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A Fatal Grace

(Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #2)

Louise Penny (Goodreads Author)

4.10 · Rating details · 76,980 ratings · 6,531 reviews

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, r ...more

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Hardcover, 311 pages

Published May 15th 2007 by Minotaur Books (first published September 30th 2006)

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Mar 09, 2018 Adina rated it really liked it

Shelves: canada, mystery

"So much more comforting to see bad in others; gives us all sorts of excuses for our own bad behavior. But good? No, only really remarkable people see the good in others."

A fatal grace is the 2nd installment in Inspector Armand Gamache cozy mystery series. In Still Life I was introduced to the inspector and his team and fell in love with Three Pines, the little village where the action takes place. Gamache is a chief inspector in the Sûreté du Québec, an honorable and complex character whose mai "So much more comforting to see bad in others; gives us all sorts of excuses for our own bad behavior. But good? No, only really remarkable people see the good in others."

A fatal grace is the 2nd installment in Inspector Armand Gamache cozy mystery series. In Still Life I was introduced to the inspector and his team and fell in love with Three Pines, the little village where the action takes place. Gamache is a chief inspector in the Sûreté du Québec, an honorable and complex character whose main approach to solving a murder is to listen. He has to return to Three Pines after a year and a half in order to solve another murder. This time, one of the most hated villagers is electrocuted in the middle of a frozen lake during a curling match and nobody seems to have seen anything and at first sight the crime seems impossible.

In this volume I learned more about the personalities of Gamache and his team, about their past and their fears. Also, I enjoyed revisiting some of the villagers from last book: Gabri and Olivier- the heart-warming gay couple, Myrna- the librarian, Ruth - the cranky poet, Clara and Peter - the artists. They all feel like a big family and Gamache is received in with open arms among them due to his pleasant personality.

"Gamache was the best of them, the smartest and bravest and strongest because he was willing to go into his own head alone, and open all the doors there, and enter all the dark rooms. And make friends with what he found there.And he went into the dark, hidden rooms in the minds of others. The minds of killers. And he faced down whatever monsters came at him. "

The mystery was a bit more complex than last time and although I guessed the murderer from early on I enjoyed the ride and the plot twists. The writing is beautiful, poetic in places, and it managed to transport me to the snow covered Three Pines, a place I plan to revisit soon.

Important! I believe this series should be read in order because we have a lot of personal details from all characters and conflicts that continue in the following volumes, there are references to the previous volumes so they might not be savoured so well read randomly ...more

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Dec 11, 2018 Fergus rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Now that it’s been announced that Louise Penny will co-author her next novel with her famous friend Hillary Clinton, I’m really looking forward to reading it!

Hopefully, I’ll be giving another Exceptionally well-written book five stars, as I have this one.

Louise Penny is a Supernova in the Canadian literary firmament. And her warmth and human compassion is especially endearing, as is her supercharged inspiration in concocting such an endlessly labyrinthine structure for her book.

Her writing is e ...more

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Apr 02, 2013 Susan Anderson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, literary

Where to begin with all the richness that A FATAL GRACE gave me. Reading it, I wondered how I had lived so long without discovering the work of Louise Penny, a first-rate writer. Her creation in this book is so real, her writing so lyrical, her characters so unique and the book's structure and meaning so complex that I began mumbling to myself, taking my sweet time reading the book in order to savor its mix of flavors, its innuendoes and subtleties, having at times to stop and scratch my head. I ...more

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Aug 17, 2019 Thomas rated it really liked it

Shelves: canada-crime

4 stars for an entertaining mystery.
I enjoyed reading book 2 in this series, set in the mythical town of Three Pines, Quebec. This town is close to the US border in the Eastern Townships region of Quebec(between the St. Lawrence River and the US Vermont border). Armand Gamache, Chief Inspector of the Homicide Division of the Surete du Quebec, is called to investigate the death of CC de Poitiers, electrocuted in front of an entire village.
He does solve the murder, and connects it with another mur ...more

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Jul 27, 2013 Carol rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2015, series, library-overdrive, mystery-crime, cultural-canada

Have you ever been so dam cold that you could hardly move your frozen lips to talk? Having grown up in Michigan amidst many a freezing winter days, I have, and in A Fatal Grace, Louise Penny truly brings a chilling winter alive making the reader feel you are at the enchanted snowy village of Three Pines in Quebec.

