A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny

First Sentence:  “Oh, merde.

Going to the past can be painful and dangerous.  It is there where Chief Inspector Gamache and Agent Jean-Guy Beauvoir first meet during the case of two children so emotionally damaged they may have murdered their own mother, Clotilde Arsenault.  The older sister, Fiona, is sent to prison, while the brother, Sam, is deemed too young to be tried. Returning to the present, Gamache and his wife, Raine-Marie, take in a now-released Fiona and facilitated her enrollment in the École Polytechnique, from which she is now graduating along with Harriet, bookshop owner and ex-psychologist, Myrna Lander. Natalie Provost, a survivor of the Montreal Massacre where 14 were killed and 13 were wounded, all women, is receiving a special award.  Sam showing up at the graduation and is planning to stay in Three Pines, is an unwelcome surprise to Gamache, who never trusted the young man. 

Myrna and her partner, Billy, are thinking of moving from above the bookshop.  Instead, it is suggested they break through to an attic room that had been bricked off by Billy’s ancestor and about which he’d only recently learned upon receiving a letter dated 1862. In the room, they find a trove of unusual objects, some of which had been stolen from Gabi and Olivier’s bistro, and an enormous painting. The painting looks to be “The Paston Treasure,” better known as A World of Curiosities, painted in the 1800s and housed in the U.K.  But oddly, the painting in Three Pines is a copy filled with modern objects.  Also in the room is something long sought by Raine-Marie; a grimoire, a textbook of magic, inscribed with the name Anne Lamarque, a woman who’d been banished as a witch. After the death of the woman who sent the letter to Billy, Gamache brings in Agent Ameila Choquet to set up an Incident Room in Three Pines in order to learn how all these pieces fit together, and how they lead to a serial killer Gamache arrested years before.

Never has this reviewer written such a long synopsis.  Never has Penny written such a book where this long a synopsis was needed.  This is not a bad thing.

Penny paints wonderfully visual pictures and is such a lyrical writer.  She imbues some of her characters with depth, wisdom and poetry, while others are as basic and ordinary as people often are.  “While he’d [Gamache] become an explorer of human emotions, Jean-Guy Beauvoir was the hunter.” Penny also incorporates an informal, yet complete, cast of characters within the story.  The reader learns new things about the characters, which keeps them developing and expanding.  Ruth, the eclectic poet, provides humor, as well as wisdom and history essential to the plot, while Clara’s information about the painting is fascinating.

The interspersion of literary quotes and poems adds so much to the book.  They may inject humor, but they may also connote other emotions, melancholy, sorrow, or a warning. It’s not unusual for the reader to spend time looking up the source material for some of the quotes. 

It’s hard not to have favorite characters.  One may be the brilliant and fascinating character of Amelia Choquet with her complex history.  She is described by Myrna as—"If Ruth and a trash compactor had a child,…”  Her use of three particular lines at the end of the book is incredibly powerful.

There can’t be a story in Three Pines that doesn’t include food. While the meals may be simpler than in some previous books, still one is tempted by chilled pea soup, grilled Gruyère and sweet onion sandwiches; salmon, fresh-cut asparagus, baby potatoes, and green salad with vinaigrette; charbroiled steak with chimichurri sauce and frites; and wild mushroom ravioli with sage brown butter.

The story is the most complex Penny has written to date. It begins by jumping back and forth in time yet is easy enough to follow.  One must pay attention to the characters and their relationships. There is a lot to this plot that can’t be exposed in a review. It isn’t a book to stop and start but is best read by becoming completely absorbed in the story.

A WORLD OF CURIOSITIES is a story of family, love, and forgiveness while being filled with misdirection and red herrings at every turn, even though the clues are there.  Even though one instinctively knows, at least hopes, everything will be alright, the suspense is such that the end may engender tears of relief. The reader is so invested in the characters, one experiences their pain, fear, and anger, but also their love.  This is one of the most suspenseful books Penny has written and one that must have required a tremendous amount of research.  It may also be one of her best. 

