A World of Curiosities

Locations
Call Number: BOCD Mystery, Adult BOCD / Fiction / Mystery / Penny, Louise
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Traverwood Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	BOCD Mystery	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult A/V 4-week checkout	Adult BOCD / Fiction / Mystery / Penny, Louise	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult A/V 4-week checkout	Adult BOCD / Fiction / Mystery / Penny, Louise	4-week checkout	Due 05-22-2024
Westgate Adult A/V 4-week checkout	Adult BOCD / Fiction / Mystery / Penny, Louise	4-week checkout	Due 05-04-2024

Read by Robert Bathurst.
"Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns in the eighteenth book in #1 New York Times bestseller Louise Penny's beloved series. It's spring and Three Pines is reemerging after the harsh winter. But not everything buried should come alive again. Not everything lying dormant should reemerge. But something has. As the villagers prepare for a special celebration, Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir find themselves increasingly worried. A young man and woman have reappeared in the Sûreté du Québec investigators' lives after many years. The two were young children when their troubled mother was murdered, leaving them damaged, shattered. Now they've arrived in the village of Three Pines. But to what end? Gamache and Beauvoir's memories of that tragic case, the one that first brought them together, come rushing back. Did their mother's murder hurt them beyond repair? Have those terrible wounds, buried for decades, festered and are now about to erupt? As Chief Inspector Gamache works to uncover answers, his alarm grows when a letter written by a long dead stone mason is discovered. In it the man describes his terror when bricking up an attic room somewhere in the village. Every word of the 150-year-old letter is filled with dread. When the room is found, the villagers decide to open it up. As the bricks are removed, Gamache, Beauvoir and the villagers discover a world of curiosities. But the head of homicide soon realizes there's more in that room than meets the eye. There are puzzles within puzzles, and hidden messages warning of mayhem and revenge. In unsealing that room, an old enemy is released into their world. Into their lives. And into the very heart of Armand Gamache's home"-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

major series continuity problems submitted by camelsamba on June 30, 2023, 11:41pm I have gotten used to Robert Bathurst's voice for this series. On to the plot: as usual, there are deeper themes that run through this story, and the people of Three Pines genuinely care for one another. But in the end, I was disappointed with this story. For one thing, I felt like there were major series continuity issues with this book. Consider the old case that appears in flashbacks, where Gamache and Jean-Guy first work together. It happened over 20 years ago, but there is a mention that the victim was found with "no phone" and then "her children found it at her home but don't know the password.” (Did we even have passwords on our phones 20 years ago?) At one point Gamache uses what must be a cell phone - not a police car radio - to call the local police office at one point. That doesn't fit the timeline and previous history of these books. Remember how the whole crew (Sûreté and Twin Pines residents) didn't even have smart phones for the longest time? Incidents like this kept pulling me out of the story, as did various details in the current timeline (e.g. there are two young woman core to the plot, who allegedly spend lots of time in Three Pines - but yet we've never heard of them before!). In addition, the story felt overly complex - too many pieces, too many moving parts. Louise Penny fans will probably enjoy the book, but if you're new to the series, don't start here.