Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Bring Out Yer Dead!

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

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This was cruising to a 4-star rating and probably the title of my favorite Gamache read. And instead, it lands at 3. Why? A variety of reasons. I liked that most of the action, specifically Gamache’s action, took place outside of Three Pines. I don’t find Three Pines as fascinating as the writer does. Ideally, this series would just take Gamache to different parts of Quebec. Such is life. I also liked that Penny gave Jean-Guy some run. Occasionally, she writes him as too much […]

“Everyone had strengths. And weaknesses. The important thing was to recognize them. And not expect something from someone who didn’t have it to give.” (CBR Bingo #11)

All the Devils Are Here (Chief Inspector Gamache #16) by Louise Penny

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Through the first fifteen books in the Inspector Gamache series there is only one book I’ve rated five stars, A Trick of the Light. It’s a doozy of a book, and it dug deep into how characters cope with trauma, addiction, and stress, and any number of other forces that would separate us from our best selves. When I finished All the Devils Are Here, the 16th book in the series, I had my first impulse to rate one of these five stars since the […]

Everything bad will always happen in Three Pines.

Glass Houses (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #13) by Louise Penny

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Firstly, I’m glad I just gave in pretty early on and accepted that Three Pines is the improbable murder capital of the world, and now let’s also add on to that hub of weapons of mass destruction (from two books ago) and drug trafficking. If you suspend your disbelief, this series is a lot more fun. Which is really necessary for this book. You’ve just got to buy in at the beginning, otherwise it’s not going to work for you. Because in this one, Gamache […]

Brutal Indeed

The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny

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Read as part of CBR13Bingo: Book club. I’m part of a mystery readers book club that goes through the Gamache series.  Whoo is the title accurate. Throughout the book, I had a sense of where it was going to go because I’ve read enough of this series and I’m aware of why it is so popular (handsome guy who everyone wishes was their dad blows into charming, rustic village to solve the case) to take the liberty of assumption as I pour through it. But I […]

The deadliest little village in the Eastern Townships

The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny

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The Cruelest Month is the third installment in the Inspector Gamanche detective novel series. Like the prior two novels, The Cruelest Month is also set in the Stars Hollow-esque Eastern Township village of Three Pines. Gamanche is called in after one of the village inhabitants, Madeleine Favreau, drops dead in the middle of a séance that a group of villagers were holding in the old Hadley house up on the hill. Although Madeleine had a bad heart, someone slipped her a dose of ephedrine to […]

I liked this one

A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny

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Series: The Inspector Gamache books. I read and reviewed Book 1 in 2016 and since then have read a couple a year. I read Book 11 in August of 2020 and didn’t really like it. I’ve been really back and forth on these books–I’ve loved some and barely been able to finish others. What I remembered most about this series prior to reading this book: I remember very few of the mysteries and even less of the b-plots–the ones that revolved around the corruption within […]



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