       
A WORLD OF CURIOSITIES (Susp-Chief Insp. Armand Gamache-Three Pines, Canada-Contemp)
Louise Penny – 18^th in series
Minotaur Books, Nov 2022, 384 pp.
RATING:  Ex/A+ 

The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt

First Sentence:  The old man walked the hill with a long stick, pushing aside mayapple and horseweed, seeking ginseng.

Combat veteran Mick Hardin is now with the Army Criminal Investigation, Division.  Currently home on leave, he needs to resolve issues with his pregnant wife, but his leave time is running out. His sister, Linda, is the newly appointed sheriff the town’s Mayor wants to be fired.  With a murder case on Linda’s hands, and an inexperienced deputy, she turns to Mick for help.

There’s nothing better than discovering an author one has not read previously and immediately get drawn in by the author’s voice and the characters.  Offutt starts off with a chapter of wonderful description and ends with an eyebrow-raising revelation.  Along the way, Hardin uses wonderful imagery—“The vulnerable always died early.  Death begat death…”

Each character is strong and important to the story.  One appreciates Hardin’s approach of ---“I don’t want nobody else to get killed, …I had enough of it overseas.  If I can stop it, I will.” Mick isn’t a character who goes in hard unless it’s warranted.  His scene with Mullin’s mule and the front porch is delightful.  Whereas the interaction between Mick and his wife, and his subsequent action, is raw, yet Hardin truly captures Mick’s emotions. 

Mick’s sister, Linda, holds her own in the story—“There never was a body in Eldridge County that most folks didn’t already know who did it.  Usually a neighbor, a family, or drugs. … This is different.” Deputy Johnny Boy Tolliver, who gets car sick and believes ghosts exist but only in certain environments, is a particular favorite.

There is an underlying theme of family and love, even if that love is misguided.  Offutt shows that even though a family may not have much, the strength of that love can determine certain choices, and not always in a positive way. 

It can become a bit confusing keeping track of some of the characters who have both proper names and nicknames, yet Offutt fleshes out each character making them real people.

Some may not care for the way Offutt portrays the people of Kentucky, but it’s important to remember he is depicting one region, and not even all the people of that region.  While set in Appalachia, the book could have been set in almost any state with a concentration of people who live in the backcountry.  Still, the author ensures that the dignity of the people is reflected in their wisdom and philosophy on life.  Mick shares—“…one of his grandfather’s lessons.  Searching interfered with the ability to find. … At night don’t look for an animal trail, just walk where the trees aren’t.  See shapes and colors, not the thing itself.”  

THE KILLING HILLS is a book that is unexpected in the very best way.  The characters, dialogue, and descriptions are excellent. That’s not to say there isn’t violence; there is. Even so, Offutt is an author one may wish to follow.

THE KILLING HILLS (Noir-Mick Hardin-Rocksalt, Kentucky-Contemp)
Chris Offutt – 1^st in series
Grove Press, June 15, 2001, 240 pp.
RATING: Ex/A+

  

Do No Harm by Robert Pobi

First Sentence:  Dr. Jennifer Delmonico was approaching the second tower, which translated to somewhere around seventeen minutes at her usual pace.

Lucas Page is a polymath, astrophysicist, professor, husband, father, and ex-FBI agent.  During a gala with his wife Erin, a surgeon, a video is played memorializing all the doctors who died by suicide or falls in the past year. Page begins to see a pattern in the deaths and contacts the FBI. Page, and Special Agent Alice Whitaker, with whom he’s worked before, are joined by NYPD Detective Russo in finding a link between the deaths.

It’s not uncommon to have a protagonist with scars or injuries, but Page surpasses them all. He has a wealth of scars, a prosthetic arm and leg, and a glass eye.  But his brain is very much intact and always working. 

The book is, initially, very enjoyable. There is an interesting protagonist, although a lot of characters, excellent dialogue, humor, and the author conveyed emotion very well.  However, one becomes tired of hearing about Page’s injuries and prosthetics. 

