Book Review
The Beautiful Mystery
by Louise Penny
Minotaur Books © 2012
Plot Summary:
Chief Inspector Gamache has been called to investigate a murder in the unlikeliest of places – a cloistered monastery lost to the world until the recent publication of their ancient chants.
The music release, intended to be a small release sold to friends and family to help raise money for repairs to the monetary accidentally became a world-wide hit. The unwanted international attention, though helpful for building repairs, created a rift in the cloistered order which ended in the murder of their choir instructor.
Chief Inspector Gamache and his right-hand, Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir, are invited behind the massive wooden door, closed against the secular world for centuries, to discover the disquiet amongst the silent monks and understand how an order made famous for their harmony can live disharmony that leads to murder.
My Thoughts:
This book was the first book I read in the Inspector Gamache series back in 2012. Some series are difficult to follow, if you do not begin at book 1. Though I was unfamiliar with the Chief Inspector and his faithful Inspector, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, the story of their relationship was easy to fall into.
Louise Penny has a unique talent for imagery that I find magnetic. I was in the monastery corridor, filled with rainbows and “giddy prisms”. I sat with the monks at their table, laden with dishes prepared with produce, fresh from their gardens.
Penny did leave one detail hanging at the end of the story, however. Commented upon frequently, the accuracy with which the original blueprints were built with the exception of the garden sizing…I anticipated this would play a bigger role in the overall story, and I was left unsatisfied.
Also unsatisfied was I at the unresolved tension between Chief Inspector Gamache and Inspector Beauvoir. I immediately ordered a copy of How the Light Gets In when I completed this book. When I read Penny’s books, it is not just about the criminal mystery, but I came to care deeply for the characters in the book.
This is a beautiful story of love and the ease with which love can be betrayed.
If you are looking for a new mystery series, I would recommend Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series.