This is the 7th Chief Inspector Gamache book by Louise Penny. It is super yummy – which is actually what I say about each one. The heroine / key protagonist of this one is Clara Morrow, an artist and Three Pines resident, who is finally receiving long overdue recognition of her gifts as a painter, with a major show in Montreal, and then a big party back in the village. At which a friend of hers from years ago is murdered, though not discovered until the next morning.
Gamache’s sidekick – Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir has his own story line, Clara and her husband Peter have their’s, lots of artists and dealers and villagers are un-muddling their own stews.
We can actually see Clara’s amazing work from these descriptions. And we can understand the dealers and viewers whose minds are so fixed that they cannot even pick up the newness. We know people like this.
Excellent writing, intricate plotting, folk we really care about, in a village that is beautiful and alive and very real.
Spoiler alert – at the very last sentence, we find out that Rose the duck is returning. Good news all around!