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Fiction. Mystery. HTML: Happily retired in the village of Three Pines, Armand Gamache, former Chief Inspector of Homicide with the Sûreté du Québec, has found a peace he'd only imagined possible. On warm summer mornings he sits on a bench holding a small book, The Balm in Gilead, in his large hands. "There is a balm in Gilead," his neighbor Clara Morrow reads from the dust jacket, "to make the wounded whole." While Gamache doesn't talk about his wounds and his balm, Clara tells him about hers. Peter, her artist husband, has failed to come home. Failed to show up as promised on the first anniversary of their separation. She wants Gamache's help to find him. Having finally found sanctuary, Gamache feels a near revulsion at the thought of leaving Three Pines. "There's power enough in Heaven," he finishes the quote as he contemplates the quiet village, "to cure a sin-sick soul." And then he gets up. And joins her. Together with his former second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and Myrna Landers, they journey deeper and deeper into Québec. And deeper and deeper into the soul of Peter Morrow. A man so desperate to recapture his fame as an artist, he would sell that soul. And may have. The journey takes them further and further from Three Pines, to the very mouth of the great St. Lawrence river. To an area so desolate, so damned, the first mariners called it The land God gave to Cain. And there they discover the terrible damage done by a sin-sick so… (more)
User reviews
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his wife, Reine-Marie, are happily retired in Three Pines. At least they were. Until Peter Morrow, who was due to return home to the village on the year anniversary of a trial separation from Clara, does not show. At her
The Long Way Home is a sound conclusion to Penny’s well-loved Three Pines series. I like that Gamache’s character has been allowed to age: the duress of a long police career and grave injury having taken their toll – so that he’s somewhat off his game here, but he’s real. And I love that he has retired in the idyllic village introduced to us so many novels ago.
"His face showed his age. It was worn with cares and concerns and worries. With pain. But the deepest crevices were made by laughter. Around his eyes and mouth. Mirth, etched deep.” (Ch 1)
BUT SHE'S JUST THAT GOOD.
I was fortunate enough to get my hands on an ARC earlier this summer, and waited to read it until I'd finished a re-read (this time in audio) of the previous nine books in the series, and lurked along in the on-line discussions. Quel fun!
All through the series, I've never liked the character of Peter, so I wasn't sure I was going to have much sympathy for him or the people trying to find him. When I sang in the choir several years ago, our choir director tried and tried and tried to get us to master the hymn "There is a Balm in Gilead" to the point that I HATED that hymn. And to put frosting on the proverbial cake, I had a pretty negative recollection of trying to get through Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer winner Gilead when our book club read it several years ago. If this current book hadn't been written by Louise Penny, and hadn't been about my all-time favorite mystery personality, I probably wouldn't have wanted to read it. I wouldn't have wanted to see Armand's well-deserved retirement "ruined". I just wanted everything to stay in "Three Pines Fairyland". Fairyland it isn't. Life it is. The characters who have become so familiar to us continue to expand, to mature, and let us into their lives. Ruth Zardo, another of my favorite characters finally allows a tiny crack in her armor to let us in, so those of us who have loved her all along can at last begin to see why.
In the end, the only thing I can say is that once again, Louise Penny does not disappoint. She steals our heart, she takes our breath away, she causes us to lose a huge chunk of time since once we embark on this adventure, we neglect everything and everyone else in our lives. I can't wait for the publication date August 26 because I've already pre-ordered a hard back copy (something I rarely do), and the audio to go with it.
If you're not yet a fan, and think you don't like mysteries, give these a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
At this time of his life, Armand Gamache is recovering from severe injuries to body and mind, as is his son-in-law and former deputy Jean-Guy. Both are no longer working for the Sûreté du Québec, but duty calls to them regardless. Armand Gamache and his wife Reine-Marie have found the perfect healing village of Three Pines, bi-lingual and calming, they purchased their home there a few years ago. This very small village might more easily be referred to as a neighbourhood, so close and welcoming the residents are. One would think that crime would never attempt to touch such a place, but no place is devoid of such things. But has a crime actually been committed? That is the question. Clara, what some might call a spontaneous artist, slapping paint on canvas with happy abandonment, is worried. She asked her husband to leave for one year and it is now past the time he should have returned. They are both artists, but with entirely different methodology. Why has he not come home? Is he dead or alive?
