Louise Penny has written another fabulous mystery novel about our friends in Three Pines. Chief Superintendent of the Surete du Quebec, Armand Gamache and his wife Reine-Marie. His second in command and son-in-law, Jean-Guy Beauvoir and head of homicide, Isabelle Lacoste. Of course there are all the citizens of the small hidden village; Ruth Zardo, Olivier and Gabri, Clara and Myrna. Then there are the guests and newcomers to the village, who help create the cast of characters that will be the victims and suspects in the murder case.
Each murder mystery that Penny writes is fantastic as a mystery novel in its self. But also it is a work of art in fiction literature. It does not just rest on the laurels of being a good whodunit, it takes the reader on a literary journey with beautiful descriptions of the forest and life in a small village. As the reader you go between two types of feelings. First, you like you are right there with the friends sitting at the table in the bistro sharing a bottle of wine or drinking your own hot chocolate to warm up in front of the fire on a snowy day. You are sharing a meal with Gamache and Beauvoir discussing the clues of the case.
"Olivier stood at the window of the bistro and watched the Surete officers walking down the road from the church. He wasn't alone. The rest of the village, and those from outlying farms, had gathered in the bistro, the focal point for the community, in good times and bad. ...They watched silently as Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir and Isabelle Lacoste walked toward them through the cold November drizzle that turned, every now and then, into sleet. Then back again. Olivier and Gabri had been handing out coffee and tea, juices, and fresh, warm cookies from Sarah's bakery. No alcohol. No need to feed already heightened emotions. ...Both fireplaces, on either side of the bistro, were lit. And now the only sound, besides some labored breathing, was the cheery crackle of the logs. The place smelled of woodsmoke and rich coffee. And wet wool form those who'd arrived late, hurrying through the damp afternoon."
The second feeling could be jealousy, the feeling that you want to have that kind of place to go, to feel the warmth of a small pub or cafe, where you can go and replicate the cosiness that is described by Penny in this place and with the friends that you can always count on like these people seem to be able to trust and rely on each other.
So in this book, the murder plot revolves around the idea that a strange figure appears in the center of town who looks like the Grim Reaper, and is called a "cobrador", acting as a conscience for someone who has done something bad and gotten away with it. This figure follows the person around until the pay their debt, either money or with guilt and embarrassment. Things go wrong and after watching the cobrador stand on the village green for two days, someone is found dead.
The book starts in the middle with Gamache on the witness stand in court testifying about who the murderer is. The interesting concept in this book is how it travels back and forth in time, between the trial in the present tense, with Gamache telling the story as he testifies, and a kind of flashback, where we are back in Three Pines as the case is being investigated. In this back and forth style the entire case is revealed slowly, explaining how the murder occurred and how they discovered who committed the crime and what the motive was.
Again just a wonderful literary mystery novel to sink down into the couch and imagine you are in Myrna's book shop, in Three Pines, on a rainy, or snowy afternoon with some comfort food and hot chocolate reading about the case with Armand and Reine-Marie.
