The Beautiful Mystery: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel

The Beautiful Mystery, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #8, was the best so far! I finished it last night and cannot stop thinking about it! And Three Pines is not in it at all! All the action takes place in a secluded monastery, Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, in the deep wilderness of Quebec. It pulled me in from the first paragraph and still hasn't let me go. The mystery is a whodunit, but the story is so much more. It is about love and hate, and the old Gregorian Chants, and music, and faith. I was actually crying in places. Here is a tiny story, about how the sect got its name: (It's not a spoiler) "Do you know why our emblem is two wolves intertwined?" Gamache shook his head. ..."One of the (native) elders told him that when he was a boy his grandfather came to him and told him he had two wolves fighting inside him. One was grey, the other black. The grey one wanted his grandfather to be courageous, and patient, and kind. The other, the black one, wanted his grandfather to be fearful and cruel. This upset the boy, and he thought about it for a few days and returned to his grandfather. He asked, 'Grandfather, which of the wolves will win?' Do you know what his grandfather said?" Gamache shook his head. There was such a look of sadness on the Chief Inspector's face, it almost broke the abbot's heart. "The one I feed." Hmmmm. You had to have been there. Reading and in the book, with the Chief Inspector. There are not enough superlatives to describe Louise Penny's talent. This is only the eighth in the series. Every one of my reviews describes how great she is, and how the characters in these stories get inside the reader. I don't care about any creative license with the way monasteries are run. It was wonderful. Please, if you decide to begin the series, start at #1. You won't be sorry.

I am surprised at the people who have said they read all the other books and don't like the ending to this one, don't like the continued conflict between Gamache and his superior officer and the continued re-playing of the factory event and don't like what is happening to Jean-Guy. I have read most of these books even though when I get to the end of each of them I tend to think, "oh, come on!" The strength of these books IS NOT the who and how of the murder, and it sure isn't the gathering of people in one place to reveal the murderer. Some of these murders, especially in the earlier books, seem ridiculously complicated. These murderers must be brilliant, capable of perfect timing, and the luckiest people on earth. But I like the books because of the way Penny builds her stories. The strength of the books is the atmosphere she evokes, the relationships she develops between characters, the maturing of characters from book to book, and the way she explores the battle between good and evil (or as more often expressed, dark and light) using her central character, the very appealing Chief Inspector Gamache. Jean-Guy has been a work in progress throughout this series, and while his most appealing trait has been his loyalty to the Chief, it has not always been absolute. Jean-Guy has never understood Gamache although he thinks he does. He's in pain, sick and vulnerable. I didn't find the ending so surprising, although it is sad. This character grows, and not always for the better. (And when oh when is Peter Morrow going to stop lying and become a good husband?) The factory event won't play out quickly just as it wouldn't had it happened to real people. I am more interested in what happens to Gamache than I am in the solutions to these murders. I want to read on because I know Jean-Guy will heal and find his way back. (I do think it's odd that there would be a monastic order completely unknown to Rome, given that when the monk dies the abbot calls his archbishop. So he has one. But a little suspension of disbelief goes with all of these books.) I wish there wasn't such an anti-church message running throughout the series and this book in particular, but everyone has a different experience with the churches of their childhood and that goes well beyond the scope of a book review.

Not a Three Pines story, but don’t let that deter you from being engrossed by this intriguing, captivating, and heartbreaking next chapter in the detective work of Armand Gamache. Penny’s characters have such layers and depth. Her writing is both beautiful and haunting.