In book two, there's another murder to solve for Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his crew as the repulsively cruel CC De Poitiers is no more. Deliberately electrocuted, the villagers

...more

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Jul 16, 2015 Paula rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio-book, award-winner, series, favorite-authors, read-in-2015, crime, best-prose, mystery, agatha-award

Louise Penny is terrific. I'm a big fan of her Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. A Fatal Grace, the 2nd of the series, takes a different path from the first book. More emotion, in depth character analysis, and what is perceived and what is really inside peoples minds. Different and beautiful. What wonderful prose. Listening to Ralph Cosham is such a pleasure. I'm only going with the audiobooks because of Cosham's voice and French Canadian accent.

CC de Poitiers, the murder victim, has to be ...more

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Jan 31, 2014 Elizabeth rated it it was ok

The setup for this book is very long and the main thing the author established was how cruel some characters were and how others were affected by cruelty. This section was so unnecessarily long that I wanted to give up on the book. The only reason I didn't was because I really enjoyed the first book.

The focus of the cruelty was on fat. And for a while it seemed that it was only the characters who were being cruel but then I read this passage about a 12 year old girl.

And beside him an enormous c

...more

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Jan 23, 2015 James Thane rated it liked it

Shelves: crime-fiction, my-book-club-made-me-read-this

Louise Penny is a gifted writer who has created in Chief Inspector Armand Gamache a sympathetic protagonist who appeals to large numbers of readers. She has also created a richly-imagined setting in the charming Canadian village of Three Pines, which is located somewhere just south of Montreal. The tiny hamlet is populated by a cast of quirky but mostly lovable characters who spend a lot of time walking through the snow and curling up in front of blazing fires. In doing so, Penny has attracted a Louise Penny is a gifted writer who has created in Chief Inspector Armand Gamache a sympathetic protagonist who appeals to large numbers of readers. She has also created a richly-imagined setting in the charming Canadian village of Three Pines, which is located somewhere just south of Montreal. The tiny hamlet is populated by a cast of quirky but mostly lovable characters who spend a lot of time walking through the snow and curling up in front of blazing fires. In doing so, Penny has attracted a legion of enthusiastic readers who, apparently, can hardly wait for each new installment of the series to appear.

This is the second book in the series and the second that I've read, in both cases because the book was selected by one of the book clubs to which I belong. Having done so, I can stand back and dispassionately appreciate Penny's accomplishment; my problem is that this just isn't the sort of book that appeals to me. Inspector Gamache is just a bit too perfect and life in the little snow-globe village of Three Pines is just a bit too saccharine for my taste.

I don't mean that to sound as dismissive as it probably does, and again, I understand that there are large numbers of readers who would love to live in Three Pines, but I'd probably go stark raving mad in less than a week.

In thinking about it, it occurred to me that, on the one hand, you have the world of Three Pines and, on the other, for example, the world of Matthew Scudder's New York City as imagined by Lawrence Block. And it strikes me that, while certainly there would be exceptions to the rule, most of the people who enjoy hanging out in Scudder's New York aren't going to want to spend a lot of time in Gamache's Three Pines, and vice-versa. What it comes down to, I guess, is that I'm just one of those people who would much rather spend a night hanging out with Matt and Mick Ballou, drinking a good Irish whiskey at Grogan's Open House than I would sitting around a pleasant fire at the bistro in Three Pines, drinking a nice hot chocolate.

In this case, a particularly unpleasant woman is murdered in a very complicated and public way while attending a curling match. Sitting at the front of the crowd, the victim stands up, touches the chair in front of her and is promptly electrocuted.

Gamache is called to investigate and soon is digging into the secrets and tangled relationships of the little village that go back for years. At the same time, he is assisting in another totally unrelated murder, that of a street person who is killed in Montreal. All of this occurs in the dead of winter and the weather itself becomes an important factor in the story.

The story takes a number of twist and turns and, again, I can understand its appeal. But I did have a lot of trouble buying into the way the Three Pines murder occurred; it just seemed completely implausible to me and unnecessarily complicated. As one of the characters asked, why go to all that trouble? Why not simply shoot her or something?

In the case of my book club, most of the Louise Penny fans were perfectly happy with the book, while others of us were less enthusiastic. Again, I recognize that Ms. Penny is a very talented writer, but I probably don't need to make a third visit to Three Pines. ...more

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Mar 04, 2017 Phrynne rated it really liked it

Yet another of those books with two titles. A Fatal Grace or Dead Cold. Take your pick.
Anyway whatever it is called it is an excellent book. I hate the cold, but love reading about places where the snow is metres deep and the water freezes on the end of the firemen's hoses as they try to put out a fire. Wow! Also the story takes place at Christmas in a picture perfect town where the snow sparkles in the sun and everyone drinks hot chocolate and eats cookies. What more does a book need?
Actually o ...more

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Oct 31, 2018 Candi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: series-book-in-series, canada-canadian, anneautumn2018challenge, mystery-crime, book-i-own

"The monster’s dead and the villagers are celebrating."

