Thanks so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for giving me access to this book. Louise Penny knocks it out the park again. I love books like this - well written, great storyline and characters that you love to read about. I will be recommending this book!

I have loved all of the books that I've read in this series. The story and the characters draw you in and you don't want to leave. Although this is a murder mystery, the other stories that are happening in the book are just as engaging and intriguing. Another great book by Louise Penny!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

When an intricate old map is found stuffed into the walls of the bistro in Three Pines, it at first seems no more than a curiosity. But the closer the villagers look, the stranger it becomes.
Given to Armand Gamache as a gift the first day of his new job, the map eventually leads him to shattering secrets. To an old friend and older adversary. It leads the former Chief of Homicide for the Sûreté du Québec to places even he is afraid to go. But must.
And there he finds four young cadets in the Sûreté academy, and a dead professor. And, with the body, a copy of the old, odd map.
Everywhere Gamache turns, he sees Amelia Choquet, one of the cadets. Tattooed and pierced. Guarded and angry. Amelia is more likely to be found on the other side of a police line-up. And yet she is in the academy. A protégée of the murdered professor.
The focus of the investigation soon turns to Gamache himself and his mysterious relationship with Amelia, and his possible involvement in the crime. The frantic search for answers takes the investigators back to Three Pines and a stained glass window with its own horrific secrets.
For both Amelia Choquet and Armand Gamache, the time has come for a great reckoning.

Quite possibly my favourite Canadian author right now, I have read pretty much all of this series, on and off, over the years and have never found one that I could say wasn't good. They are always fresh and inviting, dragging you into the lives of the people in Three Pines and the Surete Academy.

You can go anywhere and find a good mystery novel. Will a little research, you can find a good mystery with excellent characters. Look a little harder and you find one that has a sensational setting...but it is a rare phenomenon to find all of those things - and have that sense of returning to visit friends when you open that first page. And that's what this novel was like. And, to be fair, that's what most of Louise Penny's novels are like.

If you like the sound of that, give her a try. I would recommend starting at the beginning of the series and take in all the character development that happens along the way. A fabulous addition to this series.


Paul
ARH