Just finished reading...

The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny.

This is the third book of the Inspector Gamache/Three Pines mystery series. In this installment, with a psychic staying at the bed and breakfast, some of the residents of Three Pines decide to hold a seance -- at the spooky old Hadley house. When one of the participants appears to have been frightened to death, Inspector Gamache and his team are called in to investigate.

But are things as they really seem? Did the psychic just happen to choose Three Pines for a vacation? Did the victim's housemate really think of her as a dear friend? Is the Hadley house really haunted, or is that just local superstition?

Unfortunately, the controversy over Gamache's arrest of a crooked colleague years earlier also reaches a peak at the same time as this case, and the poor Inspector appears to be over his head. Thankfully, his team is very supportive, and with help from some surprising sources, he not only survives the "coup" attempt, he solves the case of the frightented female.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as the two previous ones in the series, not due to a decrease in quality, but because I found the story line about Surete politics difficult to read as a result of some past experiences. I'm looking forward to the next book, A Rule Against Murder, though it will have to wait until after I read and prepare the discussion for The Ivy Tree, which is the DorothyL Book Discussion title for October.