It’s been some time, but I was happy to find myself back in Three Pines, the idyllic little community in Quebec that is peppered with interesting characters, as well as several secrets. CC de Poitiers is fairly new in town, and definitely not a friend to any – not even those who had tried to make an effort to welcome this hateful, self-centered woman. So when she was found murdered in the middle of a curling match, it’s no surprise that the "The monster’s dead and the villagers are celebrating."

It’s been some time, but I was happy to find myself back in Three Pines, the idyllic little community in Quebec that is peppered with interesting characters, as well as several secrets. CC de Poitiers is fairly new in town, and definitely not a friend to any – not even those who had tried to make an effort to welcome this hateful, self-centered woman. So when she was found murdered in the middle of a curling match, it’s no surprise that the townspeople are not mourning her death; rather there is a celebratory air in the village. Perhaps this is due in part to the approaching Christmas festivities, but certainly the removal of the town ‘bully’ must have something to do with the cheer.
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is summoned to assist with the case once again. Most of the residents were pleased to see him return, as was I. He is a charming man, and a fair and honest detective, a crackerjack in his profession.

"Gamache was the best of them, the smartest and bravest and strongest because he was willing to go into his own head alone, and open all the doors there, and enter all the dark rooms. And make friends with what he found there. And he went into the dark, hidden rooms in the minds of others. The minds of killers. And he faced down whatever monsters came at him."

Along with the folks we met in the last installment, we are introduced to a few more. I liked reacquainting myself with the regulars and popping into the bistro and the cozy little homes again. Louise Penny allows a glimpse of the inner workings of several characters a bit more, and I found this refreshing. I suspect we’ll get to know them even more intimately with the next in the series. Something bigger than just the murder at hand seems to be brewing on the horizon - something with a sinister vibe that does not bode well for Gamache. I felt a little on edge about this! I guess it’s a thread that will perhaps run through the next several books, sort of tying them all together.

I enjoyed Dead Cold , but not quite as much as I did the first, Still Life. The crime in this one was a bit out there, somewhat unbelievable. Regardless, I did have fun arriving at the solution and there was enough here to keep me interested in continuing. 3.5 stars rounded down

"A layer of pure white was both beautiful and dangerous. You never really knew what lurked beneath. A Quebec winter could both enchant and kill." ...more

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Dec 05, 2018 Beata rated it really liked it

What can I say? Can't add much to thousands or readers praising this series .... One thing is certain, A Fatal Grace left me wanting to read next instalments. ...more

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Oct 17, 2018 Matt rated it really liked it

Recommended to Matt by: Marty Fried

Shelves: audiobook

Louise Penny returns with a second novel in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, just as riveting and captivating as the debut piece that offered the reader so much! While many of the familiar residents of Three Pines are in Montreal to shop for the holiday season, a newer family has begun to set-up some roots of their own in this bucolic town nestled in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. CC de Poitiers heads this family, a woman who takes no prisoners and seeks to crush those in her way, in Louise Penny returns with a second novel in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, just as riveting and captivating as the debut piece that offered the reader so much! While many of the familiar residents of Three Pines are in Montreal to shop for the holiday season, a newer family has begun to set-up some roots of their own in this bucolic town nestled in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. CC de Poitiers heads this family, a woman who takes no prisoners and seeks to crush those in her way, including a timid husband and emotionally abused daughter. CC is talk of the town, though not for anything she has done, even though she’d be happy to espouse her new-age way of living. During his annual Boxing Day Cold Case review, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache explores those cases the Homicide Division of the Sûreté du Québec might have overlooked. Embedded in the piles is a new case, that of a homeless woman who was found murdered just before Christmas. While not known personally to Gamache or his wife, her presence in Montreal’s downtown core could not be missed. When a call interrupts Gamache’s further exploration of the woman’s murder, it’s all hands on deck and back out to Three Pines, a journey about which the Chief Inspector has mixed feelings. When they arrive in one of the surrounding towns, the body of CC de Poitiers has been found, electrocuted. As Gamache and his Sûreté team begin digging through CC’s life, they cannot help but notice the truly Canadian surroundings, for this wretched woman died at a local curling event, having gripped the end of her chair, one that was seemingly attached to a sizeable generator. As Gamache and the others notice the raw distaste that others had for CC, they cannot help but wonder why much of CC’s life cannot be substantiated. Might she have been hiding something bigger, something even more disgusting than the tidbits she puts on display? And what of this vagrant woman that caught Gamache’s attention earlier in the week? All this and much more as Three Pines envelopes Gamache and the reader for another stunning mystery. Highly recommended for those who want a ‘quieter’ murder mystery with tons of Canadiana embedded in the narrative.