This book takes us inside the minds of several people, as most if not all the books in this series do. Louise Penny treats her creations as indiviuals she knows personally and that is what makes her books so comforting yet brilliant. We know these people. They are complete, flawed, righteous, giving, loving, supportive, in other words, they are Everyone in Anytown. As this story takes us through the growing pains of art and love, new discoveries about the population of these people are made. I love a book that teaches me something new, and this one teaches me a lot about art and its connection to heart and soul. It teaches me how to see into a painting.
Why can this group of friends not find Peter? It's almost as though he has stepped into a painting and disappeared. Yet, they are able to track his journey, but where will it take them in the end and what will they find? Clara, his wife, is sure she will find him but even the former Chief Inspector has little idea where and how to look. The journey takes this odd bunch of friends halfway 'round the globe and back. Though their journey has been extensive, it has been fruitful in an unusual way. Sometimes insight comes from surprising places. As some pieces fit together others fall apart. I loved this book for its depth of perception, its humour, its colour, its mystery, the many surprises, and the opportunity to get to know these characters and their village.
The previous novels have seen the inspector through cases that have left him mentally and physically shattered, but now he is happily retired to the little village of Three Pines. Gamache’s recovery has been
Luckily for Gamache, he has someone upon whose help he can always call, his new son-in-law and former police colleague, Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Because of what the two men have recently been through together, their bond will never be broken – even though each man believes that he is the one looking after the other, and not vice versa. And so it is, that an unlikely team of four (Gamache, Beauvoir, Clara Morrow, and Clara’s best friend Myrna Landers) forms to look for the missing Peter Morrow, a man on a dark journey all his own.
Peter’s dark journey will soon take our unlikely quartet of detectives on one of their own, a quest that will ultimately find them fighting for their lives at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in what could be the most remote village in all of Canada. It is in this little outpost that they will learn just how wrong they have been about Peter Morrow, and about why he has not returned to his wife despite his promise to come home on the one-year anniversary of his departure.
Fans of this excellent series may be surprised to learn that reading The Long Way Home starts to feel as tough an undertaking as what the Gamache team itself is enduring. The 373-page novel’s pace is slowed by too many baby-steps toward a resolution, blown investigatory theories, and obscure art theory to make for comfortable reading. And then, after all of that, the book’s climax, when it finally is reached, is too predictable to compensate for its tedious build-up. Longtime fans of the series, however, will find satisfaction in the way that Armand Gamache’s personal history is moved along, and they should not miss The Long Way Home.
I am a huge fan of this series, and all of the things that I've loved about the previous books apply her. The writing is superb. The characters are multi-layered and now feel like old friends. The mystery itself was well plotted. I was actually glad that I was a little under the weather today, allowing me to finish the last 100 pages in one gulp. And in some ways, this was one of my favorite Three Pines books. Ruth was in especially fine form, so that added greatly to my enjoyment. And the mystery centered around the creative process, which allowed Penny to speculate on the process of creating art.
Back in A
Any worry I had that the series would falter when Gamache retired from La Surete is put to rest with this book. He will keep on doing what he does best as will the rest of the characters in Three Pines. (Ruth Zardo is still my favourite of the minor characters.)
This was my first Inspector Gamache novel and that was a mistake. I should have read the preceding novels first! Even at the end of the book I was still sure I was missing important nuances of plot , conversation and place.
That said, I enjoyed this book. The mystery
If you know a bit about art and artists you will be ahead of the game. If you know nothing about art and artists you will learn a lot about their temperaments and work styles. Neither instance will detract from the story.
