Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Murder and Mayhem Bookclub review, 13 April 2007
Here we have the winter, with the promise of spring and summer to follow. The Canadian village of Three Pines takes great comfort in its traditions, always with the expectation of total community involvement. The annual Boxing Day curling match has the villagers either out there on the ice or enthusiastically barracking from the river's banks. CC de Poitiers was no exception, and her killer knew this would be so. It arises a certain admiration from Chief Inspector Armand Gamache that the murderer was so confident of the village spirit that he, or she, dared to murder the newest and very unpopular arrival in plain sight of them all. Electrocuting one person in a crowd of hundreds, out in the open in the coldest month of the year took an incredible amount of daring, and sadly, local knowledge to be successful.
It is not Gamache's first contact with Three Pines. A year ago the Surete du Quebec assigned him to investigate there another murder investigation, shocking particularly for its occurrence in such a beautiful and peaceful place. He remembers the villagers fondly from this time, as likewise they do of him and so the weight of intruding upon their world again does not sit well upon the quiet and dutiful police officer. Gamache knows that sometimes new arrivals stir up old fires and it doesn't take much to appreciate that the deceased had her share of enemies both old and new.
Readers who fell upon and rolled happily about with Louise Penny's debut novel STILL LIFE will do so joyfully again with DEAD COLD. If this is a first encounter with Three Pines, fear not, as this novel stands well on its own as a pearler of a crime novel. It is doing these books a great disservice to describe them primarily as village murder mysteries; there is much to encounter and delightfully complex personalities are there for your dissecting pleasure. There is always a great comfort in the reappearance of known characters and so we greet again Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, artfully applying his keen and particular mind again to solve the crime that few feel truly needs to be solved. With great dexterity, teasing information out piece by piece Louise Penny leads her readers through her utopian Three Pines, showing great love for the Canadian countryside in which her novels are set.
While her descriptive narrative alone is lyrical enough to make you want to jump on a plane, Penny's writing skills shine also with her detailed character studies. DEAD COLD is not a whodunit; more time is devoted to the why it is that the act of murder becomes so necessary to those that choose that path. Whether it is a blessed release or a frightful act of violence, judgement is kept to a minimum.
Welcome to a new "classic" crime series.
Andrea Thompson
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beware this is the same as Dead Cold, 3 Jun 2008
Great book but I've ended up buying it twice due to the confusion over the titles. A Fatal Grace is exactly the same as Dead Cold
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A cold wind blows through life, 19 Sep 2007
I haven't read 'Still Life', the first book to feature the principal characters to be found in this novel. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache finds himself back in Three Pines, a small village near Montreal, during the onset of winter. A murder has occurred in the most unusual circumstances, though the victim is hardly mourned. Concurrently, he is investigating another murder of a vagrant found strangled in Montreal. Louise Penny creates a vivid picture of the bleak and cold conditions and yet, at the same time, there is a warmth conveyed by the inhabitants of Three Pines, reminding us of old English villages in days gone by.
If one were to mix Maigret with Poirot, Gamache would be the result and he trundles his way through the investigation with a competence unmatched by other police members.
Deliciously told, the story will stand alone without first reading 'Still Life' but, if the reader wishes to understand Penny's characters, then I would suggest starting with 'Still Life' - too much is discussed in 'Dead Cold' which would spoil the earlier book, I believe.
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