I am enjoying the early stages of my Louise Penny binge, having found something that is not only unique, but captivating in its descriptive power. Penny uses not only the peaceful Eastern Townships as her setting, but continues to provide the reader with some great character development of Armand Gamache, a man whose intellect is balanced with a compassionate side. The reader learns a sliver more about his family life, with a loving wife and an extended family who cannot comprehend his need to work so much. This slow reveal, sandwiched between the current cases, keeps me wanting to learn more, yet take a moment to see the protagonist develop before my eyes. Penny continues to explore the larger Sûreté Homicide team, including some quirks in the hierarchy and some new faces, sure to stir the pot in ways that might not have been expected in such a quaint novel. It is the collection of Three Pines locals who steal the show—as I was told they would by the friend who recommended this series—with their acerbic wit and jabs at one another. This patchwork quilt of personalities keeps the story from getting too dreary, though Penny does offer much in the way of backstory and character development, such that I am going to have to keep things straight to learn all their nuances. The story moves well in this piece, with a few moments of chronological disorder to lay some of the groundwork for the murder and how CC could be so horrid a woman. Penny ensures the reader is in the middle of the investigation, watching Gamache’s mind spin as more information comes to light at key moments in the narrative. I am well on my way to a successful binge, with a new novel set to come out soon. Bring on more Penny and keep them coming!

Kudos, Madam Penny, for intriguing me greatly. I am eager to see what else you have in store for this series.

Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/... ...more

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Sep 01, 2012 Lewis Weinstein rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime-and-thrillers

I started reading this book immediately after finishing Still Life, with high expectations. At first, I was disappointed. The initial chapters seemed to lose the edge established by the prior book, the returning characters from the village of Three Pines seemed far less interesting than before.

Then Inspector Gamache came on the scene, late in my judgment, but once he made his appearance, the story took off, with an accelerating pace that lasted all the way through. The Three Pines characters, n ...more

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Dec 02, 2013 Delee rated it really liked it

Shelves: its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like, canadian, reviewed, series-that-should-be-read-in-order, brrrrrrrrrr, mystery, holiday, own

Myrna looked out the window and wondered whether their peace, so fragile and precious, was about to be shattered. Since CC de Poitiers had arrived there'd been a gathering gloom over their little community. She'd brought something unsavory to Three Pines, in time for Christmas.

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It is Christmas in Three Pines- and once again Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his team are called to investigate another murder...

No one liked CC de Poitiers – not her daughter, not her husband, not her l ...more

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Dec 16, 2016 Jim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-suspense-thriller, books-read-2016

This is the third book in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series that I have read and it is the second in the series. It is fast becoming my favorite new series and I plan to read them in order. I don't think it is necessary to read the books in order but I think it will help to get to know Gamache, the members of his team, and most of all the quirky residents of the small village of Three Pines, Quebec.

It is Christmas time in Three Pines but CC de Poitiers manages to alienate everyone she co This is the third book in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series that I have read and it is the second in the series. It is fast becoming my favorite new series and I plan to read them in order. I don't think it is necessary to read the books in order but I think it will help to get to know Gamache, the members of his team, and most of all the quirky residents of the small village of Three Pines, Quebec.

It is Christmas time in Three Pines but CC de Poitiers manages to alienate everyone she comes in contact with. Her husband, her daughter, and even the friendly and outgoing residents of Three Pines. She may be colder than the Quebec winter. So it should come as no surprise that when CC is electrocuted in the middle of a frozen lake, in front of the entire village, as she watched the annual curling tournament no one is grieving too much or that her shocking death was no accident.

Inspector Gamache is called in to investigate. There is no shortage of potential suspects and the murder of a homeless woman in Montreal appears to have ties to both CC and Three Pines. Inspector Gamache's methods when investigating a murder are to talk with the residents. To get to know them (and so does the reader). The murder was not spontaneous. It was deliberate and planned. Only by talking with everyone will Gamache learn the events that led the murderer to commit this act. No one will every confuse Armand Gamache with Jack Reacher.

