louise penny a world of curiosities review

If you think about it, the underlying theme of all of Penny’s books is Honor Thy Family - the one you were born with, the one you’ve acquired during your lifetime and the Family of Man.

Here, even the loving relationship between Gamache and his son, Daniel, is challenged. But what has Horowitz, a kind and generous old billionaire, ever done to make someone want to murder him? To answer that question, Gamache undertakes a dizzying investigation that takes him all over the city, from the top of the Eiffel Tower to the depths of the national archives.Īlthough Penny touches on a wide range of subjects in this expansive story, her main concern is with the sacrifices we make for those we love. Gamache’s love is put to the test when someone in a van tries to run down his godfather, sending him to the hospital near death. Penny will return to that theme at the end of the book, when someone observes: “It’s an amazing thing, to be willing to die for each other.”

Their reunion takes place in the garden of the Musée Rodin, where the haunting statue of “The Burghers of Calais,” headed for the gallows to save their town, moves them to reflect on the notion of self-sacrifice. Gamache and his wife, Reine-Marie, are in Paris to attend the birth of their fourth grandchild, which gives Gamache the chance to visit his godfather, Stephen Horowitz. Over the course of this endearing series of village mysteries, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec has examined so many corpses and caught so many murderers that the Canadian hamlet of Three Pines must be running out of bodies, both warm and cold. Louise Penny sends her Canadian detective to Paris in ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE (Minotaur, 448 pp., $28.99) - and not a moment too soon.

Louise penny a world of curiosities review