Book Review: The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

A brutal murder occurs. In a beautiful old monastery deep in Quebec. Not just any monastery, but a closed monastery with a vow of silence. Silence only broken during services when Gregorian chants were sung. It is in the music that the mystery develops. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Sûreté du Quebec unravel this mystery. They have come out of their usual community of Three Pines, with completely new characters to learn and to understand. The monks and their lives are completely foreign to the two officers, especially to Inspector Beauvoir.

Not all of our book group members were completely pleased with Louise Penny’s novel, missing the characters from Three Pines. A first reader of a Louise Penny Inspector Gamache novel, the concept of a murder in a monastery was fascinating to me. Openings to a solution appear and then disappear in the twist  and turns that follow the monks through the halls and rooms of the old monastery. And, although certain characters seemed unnecessary, I enjoyed this Beautiful Mystery.

“To be honest, the only thing I ever really wanted to be 

was a writer - since I read “Charlotte’s Web” as a child.”

~ Louise Penny