I had a pretty good idea who the murderer was early on. It seemed somewhat obvious and I was pleased with myself that my deduction was correct. Even though I thought I knew who the murderer was this was a delightful read. It is approaching Christmas when I read this so that helped. We are in the midst of a "polar vortex" currently so I could relate to the author's description of the brutal winter weather. Three Pines is a fictional village but the description of it makes you wish it, and it's residents, were real. It would be nice to browse the bookstore and cozy up with a good book, sit in the bistro and enjoy a good meal and look out the windows at the lights of the village, and then head back to the B&B and your comfortable room. Almost makes winter sound pleasant. Almost. We are getting snow, sleet, and freezing rain as I write this and I know if I want to go anywhere I will have to warm up the car and scrape ice off the windows. ...more

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Dec 30, 2017 PattyMacDotComma rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: any mystery fan

Shelves: favourites-adult, mystery-crime-thriller, fiction-adult, chcc-library

5★
“With each breath his nostrils froze shut and the air was like an ice pack in his sinuses, shooting pain through his forehead and making his eyes tear and freeze. By the time they were halfway to the train station he could barely see . . . the cold was already inside him, as though he was naked...”

Reading this during a steamy Australian summer is an interesting experience. Here it’s the kind of weather when you find yourself stripped down to barely acceptable clothing and opening the fridge or 5★
“With each breath his nostrils froze shut and the air was like an ice pack in his sinuses, shooting pain through his forehead and making his eyes tear and freeze. By the time they were halfway to the train station he could barely see . . . the cold was already inside him, as though he was naked...”

Reading this during a steamy Australian summer is an interesting experience. Here it’s the kind of weather when you find yourself stripped down to barely acceptable clothing and opening the fridge or freezer a little more often than necessary. There, in the Canadian winter, you have to pile on the layers to try to retain what body heat there is, becoming barely acceptable in another ‘fashion’.

“. . . she sat in front of him, nearly submerged under layers of thick sweaters and blankets. She looked like a laundry hamper. With a head. A very small, very worn head. All ten hairs on her tiny wizened scalp were standing straight up from the winter static in the house.
She looked like a muppet with strings.”

And I love it. The village of Three Pines and its stubborn, gentle (and occasionally murderous) folk who insist on living in a place that would kill you if you ran out of firewood.

Inspector Gamache has returned to Three Pines following another murder. This is the second of what is now a long series about this big, gentle, intellectual man and his various sidekicks and offsiders. He is welcomed back to the B & B, to the bistro, to the various easy chairs by the various fires. But he never loses sight of why he’s there. He watches, he listens, and like me, he seems to suspect various possible perpetrators of the murder.

I’m not going to discuss the plot, other than to say that the unpleasant woman who was murdered was mourned by nobody, and her impending doom is mentioned in the first sentence. There are a few scary moments, but this is not a thriller. It is a just a good story told in good company.

A cozy mystery, one might say, except that seems a little too light-weight for the quality of Penny’s writing and the distinctiveness of her characters. She sets a scene better than most. I particularly liked the description of the church and its families.

“On Christmas Eve St Thomas’s was also filled with families, children excited and exhausted, elderly men and women who’d come to this place all their lives and sat in the same pew and worshipped the same God and baptized and married and buried those they loved. Some they never got to bury, but instead immortalized in the small stained glass window placed to get the morning, the youngest, light. They marched now in warm yellows and blues and greens, for ever perfect and petrified in the Great War. Etched below the brilliant boys were their names and the words ‘They Were Our Children’.”

I’ve given it 5 stars because I loved it. I don’t need to tell you about the 3 old ladies (one of the “laundry hamper” remark), the younger woman who was murdered, the widower and the practically catatonic daughter, the community curling festival on the frozen lake (where the murder took place), and the many village meals and conversations. So I won’t.

And I won’t mention the sneaking-around backstabbing that seems to be going on behind our wonderful inspector over some previous case for which he’s in the doghouse.

Nope. It’s enough for me to say I loved it and am looking forward to the next one. I just like spending time there, so why not? ...more

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Mar 04, 2019 Heidi The Reader rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery, fiction

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache solves more murders while surrounded by the sparkling personalities that compose the small town of Three Pines in Canada.

Nobody likes the victim of the murder, which makes the job harder for Gamache. As a reader, I was cheering for Gamache to solve the crime, but not because of the unlikeable CC de Poiters. She was as different a character from the victim of the first book, Jane, as you could possibly be.

