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There are currently 23 member reviews
for Bury Your Dead
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Marta T. (Lafayette, CA)
Mystery set in Quebec City in winter
Fans of a good mystery that keeps the reader engaged without resorting to gratuitous bloodshed will appreciate this story of a local historian's murder. The story is rich in characterization and setting, bringing to life tension between French and English interests in Quebec, the pain of an investigator dealing with loss of comrades, and the stark beauty of winter.
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Annie F.(Dallas, TX)
Bury Your Dead
I think this is the best of Penny's Gamache series. Her trump card all along has been Armand Gamache and his humane philosophy toward colleagues, victims, and most of all, the perpetrators of the crimes he solves. Fear, in Gamache's opinion, is the basis for murder, and once that is understood, the criminal becomes human, not evil. When Gamache solves a case, it's as much a cause for sadness as triumph because the murderer has become someone we understand and feel for.
In this book Penny has added the element of self-doubt—Gamache's realization that he is fallible and that this fallibility can have dire consequences. It's heartbreaking to see this good, kindly, competent man suffer so for being human. We know he will recover but we also know it will take time. And finally, the City of Quebec surely owes Penny a free round-trip indefinite stay in their city. This book is so full of Quebecois history, events, places to visit and eat, and she makes it all sound so lovely, I cannot doubt that readers will start planning vacations there. I know I am!
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Linda W. (Walnut Creek, CA)
Bury Your Dead
The latest entry in Louise Penny's Three Pines mystery series finds Inspector Gamache in Quebec City recovering from serious injuries. I found this to be a highly compelling story. Previously Gamache has been like Poirot--a man who notices everything and uses his mind to puzzle out the truth in each situation. This time he doubts himself. He is more vulnerable and so much more human.
He works alone trying to forget the recent past by delving into the long ago past. His research brings him in contact with the staff of the English Literary and Historical Society. They soon ask for his help in uncovering the truth about the death of a man found buried in a shallow grave in their basement.
The story is set in the depth of the brutal Canadian winter. The backdrop for the story is the conflict between the English minority hanging on to a life style that is slowly being eroded and the separatists in this French province.
Inspector Jean Guy Beauvoir is recovering in Three Pines. Gamache has him quietly looking into the results of their last case in the isolated village. The inspector soon learns what his chief has known all along. Three Pines is no ordinary place. Here he too, finds peace of mind and a sense of belonging sorely missing in his life.
I highly recommend Bury Your Dead to mystery fans. The series is well written and has engaging characters. I would not choose this for my book club because I don't see a lot to discuss. Read it and enjoy!
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Irene B. (Denton, TX)
Bury your Dead
I thought this book was well written, lots of dialog that made it easy to know the characters. Quebec City is a delightful place and was portrayed in such a way that made it seem like your were there. It's been years since I was in QC - I enjoyed the time there with Ms. Penny. Let's have more Louise Penny books
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Vivian H. (Winchester, VA)
Bury Your Dead
I loved this book and hated to put it down. After finishing Bury Your Dead I am anxious to read the prior episodes in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mystery series.
The plot involves a delightful cast of eccentric, artfully crafted characters that feel real and comfortable, like a favorite pair of pajamas. It is clear Louise Penny has a sense of humor as well. She has crafted an engaging story interweaving the investigations of two murders with the flashbacks of Gamache's recent tragedy, the history of Quebec's founding by Samuel De Champlain, the continuing centuries old divisiveness and mistrust between the Anglos and French in Quebec, and vivid descriptions of place.
Unlike many mysteries, Penny continues to keep one guessing until the final pages and the solutions do not feel contrived. Fans of P.D. James and Elizabeth George will love Penny's book!
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Nona F. (Evanston, IL)
Bury Your Dead: Louise Penny gets better with each book
I was eager to read Louise Penny’s Bury Your Dead, the sixth novel in her mystery series featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Each novel in the series has built on characters and situations that occur in previous books, and Penny’s style and depth—which were always very good-- have also grown with the series. Bury Your Dead is absolutely superb in characterization, plot development and construction. It follows Gamache and his second in command, Inspector Jean Guy Beauvoir, as they recover physically and psychologically from a terrorist threat that has left four agents of the Homicide Division of the Surete du Quebec dead.
Gamache, staying with his old Surete mentor in Quebec City, agrees to consult with local homicide authorities on a murder which has connections with Quebec’s founder, Samuel de Champlain, and which has the potential to provoke deeper divisions between Francophone and Anglophone Quebecoises. Beauvoir, at his Chief’s request, returns to the small village of Three Pines, the site of several of the previous books, to look again at the murder case which was the subject of the previous novel The Brutal Telling. In their isolation (Gamache is without his investigative team and far from his beloved wife Reine Marie; Beauvoir is without his badge and his Chief), each man not only solves the mystery at hand, but comes to a new understanding of himself.
Penny provides sufficient background of the case from The Brutal Telling to allow new readers to the series to follow Inspector Beauvoir’s case, but the greatest satisfaction and emotional impact from this novel will be felt by those who have enjoyed the investigations of Gamache, his team, and the denizens of Three Pines in the past. Readers would be well rewarded to read some prior books in the series, especially The Brutal Telling, before embarking on this excellent novel. Murder mystery aficionados looking for more than a cozy or romantic mystery, who want to look into the depth of the human heart and its capacity to both wound and heal, would be well advised to look at Louise Penny's series.
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Joyce W. (Rochester, MN)
Bury Your Dead
A wonderful literary read--the mysteries were well paced and solved. I pictured myself walking the streets of Old Quebec. Really enjoyed learning about the Francophones versus the Anglos and Champlain's story. Wonderful characters with flaws, guilt and regret like every human.
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