A World of Curiosities: A Novel (Chief Inspector Gamache Novel, 18)

Review Louise Penny’s A World of Curiosities Minotaur Books Well, hold onto your hat for this one. That was the message a from a book swapping buddy who loaned me her copy. Her words evoked curiosity about what was to come. A wild ride ahead? Mystery, murder, mayhem? Magic? Yes. All these things. A World of Curiosities is a Louise Penny book, after all. Within the framework of the homey village of Three Pines, she once again weaves fact and fiction to offer a story that is more than entertainment. Although the entertainment part is pretty great. This is a book you will carve out time to read. A World of Curiosities is Penny’s 18th book-length case featuring her Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. As her tale-telling grows sharper and both darker and brighter, she fills in the contours of beloved characters, and Gamache, head of the police force for the province of Quebec, investigates complex cases that affect him personally. The author and main character appear inseparable after years of Gamache books. The widely admired inspector becomes kinder, wiser, more intuitive and courageous, the attributes that followers of Penny might imagine about her. But Gamache is also plagued by self-doubt. In World, his bugaboos rise to red-zone level. As he tries to solve the mystery of the curiosities he and others find in a once-sealed space in a building in Three Pines, each step forward creates new questions that pull in old friends and their investigative expertise. He fears he is putting his family and surroundings at risk. Readers of Penny’s previous books will easily slip into familiar friendships and welcome new ones, but no previous reading is required to grasp the salient points of the tale. The only necessities are a love of mystery and great writing and a high tolerance for intensity. As we soon realize, the people Gamache knows are unpredictable, often misled and sometimes corruptible. In other words, human. Beyond the theme of each Gamache book is an underlying story. This tale, while exploring the thread of forgiveness, unwinds the case in which Gamache and his right-hand man, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, first met. Relating their history through flashbacks of their first investigation together, Penny further enhances the theme of forgiveness while braiding past and present into an incendiary ending. Hold onto your hats.