I wonder if Louise Penny's editors said, 'Give us another co ...more

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Nov 15, 2014 Bettie rated it liked it

Recommended to Bettie by: Susanna - Censored by GoodReads

Shelves: published-2006, mystery-thriller, canada-quebec, tbr-busting-2015, canada, e-book, series, books-about-books-and-book-shops, autumn-2015

Description: 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 Québec, 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.

Opening: Had CC de Poitiers known she was going to be murdered she might have bought her husband, Richard, a Christmas gift. She might even have gone to her daughter’s end of term pageant at Miss Edward’s School for Girls, or ‘girths’ as CC liked to tease her expansive daughter. Had CC de Poitiers known the end was near she might have been at work instead of in the cheapest room the Ritz in Montreal had to offer. But the only end she knew was near belonged to a man named Saul.

People are cruel and insensitive

I understand. You can’t spare
anything, a hand, a piece of bread, a shawl
against the cold,
a good word. Lord
knows there isn’t much
to go around. You need it all.

So that's the way it will be - starting with a carrot!

It was Susanna who clued me into this series, HUZZAH! Read book 4 before 2 and 3 because I was caught at an airport with only A Rule Against Murder to dive into, so now I shall take up the slack...

This is the one with a shocking curling match, a stinky dedication, and a weird ball retrieved from a dumpster.

Three Pines: Salvador Dali

Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto in D Major

Although there were the trademark astute one-liners such as: It was almost impossible to electrocute someone these days, unless you were the governor of Texas, it was hard to feel sympathetic to some characters because I had read ahead. Not this book's fault, I know.

Now here’s a good one: 
you’re lying on your deathbed.
You have one hour to live.
Who is it, exactly, you have needed
all these years to forgive?

4* Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #1)
3.5* A Fatal Grace (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #2)
TR The Cruelest Month (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #3)
4* A Rule Against Murder (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #4) ...more

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Sep 03, 2014 Margitte rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2015-read, canadian-authors, murder, drama, favorites, fiction, detective-story, mystery, suspense, reviewed

It is seldom the case for me to feel a happy contentment when opening up a book. A feeling of "Oh, it feels so good to be home". Louise Penny has become a firm favorite in the murder mystery genre and I just loved to be home in the Three Pines village of Quebec again with all the characters welcoming me. This time it was the day after Christmas, the deadly winter was raging, and more people would die than ever imagined.

CC was a despised woman. Obnoxious, cruel, -she was maddeningly bad news- to ...more

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Jul 24, 2018 Brenda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, canadian-author, crime, borrowed-from-library, 5000-books

Chief Inspector Armand Gamach of the Sûreté du Québec received the call while with his wife – he was immediately headed to Three Pines where he’d investigated a murder the previous year. There had been another murder.

Three Pines was a pretty little village and as it was nearing Christmas, it was bitterly cold with snow and ice surrounding the cottages, the bistro, the B&B as well as the village green; even the lake was completely iced over. CC de Poitiers had been despised by all – no one person ...more

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Apr 05, 2020 Natasha Niezgoda rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook, murder-mystery, murder-crime, series, detective-story

YOU GUYS!!! THIS SERIES!

If mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, and warm chocolate cake are your "soothing" blankets when life gets hard, then this will be too! It's LITERALLY the most perfect series for this freaking quarantine (aka the world is shutting down) saga.

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In this "case", Inspector Gamache is back in Three Pines. The victim is CC. She's a thorn in everyone's side but her death wasn't accidental. And Gamache must still bring someone to justice even if she did deserve to die for her sins (whi ...more

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Dec 28, 2016 Bryn (Plus Others) rated it did not like it

Shelves: modern-mystery

I realise I am a rare dissenter here, but this book was so awful it made my teeth hurt. It is a book in which the values the story claims to be promoting (compassion, love, generosity, respect for human dignity) are actually entirely undercut by the text itself. I think ten years ago we would have fallen in love with this series, because the lies it tells about doing good and doing evil are told in such pretty prose, with all the symbols of cosiness -- wood fires and snowfall, old friends gather I realise I am a rare dissenter here, but this book was so awful it made my teeth hurt. It is a book in which the values the story claims to be promoting (compassion, love, generosity, respect for human dignity) are actually entirely undercut by the text itself. I think ten years ago we would have fallen in love with this series, because the lies it tells about doing good and doing evil are told in such pretty prose, with all the symbols of cosiness -- wood fires and snowfall, old friends gathering around candlelit tables, poetry and music and books. But the book itself is false all through.

