The doomed CC has written a self-help book that prattles about love and enlightenment, even though she is actually like the Snow Queen from the fairytale who pierces everyone’s hearts with ice. The tips of the branches seemed to melt or become fuzzy as though even in its confidence and yearning there was a tiny doubt. At the same time, he is assisting in another totally unrelated murder, that of a street person who is killed in Montreal. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. I wanted to learn who killed her but unlike Chief Inspector Gamache could not summon up any great desire for her killer to be brought to justice.

A 12-year old overweight girl is described on multiple occasion in the most jarring, mean-spirited way - not by other characters, but the author. I hate the cold, but love reading about places where the snow is metres deep and the water freezes on the end of the firemen's hoses as they try to put out a fire. As commented in my review for the first Three Pines story, if you are looking for a gritty crime novel, this isn’t it - but, if you enjoy, for example, Agatha Christie or Ellie Griffiths, then this should fit the bill for you.CC humiliates Crie about her weight and her clothes, but the narrative does the same, lingering over scenes of Crie's suffering and commenting constantly on her obesity. This book sealed the deal on my deciding to continue on with the series as I was nicely surprised by the second offering.

Something I think is very interesting is that Gamache did something in the past that ended any upward movement of his career. Meanwhile, in “the snow globe that was Three Pines,” CC’s 14-year-old daughter, Crie, has sewn her own chiffon snowflake costume for her school’s Christmas pageant, “to surprise Mommy. Although Louise Penny’s novels feature some rather nasty murders, I would classify her Inspector Gamache murder mysteries as cosy crime, especially as there are some lovely descriptions of situation and setting and some wonderful descriptions of food(! Don't look for the hamlet of Three Pines anywhere on a map of the countryside outside of Montreal, although Louise Penny has made the town and its residents so real. Inspector Gamache is just a bit too perfect and life in the little snow-globe village of Three Pines is just a bit too saccharine for my taste.

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté and his wife, Reine-Marie, make their first appearance in the book on the day after Christmas, when they have a tradition of reviewing unsolved cases. As a bitter wind blows into the village, something even more chilling is coming for Gamache himself. I couldn’t figure out how Elle knew about Clara’s work, to tell Clara, “I’ve always loved your work Clara”. He'd begun to suspect this self-absorbed woman had finally finished absorbing herself, her husband and even that disaster of a daughter and was now busy absorbing him. So much more comforting to see bad in others; gives us all sorts of excuses for our own bad behavior.

I save the hard to get books for the times when I am visiting because the collection is that expansive. The villain of the book is CC de Poitiers, who is a textbook destructive narcissist; she is delusional about her own abilities and importance, treats other people as disposable props in her glorious narrative, and viciously attacks anyone who fails to treat her with the proper breathless worship. For example, when the whole village finds out what a beautiful voice CC’s daughter has, she proceeds to completely annihilate her in front of everyone. The book could well have been a novel about a small-town community without the murder mysteries to turn it into a picturesque magical, although imaginery, place. 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.So if you love mystery and rare, rich setting; if you long for unique characters and meaning deep as bones, then don't miss A FATAL GRACE. Description: 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.