A well known author, but spoiler, not my favorite. Still love Gamache!
Welcome to winter in Three Pines, a picturesque village in Quebec, where the villagers are preparing for a traditional country Christmas, and someone is preparing for murder.
No one liked CC de Poitiers. Not her quiet husband, not her spineless lover, not her pathetic daughter—and certainly none of the residents of Three Pines. CC de Poitiers managed to alienate everyone, right up until the moment of her death.
When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, of the Sûreté du Québec, is called to investigate, he quickly realizes he’s dealing with someone quite extraordinary. CC de Poitiers was electrocuted in the middle of a frozen lake, in front of the entire village, as she watched the annual curling tournament. And yet no one saw anything. Who could have been insane enough to try such a macabre method of murder—or brilliant enough to succeed? (Goodreads Blurb)
This was a hard one for me. I’m not sure if it was the weak plot or the boring mystery or the unlikable characters… but I know a big part of why I rated this solo was the omniscient narrator perspective.
I’m not against writing from this perspective, but the way we switched from character 1 to 2 to 3 jumping around thoughts it was nauseating. I wish there was at least a break of some sort to let me know. I was going to another person‘s head and point of view. This was a huge annoyance for me and frankly, super distracting when we were reading from such a variety of characters. I really think this series could go a long way. If you picked a couple filler characters, the villain, maybe, and the detective.
I kept picking up the next book in the series due to the small village vibe. The wintry scenery. It was all very pleasant.
Yeah, as I read the beginning of my next book, which was super shocking in a fun way. I remember the beginning of this book that the author also tried to give a shock effect, but felt so flat. It was so confusing how we went from the opening line into the story.
It was very obvious who “done” it.
Everything else was very boring. Probably because the plot was so boring. I know the author tried to make it an interesting murder by slightly over complicating how the murder was achieved, but it didn’t help the overall plot.
It will be a while before I find myself even thinking about this series to want to pick up the next one. It was a fun world to be in for a while, but the story exhausted me, and I think I’m done.
Stats: 418 pages – First published September 30, 2006
cmacs paperbacks 
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