At first, I fell victim to reading other reviews and seeing flaws in this book where I'd seen none in the reading of it. But I've had another cup of coffee and realized that I wanted to review this honestly, exactly as I'd felt after finishing it and before 'crowd sourcing'. I've been a huge fan of Ms. Penny's since her first book, and while in many ways "The Beautiful Mystery" is completely different from what she's written before, I enjoyed it just as much if not more. I've liked the village of Three Pines, but the idea that so many murders happened there was beginning to stretch even my ability to suspend disbelief for the sake of a good read. So, shifting the 'scene of the crime' to this remote abbey was well timed, and presented Gamache with a new challenge - no longer able to chat easily with the quirky villagers he'd come to know, this time he and Beauvoir had to deal with this contemplative order of men. Apparently there are some things that bother music or religious historians and experts about this story, but as someone who knows just slightly more than average about both music and the Catholic church I wasn't troubled by this nor distracted by it. The setting is fascinating and beautifully described. With small exceptions, the characters seem very real to me (this from someone who saw her nuns out of habit and in bathing suits back in the 1960's, and played baseball with priests who used some plenty-creative language when they struck out! In other words, I know that people who have chosen the religious life are really just people, underneath it all.) While some reviewers are finding Gamache's Superintendent difficult to 'believe' as a character, I think that Ms. Penny has often created characters who are not so much one-dimensional as they are extreme nearly to the point of caricature. For me, this is merely a style that the reader can either choose to go along with or reject. They play important roles in the stories, even pivotal roles, yet if I had to get into their psyches as completely as I'm expected to get in to Gamache's the books would never end. I prefer having a few characters to focus on, follow closely, and identify or empathize with rather than being confronted with an entire cast of scenery chewers. I loved the way Ms. Penny braided together so many contrasting threads in this story, keeping them all a part of the finished fabric. Silence and the need for plain speaking, the past and the present, good and evil, love and hate. The parallels between the 'warring' factions at the abbey, Gamache and the Superintendent (Michael and Lucifer?), echoes of Christ and Peter in Gamache and Beauvoir, etc, etc, etc. Maybe it's just that I've drunk the Kool-aid, but I came in expecting to like this book, began reading a few hours after it was auto-delivered to my Kindle, and ended up loving it. Dramatic - probably. Innacurate - maybe. Do I want more - absolutely! I can't decide if I read too fast, or if Ms. Penny writes too slowly.

Sublime mystery only like itself. The writing and character development leads even among this very well written series. Highly recommend.

Several of the Chief Inspector Gamache books deal with art; in contrast, The Beautiful Mystery focuses on the spiritual/emotional consequences of music, specifically Gregorian chants. As in A Rule Against Murder, Louise Penny locates the crime in an isolated place, reducing the number of continuing characters who come into play. This police procedural picks up soon after A Trick of the Light; it is set in a monastery that has hidden itself from the outside world and focuses intensely on the relationship of Armand Gamache and his second-in-command Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Although the backstory is described, this book will be more meaningful to those who have read previous installments in the series. Some reviewers have criticized Penny's choice of setting, but I found it perfect for the soul-searching (almost literally) that Gamache and, especially, Beauvoir continue after the tragic incident that occurred in Bury Your Dead. An earlier incident in which Gamache went against his superiors and earned their enmity contributes to the angst that builds in this novel after Gamache's boss and enemy, Chief Superintendent Francoeur, unexpectedly arrives at the monastery midway through the book. For me, the first half of the book was optimistic, with Beauvoir appearing to have shaken off his demons and started on a path to happiness. In keeping with the lighter mood, Penny mentions the light many times in this half of the book. The parallels she draws between Gamache and Beauvoir emphasize the complementarity of their styles and even have them both texting the women they love at the same time. In this half, the plot specific to this book holds its own. The second half of the book is darker and becomes quite ominous, and the series-plot seems in the foreground. The "beautiful mystery" involving the chants and the mystery of which brother in the small monastery was motivated to commit murder both are solved. But Gamache and Beauvoir become mired in other muck from the past that will carry over to later novels. Adept at pulling in literary references, Penny begins the darker half of the book with both Gamache and Beauvoir thinking "something (is) coming" as Francoeur arrives--and Gamache repeatedly mentions the quote from T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral, "Some malady is coming upon us." Fear and lies make many appearances in this book. Rage has several devastating effects. In earlier books, Penny has described the allegorical dark, locked room which Gamache is willing to enter in order to expose a murderer but which other characters (e.g., Peter Morrow and Beauvoir) are afraid to unlock lest they release they own beasts. She makes use of that concept in this book, but extends the idea of a private place within each of us to include the secret, locked garden where the murder occurs. Some readers might find this book short on action, but I found the second half to be a pretty epic struggle of good versus evil over a soul. (No light sabers, but think Darth Vader trying to pull Luke Skywalker to the Dark Side and Obi-Wan defending.) As usual Penny's characters are masterfully drawn, interesting and nuanced. Although the murder weapon was obvious to me early on, there were many likely murder suspects until the end, and Penny manages to make them credible suspects while slowly becoming likeable as more is known about them. The isolation of the monastery and the monk's devotion to music above all else prompts the reader to consider what is important in life. Gamache, who is spiritual but not conventionally religious, finds the music moving and calming. Even the impatient, skeptical Beauvoir comes to like the monks and finds peace at one point in the beautiful music. Penny creates urgency in their departure from the monastery and poses the killer's confession and the critical denouement between Gamache and Beauvoir as occurring simultaneously. These qualities make the novel very engaging. Other reviewers have critiqued the accuracy of Penny's handling of monastery life and Catholicism as well as the credibility of the changes in Beauvoir's behavior in the end of the book. Those flaws keep it from being a five-star book for me.

