Glass Houses
Louise Penny
2017, 400 pages
Mystery
Louise Penny has written another wonderful mystery set in Three Pines.
A figure in a black cloak appears on a cold November day on the green in a quiet village in Canada. The person’s face cannot be seen. Is it a man or a woman? And why do they stand there all day long? What at first looks like a joke soon seems threatening to people. Chief Superintendent Gamache speaks to the person, but gets no response. Gamache and his team soon find out that this figure has ties to an ancient practice in Spain, where a “conscience” comes to trouble someone’s mind about what they have done.
Gamache is also working on a plan to stop a colossal drug shipment from going to the United States through his peaceful village of Three Pines. But his plan includes a very dangerous procedure that may damage many lives. Is it worth the risk? Gamache, his wife and his friends, and all the charming and quirky characters of the village return in this compelling mystery.
Gandhi said that there was a court that is above all others, the court of conscience. Gamache is using this higher court, but will the price that he pays be too high?
If you are new to the series, I would start with the first one, Still Life. But Louise Penny does a good job of filling in the background about characters and events if you can’t read them in order. Read one and see why a Louise Penny mystery is so very hard to put down.
Robbin BaileyConcord Public Library
Visit CPL at concordpubliclibrary.net.