I am not sure this is a particularly coherent review, but here's a try about my problems with the book:

(view spoiler)[
The villain of the book is CC de Poitiers, who is a textbook destructive narcissist; she is delusional about her own abilities and importance, treats other people as disposable props in her glorious narrative, and viciously attacks anyone who fails to treat her with the proper breathless worship. She emotionally abuses her daughter (Crie) and husband, expresses contempt for her lover, and -- worst of all, the text says -- she wears boots made of baby sealskin, making her not merely a damaged, destructive human being but an actual monster who wears babies on her feet. All of this makes her the perfect Christie-style murder victim -- the reader is glad when she's dead, but justice must still be done, so there's the pleasure of the investigation without the grief of a sympathetic character dying, plus suspects are thick on the ground because everyone disliked her.

But even while the book condemns CC's behaviour, it indulges in it. CC humiliates Crie about her weight and her clothes, but the narrative does the same, lingering over scenes of Crie's suffering and commenting constantly on her obesity. The narrative says that CC's abuse of Crie has erased her humanity, and uses Crie's weight as proof of that -- as if being overweight makes someone less than human. And indeed, even the 'good' characters (with the exception of Gamache) in the book fail to treat Crie as human; they spend a great deal of time talking about how terribly CC has treated her, about how difficult her life must be, but aside from Gamache nobody does anything -- no one is bringing casseroles to her family or telling her how lovely her voice is or inviting her to the bookstore to sit by the fire. She's there to be furniture for the plot, demonstrating CC's narcissism and Gamache's compassion, but never existing a human being in her own right. Even the revelation that she's intelligent, cunning, and desperate enough to have arranged her mother's ingenious murder is shown hand-in-hand with a portrayal of her in a catatonic fantasy not altogether different from CC's own narcissistic delusions. In the end the text reduces Crie to the symbol of her mother's evil, a reflection/victim of her mother's narcissism.

That would be more than enough to make me annoyed by this book, but its treatment of the 'good' characters is just as bad -- even worse, in a way, because the nastiness of it is so much more covert. As I said above, the 'good' characters don't treat Crie as a human being -- they talk about her but they don't take any action to try to make things better for her. The exception is Gamache, but even here Crie is just a prop. Gamache treats her with some basic human decency -- putting a coat around her when she's cold, encouraging her to eat despite her mother's death -- and the book treats this as behaviour that's so saintly it bewilders onlookers, who can't understand how anyone could bother to put a coat on a cold child's shoulders. It's bizarre, but very integral to how Penny writes her characters; there's always someone watching the good characters (such as Gamache and Clara) 'being good' and either adoring them or being confused by their goodness. Whether or not a character is good or bad is shown by whether they adore Gamache for his goodness, like Beauvoir, or dislike and distrust it, like Nichols. These people never act silently; there's always an audience, so there's always a pay-off -- when Clara does an act of, again, basic human kindness (in giving Elle/L some food) she ends up believing that God has personally come to earth to reassure her about her art. She's not just an ordinary person trying to do something kind, she's receiving a message from God -- and the reader is supposed to find this random belief charming, and CC's beliefs in Li Bien toxic, because Clara is a Good Person and CC is a Bad Person.

In the actual world, good and evil are all mixed up. People like CC de Poitiers exist, but in between their bouts of rage and shaming and humiliation they buy birthday cakes and pet dogs and sing along with the radio; that's why dealing with them is so destructive, because they are still people. By the same token, people do exist who struggle to be generous, compassionate, kind and loving, who ignore homeless people and then feel bad about it and go back to bring them coffee -- but they don't get epiphanies as a result, and they don't have an admiring audience constantly thinking about how wonderful they are. I hated this book because in Penny's world everyone sorts out so neatly, and after they're sorted out what they do doesn't matter. I was shocked by Clara ignoring the homeless woman when she's supposed to be so loving and generous and connected, but nobody else was. I was shocked by Gamache not actually trying to help Crie, but all the characters were shocked that he did. What kind of world is this, when the expectation is that everyone is a self-entitled jerk, and doing anything else makes you a saint? Awful, awful, awful. (hide spoiler)] ...more

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Jun 10, 2018 Emma rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: crime

This series is great. I love the way Penny leads us into the psyche of people. Ganache listens. It is how he solves crimes. Gamache also loves people but I think Louise Penny must too. The people of Three Pines are an amazing cast. It makes me yearn for that kind of community. I love Ruth and the Beer Walk really touched me when I learned what it was. The story itself was pretty sad. I am enjoying the foreshadowing about the Arnot case and looking forward to seeing where that goes in future book ...more

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May 26, 2012 Anne rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mysteries-thrillers

What Louise Penny does is create a small, intimate world, while creating a sense of place so pervasive you feel you know it. Canada is rarely featured in best-selling books, and to have it so celebrated is wonderful. It is Quebec, to be sure, but the Quebec of Anglo-culture, and so, it is the Canadian Quebec.

