A Rule Against Murder (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #4)
Louise Penny
"What happened here last night isn't allowed," said Madame Dubois.It was such an extraordinary thing to say it stopped the ravenous Inspector Beauvoir from taking another bite of his roast beef on baguette."You have a rule against murder?" he asked."I do. When my husband and I bought the Bellechasse we made a pact....Everything that stepped foot on this land would be safe."It is the height of summer, and Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache are celebrating their wedding anniversary at Manoir Bellechasse, an isolated, luxurious inn not far from the village of Three Pines. But they're not alone. The Finney family—rich, cultured, and respectable—has also arrived for a celebration of their own.The beautiful Manoir Bellechasse might be surrounded by nature, but there is something unnatural looming. As the heat rises and the humidity closes in, some surprising guests turn up at the family reunion, and a terrible summer storm leaves behind a dead body. It is up to Chief Inspector Gamache to unearth secrets long buried and hatreds hidden behind polite smiles. The chase takes him to Three Pines, into the dark corners of his own life, and finally to a harrowing climax.
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0I am so conflicted about this series.
On one hand, I'm intrigued by the sorts of mysteries that Penny is creating, and some of the character work is interesting enough to keep me coming back.
On the other hand, Penny's writing and choices for exploring character work are FUCKING BIZARRE. I can get past the constant POV hopping and Penny's penchant for keeping things frustratingly secret from the reader. Whatever, it works to keep my intrigue high.
But some of the character work, especially in this one? Oh my God. The minor emotional throughline of Gamache's father's history made sense in the greater themes being explored in this book, but JEAN GUY? WHAT THE HELL WAS JEAN GUY'S EMOTIONAL PLOT LINE IN THIS BOOK? WHAT?????? Even after everything was made clear it made NO damn sense for that to be part of this. Like WTF. I could understand having that in the book if I squinted, but it was still absolutely baffling and felt completely unneeded.
A lot of Penny's character work and exploration is like this, and she walks a VERY a fine line between having characters with realistic issues (Clara) and characters who are just fucking assholes and I despise reading about even though they're supposed to """QUirKY~""" (Gabri, Ruth).
What a bizarre series. I can't stop reading it.
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