A Fatal Grace, by Louise Penny, published in 2006, is the second in the series of Inspector Gamache mystery novels. This one re-introduces us to Three Pines, the village in Quebec, near both Montreal and the US border – though no one as yet has shown any interest in visiting the US, or talking about it much. Instead, readers are learning a lot about Canadians. (So maybe we’re not the center of the universe?)
We learn about the seriousness of winter that far north, about Christmastime in a small village – and about why so very many people dislike CC dePoitiers, who very much lives in her own universe, with her own book / hash of spiritual beliefs, which she just knows the world is waiting for – and which will make her suitably rich.
The murder is bizarre – at a curling match, involving just the right ingredients, invoking just the right response by the victim (who doesn’t seem much like a victim – she is viciously in control) – and resulting in CC being fried. That is, electrocuted.
Inspector Gamache and his team get to work on the physical facts and the intuitive / psychological side of the case. So many possibilities – a husband, a lover, a young daughter, lots of villagers. Excellent work throughout.
A real pleasure, on many levels. This is a great and satisfying book.