5 of 5 stars
The Long Way Home by Louise Penny is the tenth Chief Inspector Armand Gamashe thriller that she has written. This is a stylish and evocative story the prose is outstanding and makes the imagery seem crystal clear. If you like a crime thriller to have a high
Chief Inspector Armand Gamashe of the Sûreté du Québec has taken to retirement and get over his injuries in the village of Three Pines not far from Montreal. His daughter and son in law were able to visit he was able to walk further everyday taking Henri the inheritated German Shepherd dog from his new house’s previous owner.
Clara Morrow has made a pact with her husband Peter a successful but fading artist to a trail separation of one year, and they would get together on that particular date whatever they felt should happen. Over a year has passed and Peter has not come home and Cara is worried. She approaches Armand and asks for his help in finding her husband.
Armand begins his search to find what has happened to Peter Morrow and where he is means that he has to find where Peter has been over the year. It follows that Peter has been to Europe and inparticular seems to have had a cosmic intervention and he has worked out who his muse is. Even though Peter is now back in Québec but nobody knows where.
With the trail getting cold they go back to looking at four pictures that he has painted and sent on. These pictures are the clues that are required to move them forward and will help to give them the answers that they are looking for. In part we also get a travelogue of Québec and some of the stunning scenery that have inspired generations of artists.
This is a wonderful story which is a pleasure to read and easy to enjoy at a leisurely pace with the characters developing in every chapter. Louise Penny writes brilliantly the imagery that comes through is stunning. This may not be everyone’s type of crime thriller, this is more Agatha Christie where the pace is gentle and everything comes together neatly with no loose ends.
And, yet, sometimes the magic doesn't work. There was something about this that struck me as an echo of her earlier books. I think it was that it seemed very referential. I can't quite figure out how to put what I mean by that in words. Something like...and I am
I found the reveal at the end interesting in the reaction that it engendered. There was no sense of, "Wow! Didn't see that coming." Nor of, "Yes! I knew it!" It was simply a feeling of, "Well, of course. I've known that all along." I don't think it means that Penny was obvious. It's more that, after so many books, there's a sense of what her themes are. And, knowing them, you get there ahead of Gamache sometimes.
It's a good book, worth reading. But, sometimes, I find her books kind of magical.
As always, compelling to read. I was up most of the night finishing it because there was no point at which I could say it was a good place to stop.
Recommended!
I should just pre-order these books. Forget getting them out of the library, because it's not like I don't know I want them all on my own library shelves eventually. But no, I had to go and request the book and steal it from our shelves barely processed and take home to borrow. What can I say about the series that I haven't already, in trying to explain why I am so drawn to this story and these characters? Because despite the abundance of staccato fragments and an amazing amount of crime in one tiny village, I adore these books. These characters have become like real people to me, almost family, so I am carried along with emotions like a pendulum reading about their ups and downs and yelling to them (and the author) mentally when I don't like what's happening. This story, Clara's journey, was no different. I laughed, I cried, I read with bated breath, I stopped reading at points because I didn't want the story to end. I still feel somewhat battered and bruised, but of course I'd read it again in a heartbeat.
One of the best ways to describe the Gamache mysteries is it is the Canadian version of Martha
Gamache has retired to the small Canadian town of Three Pines to recoup after a serious case. After walking with his wife and his dog each morning, he sits on a park bench overlooking the valley and reads from a small book…but he never progresses in the book.
Each morning, also, his artist neighbor Clara sits beside him and all the townspeople wonder why because they don’t converse. One day she gets up the nerve to talk to him. It seems slightly over a year ago she and her husband, Peter, also an artist, took a break from each other. They agreed that one year from the date of the breakup they would meet and reevaluate. But Peter hasn’t shown up, which is very unlike him.
This statement and request for assistance ultimately involves Gamache, his wife Reine-Marie, his son-in-law Jean-Guy also a police officer, Clara, and neighbors Ruth and Myrna. It’s interesting because the characters talk about art and muses. They visit the small scenic villages that you picture in Canada and England. The plot takes some unusual and unpredictable twists. With 50 pages left, there’s no violence.
