The Nature of the Beast (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #11)

by Louise Penny

The room was lit with candles, and in the middle of the table sat an exuberant centerpiece. Myrna had spent the afternoon collecting arching branches of bright fall leaves, and smaller branches still bearing tiny red crab apples. She’d collected pine cones from under the trees on the village green. Sticks and cones. A tribute to the boy who’d spent his whole life protecting Three Pines.