Pobi’s descriptions are great until one becomes annoyed with his use of 15 words where six would have sufficed, and it takes these brilliant people two-thirds of the book to finally realize the motive the reader may have figured out a long time past.  At that point, one starts to look to see how far they’ve read, and how much is left.  That’s when it becomes obvious that the author desperately needs an editor.  The book should have been 332, not 432 pages long.  More is not always better.

An interesting anomaly is when, in talking about a plastic ghost gun made with a 3-D printer, the characters note that the plastic is an “Ender product and they sold somewhere around three hundred thousand pounds last year.”  Considering the book is set in New York City, and all the characters are American, one wonders how that crept in.  There is also a scene with a gunshot wound where the Page’s actions make no sense at all and even the most inexperienced person would have known what to do.

The writing is repetitive at times and needed a stronger proofreader. This would have helped the book overall. There are a couple very good twists and red herrings, which are appreciated.  However, although it is an amusing trope, cars don’t really catch fire and blow up that easily.  On the other hand, one might envy Whitacre’s driving ability, as long as she’s not driving your car. 

DO NO HARM is a quick read; it’s fast-paced, it’s violent, it’s funny, has interesting characters, and great descriptions—although sometimes they go on far too long.  Overall, it’s a pretty good read; more than an airplane read certainly, but it really did need tightening up. 

 
DO NO HARM (NoirThriller-Lucas Page- NYC-Contemp)
Robert Pobi – 3^rd in series
Minotaur Books, Aug 2022, 432 pp.
Rating: G+/B+

Cold Moon by Alexandra Sokoloff

First Sentence:  The moon is high, spilling icy light through the pine branches.

Cara Lindstrom has been caught and is awaiting trial.  When the prosecution’s witness goes missing, the case falls apart and Cara is released.  Agent Matthew Roarke is a man who is seriously conflicted and is obsessed by Cara.  He knows her history and her motive; she saved his life.  But he can’t ignore the fact that she has killed, no matter the reason.  Now there are more deaths.  The style is that of Cara, but could be copycat killings committed by Jade, a young prostitute.

There is no getting around how powerful is this book, and extremely hard to rate.  Should one be appalled by Cara, Jade and their actions?  Or does one support the fact that “justice” almost always fails women, especially these women?

Cara is a strong, unique character.  She is clever, yet ruthless. The more one learns of her past, the more one empathizes with her. Yet, one has a hard time justifying her actions.  Having Cara’s cousin, Erin, in the story adds a more sympathetic aspect to Cara.

 It raises the question of whether some people simply commit bad acts or whether some are truly Evil—" Whether It was a separate, independent force or just a word for the evil that human beings do, Roarke didn't know. He only knew that evil was real. It was evil.” 

Sokoloff’s anger at the justice system—“Other countries prohibited the overseeing of female prisoners by male guards, but US laws put its incarcerated women in constant physical jeopardy in the name of equal opportunity employment.”-- and how badly young victims of sexual exploitation are ignored leaps off every page, and rightfully so.  She addresses the hard issues of prostitution and human trafficking, as well as the challenges FBI agents have trying to fight those crimes. She raises a very hard question of legality versus morality.

Roarke is critically important.  When asked what he wants from Cara, he responds “I want to understand her. … She believes in some…supernatural force.  A living evil.” He represents “the system,” but one with a conscience that is destroying him.  How does one blindly support the law when the law doesn’t support the weak? Sokoloff does a wonderful job portraying his internal conflict.

COLD MOON is the third book in this unusual, and unforgettable six-book series that does need to be read in order.  It’s not a casual read, but one that grips the reader.  Sokoloff is very good at creating tension, but one should be warned:  There is graphic violence.

COLD MOON (PolProc-Agent Matthew Roarke-California-Contemp)
by Alexandra Sokoloff – 3^rd in series
Thomas & Mercer, Jul 2015, 388 pp.
RATING:  VG/A-