Just finished reading...

A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny.

This is the second of Penny's Three Pines mysteries. I've been wanting to read this series for quite a while, and only just got around to it. I'm loving these so much it's really hard not to read the whole series consecutively, but I have other much-requested library books to read and return first.

In this book we meet CC de Poitiers, a self-professed design and lifestyle guru. Having purchased the gloomy Hadley house (site of nightmares for many Three Pines residents), she immediately insinuates herself into the community. Brash, outspoken, and rude, no one is surprised when she is killed at the annual Christmas funspiel. (I think you may have to be Canadian to know what a "funspiel" is.)

Chief Inspector Gamache of the Surete du Quebec, his assistant Jean Guy Beauvoir, and the rest of the team we met in Still Life are assigned to the case.

The detectives, and many of the residents of Three Pines, are starting to feel familiar, and many of their actions are, if not predictable, at least unsurprising. The discovery of the culprit's identity was a surprise to me, even though the killer had been on my list of suspects.

Like Still Life, A Fatal Grace is exceptionally well-written, and I read most of it in one sitting.

I recommend these books highly, and I'm rapidly reading the two library books I must return before I can start The Cruelest Month.