A Fatal Grace
A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel
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4.4 • 1.1K Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When sadistic socialite CC de Poitiers is fatally electrocuted at a Christmas curling competition in the tiny Qu becois village of Three Pines, only the arcane method of the murder is a surprise in Penny's artful but overwritten sophomore effort (after her highly praised 2006 debut, Still Life). CC had cobbled together a spiritual guidance business based on eliminating emotion, but the feelings she inspired in others were anything but serene. Everyone around the cartoonish victim from a daughter cowed by lifelong abuse to the local spiritual teacher whose business she threatens to ruin has a motive, and the crime also links to a vagrant's recent murder as well as to the pasts of several beloved village residents. The calm but quirky Chief Insp. Armand Gamache, who arrives in Three Pines from Montreal to head the investigation, is appealing as the series' focus. Though Penny gorgeously evokes the smalltown Christmas mood, the novel is oddly steeped in holiday atmosphere for a May release, and the plot's dependence on lengthy backstory slows the momentum.
Customer Reviews
A Fatal Grace
Book #2 in the series was such fun to read! Even better than the debut novel, it was clever and caused me to burst out laughing more than once. I highly recommend it and look forward to reading the next and the next after that.
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A Fatal Grace
On a cold day, 30 December 2017, in a not particularly upbeat year for me and my country, I decided to give myself a treat...so I spent the day reading A Fatal Grace. And, what an enjoyable day it was.
Author Louise Penny is obviously kind and caring or she could not create the people she writes about. They are sharp, witty, well-spoken and quite observant. Like Penny, her characters pay attention to detail; and even the killer has some understandable problems and is often quite likable.
Of course, the readers may “think” they know who the killer is, but chances are they will change their minds numerous times before they learn the truth.
During the book, the author paints people you come to love, a town you long to visit and describes core beliefs you wish everyone shared.
If a murder is an enjoyable read, Louise Penny may be behind it.
—Sarah Scott