Glass Houses by Louise Penny
Lucky old me, I was granted an advanced reading copy of Glass Houses and read it in three days. I could have read it in a day, but had to slow myself from ripping through this newest gripping mystery from Louise Penny.
As many of you know by now, I’m a fan — I’ve read every one of Ms. Penny’s Chief Superintendent Gamache novels and that I can’t stop raving about her characters, multi-layed plots, and often gorgeous writing.
Ms. Penny was a CBC journalist and in interviews she says this experience gave her insight into people at their most vile, but also she got to witness acts of incredible forgiveness. As such, her mysteries involve dark human acts, but balance this evil with mankind’s redeeming graces. Not only am I a fan of her poetic phrasing and intelligent writing, but also her luscious food descriptions. (She says she writes with a pile of cookbooks on one side and poetry books on the other.)
Each of Ms. Penny’s books has a theme and in Glass Houses it’s conscience~~ having a conscience, acting on your conscience, avoiding your conscience, and the consequences therein.
A mysterious dark hooded and caped figure appears on the village green of Three Pines town square. The figure stands, unmoving for several days and upsets the entire village. There is nothing Gamache can do as the figure just stands, but he is also concerned. Turns out this figure is a “Cobrador del frac” – a Spanish debt collector with roots in the Middle Ages. The Cobrador is meant to publicly shame debtors by stalking them and reminding them of their indebtedness. But the villagers have no idea who the Cobrador is meant to intimidate.
Glass Houses has a bit of a new style, Ms. Penny goes back and forth in time using Gamache on the stand in court as a conduit for unraveling the mystery of the Cobrador and subsequent murder in Three Pines.
But Gamache has more to deal with than the murder, he is simultaneously planning a secretive massive drug operation on the US/Canadian border. He must tread carefully, as he’s still not sure who he can trust, after uncovering rampant corruption within the Sûreté du Quebec.
Once again, Ms. Penny weaves thoughtful prose with historical references. She uses the phrase “burn the boats”, during Gamache’s drug operations, which was how Cortez prevented his armies from retreating to Spain. And poor Gamache continually has the children’s rhyme “ashes, ashes, they all fall down” running through his mind, which gives the reader not only the same brain worm, but an extra layer of suspense to the throat clenching last few chapters.
The Three Pines regulars don’t play a large part in Glass Houses, but Clara has a showing of her portraits of each of the villagers and the paintings reveal a wonderful insight for each of them.
Thank goodness Ruth* and her foul-mouthed duck are still causing trouble, there’s plenty of mouthwatering food, and cozy evenings at Myrna’s bookstore with cocoa and cookies.
There now, stop — that’s all I’ll tell you about Glass Houses – no spoilers here.
As with any of Ms. Penny’s mysteries — you’ll fall hard for the characters and the imaginary Three Pines, you’ll laugh and cringe at the village mishaps and misunderstandings, you’ll be deeply invested in the solution of the crime, and you will never– ever be bored.
I told you I went to see Ms. Penny on book tour yesterday, well this photo perfectly captures her spirit and personality.
“Surprised by Joy”.
*Ms. Penny quote: “Ruth is the Greek chorus of the village of Three Pines.”
Thank you to Minotaur Books for a digital advanced readers copy via Netgalley.
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