Once I got started, I read the book for the characters, not the plot. Poet Ruth is a blast–sort of like Melrose Plant’s aunt Lady Agatha in the Grimes’ series.
Martha Grimes fans and Louise Penny fans should switch books because if you like one, you’ll surely like the other. A totally enjoyable read.
Armand Gamache, former
Most of the story involves tracking Peter's movements and hunting for him. Even the obscene, drunken poet and duck raiser Ruth Zardo gets in on the search (although while it's fun to have Ruth along, we never see why she decides to be so involved). The characters also talk about fate quite a bit, particularly having an appointment with death. I don't remember such a focus in the previous volumes, and I wonder why it appears here.
Penny's prose is wonderful as ever. She has a lot to say about art and artists in this book, particularly the difference between operating from the head and operating from the heart. It was hard not to read that as a commentary on her own writing. I was disconcerted at several points by the "wisdom of the heart" displayed unerringly by her major characters. All too often they stare at something and have an epiphany that we don't get to share just yet. Too many of the novel's short chapters end with a character having a serious foreboding in her heart. It's almost as if Penny has taken her press clippings, which proclaim her wisdom in such matters, to heart a bit too much.
And yet... the characters remain wonderful, and they remain themselves, and they grow a bit. I really would have liked to see more of Gamache seeking balm for his soul; perhaps after this interruption he can get back to it in the next book. We see more of Myrna, which is nice, although she's guilty of some of the chapter-ending insights and foreboding mentioned above. It was enjoyable to see Gamache insisting on letting Clara take the lead at some points, and to see her wanting to do it. While much of the story moves at a rather leisurely pace, it picks up toward the end, and the conclusion is a punch in the gut.
Overall, this one is IMHO not quite as good as the last couple in the series, but it's near that level, which places it above most of what's being published these days.
I would be remiss not to mention the cover: the jacket is made of a canvas-textured paper that's very appropriate to the artist theme within. Like the story, the artwork is not quite as beautiful as last year's How the Light gets In, but it's lovely.
The story of Clara and Peter Morrow has been a constant thread throughout this series, and The Long Way Home continues this story by showing us the corrosive power of jealousy. This book has much more to do with searching and less to do with mystery, which may not set well with some readers, but if you are as intensely involved in the lives of these wonderfully realized characters as I am, you will be willing to let Penny tell her story in her own fashion. For me, soul searching can be every bit as fascinating as the search for a missing person-- as long as someone as gifted as this author is telling the tale.
As Clara, Myrna, Gamache and Jean-Guy follow Peter's trail closer and closer to "the land God gave to Cain," readers are treated to conversations with beloved characters like Ruth who, in her own inimitable way, has profound advice to share. As usual with Penny's writing, gestures, glances, and words left unspoken can have great import, and conversations can range from the existence of a tenth muse to overworking a painting.
Lest the search for a jealous man become too grim, Penny shows that she can do more than bring her characters or scenes of nature and food to life. Having Clara, Myrna, Gamache and Jean-Guy experience life aboard ship is a brilliant section that gives the book some badly needed lightness and humor.
Yes, this book is a bit of a departure from the rest of the books in the series, but that's not a bad thing. Gamache is retired, so there's no way he can lead an investigation into a murder. The Long Way Home is not your typical police procedural. In fact it moves quite a distance from that particular subgenre. What this retired man can and will do is to leave his comfort zone to go in aid of a friend, and as such I found it to be a brilliant and loving continuation of Penny's series.
At the beginning of The Long Way Home, Armand Gamache looks out over the village and wonders, "Was Three Pines a compass? A guide for those blown off course?" For me, Louise Penny's creation is exactly that, and each time a new book is released, I feel the pull of that compass to remind me to return to the shelter of that small and wonderful village.
Skipped lots of it,
The community of LaPorte, in the 15th
Three