By LARRY BALLWAHN | Wilton
Prologue: I often review books from mystery series. Since each book is usually written as standalone story (that make sales more likely), my suggested approach is that if a review interests you, get the book and read it. If you like what you read, you may want to start at the beginning to see how the author got here. As suggested below, that doesn’t always work.
Louise Penny’s “Bury Your Dead” is the sixth in the Chief InspectorArmand Gamache novels. It follows “A Brutal Telling,” a novel that I did not review. That said, if you choose to read “Bury Your Dead,” you may want to read “A Brutal Telling” first. Penny has a gift for tying the plot of one story to its predecessor.
“Bury Your Dead” is a major accomplishment requiring much research and a great deal of skill to write. It is historical fiction, a standard mystery, a reexamination of a prior mystery and the unraveling of a terrorist attack that has caused severe trauma to Gamache and his group.
Unlike Penny’s previous novels, “Bury Your Dead” is not set in Three Pines, but rather in Quebec City. Gamache is visiting his mentor, Emile Comeau, while recovering mentally and physically from wounds received while responding to a terrorist attack. Besides gunshot wounds, Gamache saw several officers killed while under his command. He is spending his time doing historical research, his hobby, at the renowned Literary and Historical Society Library. It is one of the remaining English institutions in predominantly French Quebec. When an amateur archeologist is found murdered in the Literary and Historical Society basement, Gamache is invited to consult on the investigation.
It turns out that the dead man was well known for his obsession for locating the body of Samuel de Champlain, one of the founders of Quebec. If not solved quickly, the archaeologist’s murder in this English institution would certainly be used by those who wanted Quebec to separate from Canada.
And if that was not enough, there is now a question as to whether the right man was found guilty in the last case. Thus, Three Pines enters the picture. The second in command, Jean Guy Beauvoir, also recovering from severe wounds, is dispatched to reexamine that case from a different perspective. If the motivation for the Hermit’s murder in the previous novel was not his treasure, perhaps someone other than the jailed Oliver was responsible.
The author skillfully moves from one setting to the other to tell the stories. In addition, the story behind the terrorist attack is revealed in flashbacks. In the meantime, we learn something of Quebec City and Samuel de Champlain.
If you can see the end of this set of mysteries, you’re ready to write your own.
