I would give this book 10 stars or more if I could. When I was approved for the egalley, being the mature professional librarian that I am, I went up to one of my coworkers who also reads the series and basically said Nya! Nya! I got to read the book early. That is the level of devotion that this entire series inspires in its readers.After the emotional ending of the previous book, I was prepared for this one to be heavy duty but I had no idea how much this emotion this book would evoke. I liter...

Louise Penny impresses as she pulls on a major event in Quebec history, weaving it effectively into the premise of this next novel in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. Major changes have begun with the Homicide squad of the Sûreté du Québec, including the removal of Inspector Jean Guy Beauvoir. It would seem that the fallout from their case at a rural priory created more ripples than anyone could expect, with Chief Superintendent Francoeur still sharpening his knives with hateful eyes f...

SPOILERS BELOWYes, I gave this one only three stars. I have read and really liked the other books in the series, but I thought this one was subpar -- not bad but not as excellent as its predecessors. Here's why.1. Penny's writing style seemed almost a caricature of itself. All of those sentence fragments. Done for emphasis. Getting on my nerves. Time after time. In an overly dramatic way. I don't recall being so aware and irritated by the writing in past books but the jerky style of this one gra...

How the Light Gets In is possibly my favourite of this series so far! It had everything I look for in these books - Three Pines, snow (lots of), Armand Gamache being his wonderful self, great police work, lots of excitement and a duck. It was pretty essential to have read the previous books in order to get the most out of this one. Some long standing plot lines were brought to a conclusion and the characters are so much better for having known them a long time. Three Pines is a character in itse...

Oh my word!! What an episode! Heart pounding, breathtaking, chilling reading from Louise Penny in this the 9th of the Armand Gamache series. The best so far in my humble opinion!When Myrna contacted Chief Inspector Armand Gamache it was for his help. Good friends by now, Armand left Montreal immediately and headed for Three Pines. The story Myrna told Armand was the beginning of a case that went back decades – on the back of another that Armand had been following, digging, searching for a long t...

In this 9th book in the 'Chief Inspector Armand Gamache' series, the detective investigates the death of an elderly quintuplet. The book can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the characters and background is a bonus.*****Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is a troubled guy: his best homicide detectives have been transferred out of his squad and he's been saddled with a bunch of lazy losers.His former mentee Lt. Jean-Guy Beavoir is not speaking to him and is once again abusing prescriptio...

While I enjoy a good series, there are few books that are part of a series that leave me with a book hangover when I am finished with them. How the Light Get In left me with that hangover. I finished it this afternoon, and since that time I've not wanted to read anything. I've just wanted to live with the emotional reverberations this book created within me. I have read the entire series, and I suspect that some of this reaction is a cumulative effect: I've spent a lot time with these characters...

For readers unfamiliar with Louise Penny's mystery series, this is #9 with Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Although this is only my second foray into her Quebec crime series (my first being her last book, BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY), I was impressed with her ability to create multiple plots and weave them together. There's a fresh murder to solve in the town of Three Pines (where some of her series takes place), as well as an arc that started several books ago--the malfeasance of the Sûreté du Québec (po...

I absolutely love this series as I am sure you can see by my rating, but I am always sad when I am done because now I have to wait for another year or so for a new one. I become so immersed in Three Pines and these people's lives it is often a shock to realize they are not real, but are characters in a novel. I wish they were real, I wish Three Pines was a place I could visit. Part of this story, concerned quints born during the Great Depression, and though there were real quints born, only the

I can't believe it. I just can't. But here it is:I'm done. I'm done with Three Pines.After 8 novels mostly set in this lovely remote Quebec village, interesting characters and storylines, it was looking as if Louse Penny couldn't lose me if she tried. If you read my review for her previous book, The Beautiful Mystery, you may remember I cut into Nancy Pearl, a well known US Librarian and book reviewer/recommender. I took her to task on the comment she made about this series, how the setting in T...

4.5 starsAfter the misery of the previous book in this series, I am happy to report that it was a one-time fluke (so far) and Penny is now back to her usual wonderful writing in this book! I'm also going to keep saying this until I turn blue in the face: if you aren't reading this series, you are missing out. Gamache is both more broken and more forceful than we have ever seen him before. The 'case' being investigated is inspired by a real-life event that even I, an American, knew about, which w...

"Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack, a crack in everything That's how the light gets in"......Leonard Cohen Ingenious and sinister. These words form part of the official blurb for this ninth book in the Inspector Gamache series. The intrigue and animosity around Chief Inspector Armand Gamache are closing in when his enemies, with his senior manager, Francoeur, as the front runner in the Sureté de Quebec, slowly pulls the plug on his honorable care

I love this book! I was fortunate to receive an advanced copy of Louise Penny's latest mystery novel "How the Light Gets In", the ninth in the series about Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and the Homicide Division of the Surete du Quebec. I had already reserved a hard copy for the August 2013 release date because this is one author I buy in hardcover; the better to savor her writing. This truly gifted author has the ability to make you FEEL - so much so, that this is almost more novel than myster...