Review
Author: Louise Penny
Reviewed by: Sam Chauncey
Issue: March 2024
Louise Penny has long been recognized as a first-rate mystery writer. She has become, for me, a fine novelist as well. She has a good mystery to solve, and she can paint a character portrait with extraordinary skill. Her main character Armand Gamache, a Quebec police official who resides with his wife, Reine-Marie, in the little town of Three Pines, is a person I would very much like to meet. In each of her mysteries the members of this town re-appear and provide fascinating background for the story. In Glass Houses Chief Inspector Gamache becomes involved in a complicated murder case that includes drug dealing between Quebec and Vermont as well as personal relationships in the distant past. At the heart is a cobrador, or a figure from the ancient past in Europe, who is "a conscience" for people who have misbehaved. Gamache's plan to solve it all involves officials in the police world, the courts, and the little world of Three Pines. Gamache and a man he does not like, the Crown Prosecutor, engage in a real conspiracy to trap the killer while the judge has her own little mystery trying to find out why these two officials of the province act in such strange ways. The residents of Three Pines - Ruth and her duck, the gay couple who run the B&B, chefs in the Bistro, a bookstore owner and an artist all watch the mystery unfold, press their neighbor Chief Inspector Gamache for information about what is going on and the cobrador's appearance in the town a unsettles everyone, particularly after the murder occurs. This is one of those mysteries where the reader has to read carefully and follow the dots in order to grasp all that is happening. At the same time Penny paints a lovely portrait of this tiny town and the wonderful characters in it. Reading all of Penny's Gamache mysteries almost makes the reader a member of Three Pines. And this may be the best of her work.