"Bury Your Dead"

"Bury Your Dead" is the first book I've read by Louise Penny who is a four time winner of the Agatha Award. It's a Chief Inspector Gamache novel and appears to not be the first one in the series so I have some reading to do to catch up with this Chief Inspector!

I found it a little difficult at first to get into this mystery novel but I'm glad I persevered because it was well worth it. Penny is a gifted writer and this story tracks several cases simultaneously. Gamache is in Quebec City visiting a former supervisor while recuperating from on-the-job physical and emotional wounds. While he is there, he has flashbacks to a previous case that cost the lives of some of the police he supervised but also saved the lives of many private citizens. While there, he is receiving daily letters urging him to reopen an investigation because the writer believes a friend has been wrongly convicted of murder. Gamache sends his second in command, Jean Guy Beauvoir (also recovering physically and emotionally), to investigate that case. In the meantime, there's been a murder in Quebec City and Gamache is prevailed upon to help solve this case which involves also solving the centuries old question of where the founder of Quebec, Samuel de Champlain, is buried.

I'm impressed with Penney's ability to weave together these stories spanning generations and/or time. During the solving of these simultaneous cases old wounds are reopened and secrets uncovered.

If you haven't read Louise Penney, this book convinced me her books should be on the must read list of all mystery lovers.

pazt