Enjoyed the story, very disappointed in the ending. Looking forward to reading the next book in the series to see what happens.

This is the second novel in the series that strays from Three Pines and the endearing characters who live there (the first one is Bury Your Dead). But it is natural -- Three Pines is very small, and there are so many murders that can happen there. So, here we are taken to the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, hidden deep in the wilderness of Quebec. It is a monastery that does not accept any outside intrusion and where there is a vow of silence. To this monastery Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Sûreté du Québec arrive, having been called because of the murder of Frère Mathieu, the Prior and choirmaster, with a brutal blow to the head. Once there, they discover disquiet beneath the silence. I will not dwell on the plot, as this is a review, not a summary. What follow are some observations, and they contain what some call "spoilers" -- necessary to make my points. I had read, followed, and recommended Penny's mysteries from the beginning. I wrote a five star review of A Trick of the Light, which I loved. What happened here that makes me unable to give this work five stars? The novel is centered on the Gregorian chants and the 24 monks who sing them several times daily (now 23.) Their hypnotic allure is called the "beautiful mystery," and Gamache is immediately drawn to them as are we, the readers. I have to confess I read part of the novel with a CD of Gregorian chants in the background, as I was carried away and needed to hear them too. Beauvoir finds them irritating and boring. We need to make this point, maybe to try to understand what happens later on. But we know a lot about Beauvoir already. Everything about the novel, from the mystery to the daily life of a Gilbertine monk, is written in great detail and is truly moving and entrancing. We are mostly indoors, trapped in the monastery as the monks are. Only now and then do they venture out to work the soil, gather blueberries, look after the chickens. There are also secret doors and passages, as well as the potential hidden treasure. And there happens to be a treasure, as we find out later, but one that is in plain view, unknown to anyone there. It falls upon anther "intruder" a Dominican monk, to find it. All the time, Gamache is trying to gather clues to solve the mystery, but the solution eludes him. But -- it is when Chief Superintendent Sylvain Francoeur arrives that the novel takes an unexpected turn. We are still dealing with the mystery, and eventually Gamache solves it, but Francoeur has brought two things that will disrupt the calm and take the plot in another direction, a subplot that acts like an invader: a CD of the raid that happened in the past and which is still somewhat unresolved, and a bottle of OxyContin. With these two items he manages to challenge and change the lives of the two outsiders -- Gamache and Beauvoir. Francoeur instills more than doubt in Beauvior's mind; it is poison, which succeeds in making him doubt and finally desert not only Gamache but Annie, whom he dearly loved all along and is now having an affair with. We saw part of it at the beginning, only to be taken away almost immediately, as an anticipation of what was about to happen. It is almost absurd to think that Francoeur went all the way to the monastery on a plane that announced his arrival loudly, and took the CD and the bottle of OxyContin for revenge. How could he tell what was going to happen? And why put himself in such a plight, when he has everything to lose? It is equally absurd that, when Beauvoir has to choose, he goes with the devil -- as he had always labeled Fancoeur, all because he is under the influence of the opiates. This sudden, unexpected, and unresolved turn ruined the novel for me. Even more, it made me angry, upset, annoyed. Angry at Beauvoir; angry at Penny for bringing something that does not fit with the rest of the novel. Why, I ask? Why here? And why something so ridiculous as a CD and the OxyContin??? We know that Sylvain Francoeur hates Gamache. But we also know he is Chief Superintendent. Why is it that I cannot accept this turn of events? And I am not alone. There are many others who feel the same, so there must be something wrong we all see in this. After Beauvoir makes his choice, which many of us do not understand, even if he is drugged and in pain, Gamache has a look of such sadness in his face it almost breaks the abbot's heart. And then, at the very end, as Gamache looks into the sky and feels the North wind on his upturned face, the words "Some malady is coming upon us" are printed in italics. Is it a hint of future events? After this, even the sound of the plane disappears carrying Francoeur and Beauvois, and Gamache is left with a great silence - the silence of the monastery when there were no chants, as opposed to its glory as soon as the monks sang. It is Saint Gilbert between the wolves, not among them - a place of perpetual choice. And Beauvoir has made a final (maybe) choice. We are left with that doubt, and it is something we don't need at this point and in this novel.

