A Fatal Grace
Books | Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Traditional
4.3
(276)
Louise Penny
Read the series that inspired Three Pines on Prime Video. From the #1 New York Times bestseller Louise Penny comes the second Armand Gamache mystery set in the stunning countryside of Quebec.Winner of the 2007 Agatha Award for Best Novel!Welcome to winter in Three Pines, a picturesque village in Quebec, where the villagers are preparing for a traditional country Christmas, and someone is preparing for murder.No one liked CC de Poitiers. Not her quiet husband, not her spineless lover, not her pathetic daughter—and certainly none of the residents of Three Pines. CC de Poitiers managed to alienate everyone, right up until the moment of her death. When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, of the Sûreté du Quebec, is called to investigate, he quickly realizes he's dealing with someone quite extraordinary. CC de Poitiers was electrocuted in the middle of a frozen lake, in front of the entire village, as she watched the annual curling tournament. And yet no one saw anything. Who could have been insane enough to try such a macabre method of murder—or brilliant enough to succeed?With his trademark compassion and courage, Gamache digs beneath the idyllic surface of village life to find the dangerous secrets long buried there. For a Quebec winter is not only staggeringly beautiful but deadly, and the people of Three Pines know better than to reveal too much of themselves. But other dangers are becoming clear to Gamache. As a bitter wind blows into the village, something even more chilling is coming for Gamache himself.
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Author
Louise Penny
Pages
320
Publisher
St. Martin's Publishing Group
Published Date
2007-05-15
ISBN
1429967242 9781429967242
Ratings
Google: 5
Community ReviewsSee all
"For once in my life I correctly guessed the ending to a murder mystery! I even have a witness since both my husband and I listened to the audiobook on our 10-hour round trip this weekend. I think he was jealous that I figured it out and he didn’t!<br/><br/>That being said, I really like the detective in this series, and I’m happily surprised that all the same characters from the first novel are reappearing. It should be interesting to continue reading these books, there were a couple of plot continuations that I am curious to see resolved in the ongoing series."
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Allie Peduto
"Loved this one! An improvement from Still Life in terms of character development and complexity. I feel like the Gamache books are ones that I will need to read all of and then rate as though they are episodes of a single story. The mystery is delicious and complex yet solvable. I’m not as big a fan of the overarching tensions with Gamache’s career, and the dark hints that keep getting dropped about those working against him. But it’s a minor thread and I love the coziness of the Three Pines setting. Penny truly understands why it’s interesting to read murder mysteries: getting inside the minds of the murderers and learning that murder almost always makes SENSE. Everybody is the hero of their own story, or at least has sensible reasons for their actions. Gamache is a good decent person and seemingly incorruptible, though he manages to not be a Mary Sue- a difficult balance to strike."
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Teresa Prokopanko
"Not as good/interesting as the first book in the series, but I'll continue with the series because I really like Armand Gamache and his whole team of investigators. I think that's what made this book a slow start because it takes a bit of time before he enters the picture and we instead focus on the awful character of CC de Poitiers. I actually felt relieved when she got killed off. I'm not such a fan of the town folk--they border on quirky for the sake of quirky but I can tolerate them or skim their passages to get to Gamache & Co. From what I've seen of reviews the series improves, so I'm hoping the next one is a better mystery."
Liesl Prentice