. Compelling Characters The Morrow family turns out to be more interesting and complex than at first meets the eye, and Beauvoir is surprisingly unpleasant for most of the novel. No outdoorsman, he is about the only character to hate wild nature, which he sees as pesky black flies; he almost xenophobically scorns “mad Anglos” and gets a charge out of telling people there’s been a murder, and he’s there to investigate it. Penny’s people feel real because they have flaws and complications and dark sides and sympathetic sides, and she’s good at gradually revealing them as she rotates her POV narration from among them. She thereby keeps us turning the pages not only to find out who dunnit, but also to find out how the characters came to act and feel and think as they do. At least as much as finding out the killer’s identity, I wanted to find out things like why Gamache can’t let his son name his baby after Gamache’s father, why Peter’s nickname is “Spot” and Mariana’s “Magilla,” who wrote “Julia gives good head” in the men’s room of the Ritz, why Irene won’t touch or be touched, what Bean’s gender is, and why Beauvoir is so attracted to the hulking past middle aged chef of the auberge! 2. Sensual Pleasures, Especially Food and Drink Sausages with maple syrup! Cucumber and Raspberry soup with dill! Barbecued steak sandwich with sauteed mushrooms and caramelized onions on top! After-dinner espresso and cognac! 3. Art and Literature References Relevant to the Plot, Characters, and Themes Rodin (the Burghers of Calais), Milton (Paradise Lost), Sir Walter Scott (“Breathes there the Man”), John Gillespie Magee (“High Flight”), Pegasus, Pandora, etc. 4. Canadian/Quebecois Culture Canada Day, the 1960s Quebec change from Anglophone to Francophone, bad swear words like “tabarnak,” indigenous people making hunting lodges for robber barons, etc. 5. Interesting Plot-Relevant Tidbits about Nature Twenty-five-year-old black walnut trees kill everything around them; honey bees can only sting once, etc. 6. Vivid Descriptions “She looked like a bird or a withered angel as she approached.” “Then an old hand, like twigs stripped of bark, reached out and held the gaily patterned sun hat.” 7. Insights into Human Nature The truth *about yourself* will set you free. Emotions like anger and hatred may in time turn into murder. Above all, “The mind is its own place and, in itself can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven.” Penny movingly develops this with the Morrow clan, the auberge staff, Beauvoir, and Gamache. 8. Armand Gamache The presiding deity of the novel, almost too good to be true. Poetry quoting, art referencing, human nature revealing, “monster” (murderer) exploring, self understanding, smelling of safety and calm (rosewater and sandalwood!). He’s the ideal husband and father and teacher and boss. His chief flaw is a fear of heights (which Penny is sure to flog him with now and then). 9. Ralph Cosham The perfect audiobook reader for this series. WHAT I DISLIKED IN THE NOVEL 1. Unbelievable, Unnecessary, Almost Absurd Action Scene Penny can’t resist putting Gamache in thrilling but excrescent and unconvincing action scenes in the climaxes of her novels! 2. Unfair Point of View Narration As Penny rotates among the points of view of her various characters, she commits the crime (which should be banned from the mystery genre) of doing some narration from the point of view (in the mind of) the killer that leaves out things the killer would surely be thinking about. Sneaky point of view tricks enable her to prevent us from guessing the killer’s identity. 3. Something Too Easy for This Reader to Figure Out Relative to the Ace Detectives Via little hints given too early, Penny makes it too easy for this reader (no kind of detective) to figure out how the murder was done well before Gamache and company figure it out. Embarrassing. 4. Too Much Mystery Solving Explanation and Absence of Vital Information Finally, Penny doesn’t really explain just how certain things relating to the timing of the crime and the positioning of the victim were made to work according to the killer’s plan, and she finesses this via misdirection via Gamache’s final Genius Detective Explanations. Finally, Penny’s strengths are character development, interaction, and insight, not violent action, and she should write her mysteries more fairly re point of view and more convincingly re method of murder. I really liked this novel and couldn’t put it down and will continue with the series, but I felt disappointed by the climax and resentful at the revelation of the culprit. View all my reviews
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