Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Most Anticipated Books of 2025!

Read advance reader review of Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reading Guide |  Reviews |  Beyond the book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

Bury Your Dead

A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel, #6

by Louise Penny
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (5):
  • Readers' Rating (24):
  • First Published:
  • Sep 28, 2010, 384 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Aug 2011, 384 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Reviews


Page 1 of 4
There are currently 23 member reviews
for Bury Your Dead
Order Reviews by:
  • Maggie P. (Mount Airy, MD)
    Bury Your Dead
    "Bury Your Dead" grabbed me from the very beginning and kept me involved until the end. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, as he tries to recover from a previous incident, takes the reader on a tour of Old Quebec. Along the way, the reader learns about the tensions between the French and English residents of Quebec. Multiple story lines keep the reader involved in the story. This was my first book by Louise Penny, but it will not be my last.
  • Karen L. (Antelope, CA)
    The best of the Three Pines mysteries
    Author Louise Penny has hit a new high with "Bury Your Dead." Always strong with character development, in this book she also proves to be a skillful storyteller, with an intricate plot that comes together beautifully at the end. The author artfully manages to pack an emotional punch in a story where all the characters and their foibles are already well known to the audience. Any devoted reader of Agatha Christie, indeed any reader of mystery books, will likely find "Bury Your Dead" to be an affecting, but satisfying, novel.
  • Ann D. (Clermont, GA)
    Penny Scores Again
    In Louise Penny's "Bury Your Dead", two homicides are solved and Inspector Armand Gamache struggles to recover physically and mentally from a terrorist attack that leaves him near death and with much guilt and despair over the loss of fellow officers.

    As usual Penny's characters are well-drawn, complicated, and fascinating people, and we revisit the small village of Three Pines as well as Quebec City Penny's books are never disappointing and she continues to produce sophisticated, compelling fiction.
  • Elaine B. (franklin, MA)
    Three Pines AND Quebec City
    Does it get any better than this? I don't think so. We get to see a more personal side of Gamache and visit some old friends and some new. A touching and interesting story. Louise Penney just gets better! Please keep writing Louise. I was totally involved from beginning to end and I hadn't read the previous book! I highly recommend this book and Quebec City and Three Pines and the whole series!
  • Katherine S. (seaford, VA)
    Nesting Dolls
    Quite good and as involved as Nesting Dolls...3 mysteries within a mystery, just like walled Quebec City itself...as is mentioned in the book. Good pacing & character development and very atmospheric. Recommend this to all readers...mystery lovers, travelers, and history buffs alike because you feel like you are in snowy Quebec for Carnival and learn much of its compelling history. Loved the "brave" loyal dog, Henri.
  • Carol G. (Little Egg Harbor, NJ)
    Bury Your Dead
    This is the first time I have ever read Louise Penny and since reading this book, I have reserved the first book in this series from my local library; loved this book! I love mystery and this book did not disappoint. One of the favorite things I like is getting involved in characters and these characters are unforgettable. There are several story lines and they are terrific. One of them refers to the previous book which I will have to read. I have told all my mystery buff friends about Louise Penny and look forward to reading her prior books in this series as well as future books. What a gem. I will definitely recommend it to my Book Club.
  • Sandra H. (St. Cloud, Minnesota)
    Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
    Louise Penny’s Three Pines novels just keep getting better. "Bury the Dead" takes readers into a darker world than any of the five earlier novels in this series while keeping many of the same quirky characters and adding some delightful new ones. But this is Chief Inspector Gamache’s novel. Gamache must come to terms with making a wrong decision that costs the life of one of his agents. Set in Quebec City during a cold Canadian winter that mirrors the coldness Gamache feels in his soul, Penny goes beyond a well-written cozy mystery to a novel that deals with how we must face the reality of our weaknesses and learn to accept them along with our successes and our strengths.

    Penny’s Gamache will remind readers of Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti. Like Leon’s novels, Penny’s depend on well-crafted characters and intricate plots rather than on violence and tough macho detectives. For such readers, "Bury Your Dead" will prove a most satisfying read.

Beyond the Book:
  Why Quebec Speaks French

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: The Capital of Dreams
    The Capital of Dreams
    by Heather O'Neill
    "Sometimes war can set a woman free," declares Sofia Bottom's larger-than-life intelligentsia mother...
  • Book Jacket: The Lion Women of Tehran
    The Lion Women of Tehran
    by Marjan Kamali
    Seven-year-old Ellie, living in Tehran in the 1950s, has just lost her father. She and her single ...
  • Book Jacket: Clear
    Clear
    by Carys Davies
    John Ferguson is a principled man. But when, in 1843, those principles drive him to break from the ...
  • Book Jacket: The Mighty Red
    The Mighty Red
    by Louise Erdrich
    Permit me to break the fourth wall. Like any good reviewer, I aim to analyze a book dispassionately,...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
Babylonia
by Costanza Casati
From the author of the bestselling Clytemnestra comes another intoxicating excursion into ancient history. When kings fall, queens rise.
Book Jacket
The Memory Library
by Kate Storey
Journey through the pages of this heartwarming novel, where hope, friendship and second chances are written in the margins.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The Secret History of the Rape Kit
    by Pagan Kennedy

    The story of the woman who kicked off a feminist revolution in forensics, and then vanished into obscurity.

  • Book Jacket

    Going Home
    by Tom Lamont

    Going Home is a sparkling, funny, bighearted story of family and what happens when three men take charge of a toddler following an unexpected loss.

Book Club Giveaway!
Win My Darling Boy

My Darling Boy by John Dufresne

The story of of a man whose son collapses into addiction and vanishes into the chaotic netherworld of southern Florida.

Enter

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

Y C L a H T W but Y C M H D

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.