評価が高かったので購入しましたが...あんまりおもしろくないです。 このシリーズのファンの方ならもうちょっと楽しめるのかもしれませんが、それでもやっぱり単調で意外性もなく、かといって文章力があるわけでもないし...買ってしまったのでとりあえず読み切りましたが。 私はほぼ、一冊読み始めると読み終わるまで他の本を読み始めることはないんですが、この本の半分くらいで興味をすでに失ってしまい、他の本2冊を読み終えた段階でまたこの本に戻ってきました。いやー、やっぱり面白くない。早く読み終わらせて、また別の本を読みたいので我慢して読み終わらせました。 この作者さんの本はおそらくもう買いません。面白くないので。

This latest Armand-Gamache-novel is a high point - again - of Louise Penny's craft. I wouldn't advise it for readers who want action and exciting situations and so forth. Though it i s a crime novel it has so may more rewarding features, spiritual features, psychological, historical, musical features and while reading it I got so much lost in the world of plainchant as I've never been when listening to it. Bu now I will listen to it with different ears. Heartbreaking, too, Jean-Guy's demons, intertwined with Gamache's demons - well oh, just read it for yourself!! Do!!!!

Ho scoperto louise Penny da pochissimo tempo, e dei quattro romanzi letti finora questo è stato quello che mi ha coinvolta di più. Ambientazione pazzescamente suggestiva, personaggi coinvolgenti con altissimo grado di drammaticità nei loro rapporti interpersonali. L'assassino è relativamente semplice da indovinare (il movente un po' meno) ma la cosa migliore della storia è la musica, col grande lavoro fatto dalla Penny nel riprendere la storia e la bellezza dei canti gregoriani. Tutti siamo andati ad ascoltarceli su YouTube se non addirittura abbiamo acquistato qualche CD!!! Libro che mi resterà dentro ancora X molto tempo. Da leggere però in originale inglese, se si può, in italiano non rende altrettanto bene.

I love how Louise can take you to places you might otherwise never have gone and hold you enthralled there with just her great writing. She doesn’t belabour the descriptions and yet you still get a wonderful sense of where you are and the atmosphere. Great story. Great characters.

L'intrigue policière se déroule avec tout le raffinement désiré dans un milieu étrange, fermé, inimaginable. Comme dans tous ses autres romans, Louise Penny donne de l'épaisseur à ses personnages, sait les rendre crédibles. Mais l'intérêt se déplace aussi, au fil du récit, et les héros eux-mêmes possèdent leurs difficultés, leur opacité, leur face sombre. Une sorte de thriller psychologique se dessine et se tend. Le lecteur est happé par ce roman dans le roman qui ne s'achève même pas et nous laisse absolument accroché à la suite, au prochain roman : "cliffhanger" tout à fait volontaire et maîtrisé par cette auteure de grand talent.