Most powerful, for me, is the way she builds quiet characters of amazing strength and depth. These are not cartoon-brilliant people. They are, for the most part, fully-fleshed out, but rath ...more

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Apr 14, 2018 joyce g rated it really liked it · review of another edition

It feels like coming home when you read this second in the Gamache series. Delightful! I would take a few good friends with me to live in Three Pines.

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Dec 09, 2019 Amy Imogene Reads rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-thriller, read-in-2019

4.5

A woman nobody liked is dead—electrocuted in public during a Canadian sporting event. Can Chief Inspector Gamache uncover the levels of treachery at the heart of this twisted murder?

Plot: ★★★★
Character development: ★★★★★
Pacing: slow, slow beginning

A Fatal Grace is the second novel in the Armand Gamache detective series. Like all other entries, these clever murder mysteries can be read as standalone novels OR sequentially—you get more context with all of them, but the murders are self contain ...more

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Dec 10, 2018 Ann Girdharry rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-suspense-thriller

Definitely a top read. This is a really enjoyable, cozy mystery, starring the wonderful Inspector Armand Gamache.

In this second book in the series, Gamache and his team and called back to the small village of Three Pines to investigate the murder of CC Poitiers.

It’s Christmas time in the quiet Quebec village and everyone is enjoying the festivities and an abundance of food and good will and neighbourly good deeds. The winter landscape plays an important part in the story as they cope with plumm ...more

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Jun 16, 2019 Terence M rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Audiobook - 10:30 Hours
Narrator: Ralph Cosham (excellent narration!)
Upgraded from my original 3.0 Stars to 4.0 Stars
Review to follow - here it is😉
Upfront, I want to state that I definitely "Liked" Armand Gamache #2, "A Fatal Grace", aka "Dead Cold", so it earns an almost unequivocal 3 Stars, but...
I thought the plot was quite convoluted, and made even more so by the overlaid (or underlaid) secondary issue faced by Gamache from a previous investigation. I also needed to 're-wind' and re-listen, ...more

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Feb 03, 2009 Kimberleigh rated it really liked it

This is the second book I've read in this series and just as good as the other one I have read. I'm not reading them in order, which is fine with me since it's usually a few weeks after I finish one before I start another in the series. I really love Louise Penny's writing style and the way she develops these characters. Here are two of my favorite lines from this book:

"There at the back stood CC de Poitiers wearing a fluffy white sweater made of either cashmere or kittens."

"Now she sat in front ...more

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May 05, 2017 Holly rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook, mystery-suspense-thriller-horror, 2017-read

This story was perhaps a little too full of various coincidences as to be beyond belief, but man did I enjoy this book. Seriously, I don't know how this author does it but she manages to make books about murder feel almost comforting. I can't explain it. I just love these characters. I did guess who the culprit was, but the murder mystery itself isn't really the main draw to these stories for me, so I'm ok with that. I do hear that the mysteries get better though as the series evolves. I shall s ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Kindle Book Club ...: November 2020, SPOILER ALERT, A Fatal Grace, Reading Completed	8	9	Dec 30, 2020 10:32AM
Kindle Book Club ...: November 2020 Discussion, A Fatal Grace, Reading In Progress	16	10	Dec 30, 2020 08:39AM
Play Book Tag: Dead Cold by Louise Penny	5	30	Oct 09, 2018 08:08AM
International Mys...: A Fatal Grace, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, Book 2 of the Louise Penny murder mystery series.	2	18	Jan 14, 2018 08:50AM

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About Louise Penny

Louise Penny

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LOUISE PENNY is the author of the #1 New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling series of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novels. She has won numerous awards, including a CWA Dagger and the Agatha Award (seven times), and was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Novel. In 2017, she received the Order of Canada for her contributions to Canadian culture. Louise lives in a small village south of ...more

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Chief Inspector Armand Gamache (1 - 10 of 17 books)

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Quotes from A Fatal Grace

“When someone stabs you it's not your fault that you feel pain.” — 338 likes

“I was tired of seeing the Graces always depicted as beautiful young things. I think wisdom comes with age and life and pain. And knowing what matters.” — 162 likes

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