Category Archives: Audio

July 1, 2025 · 4:16 pm

How the Light Gets In (#9) – Louise Penny

How The Light Gets In – Louise Penny

I love Inspector Gamache books and after the last one – The Beautiful Mystery – I had to read this one.

I wondered if this was the planned ending for these novels – it ends in a very satisfying manner (all mysteries solved and relationships sorted). As there is no gap in the publishing schedule, maybe this one was never intended to be the end (all good because I love them and I have about ten more to go).

Here’s the blurb …

Christmas is approaching, and in Québec it’s a time of dazzling snowfalls, bright lights, and gatherings with friends in front of blazing hearths. But shadows are falling on the usually festive season for Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté de Québec. Most of his best agents have left or been transferred out of the Homicide Department; his old friend and lieutenant Jean-Guy Beauvoir hasn’t spoken to him in months; and hostile forces are lining up against him.

When Gamache receives a message from Myrna Landers, in the village of Three Pines, he welcomes the chance to get away from the city for a few hours. Myrna’s longtime friend, who was due to spend Christmas in the village, has failed to arrive. When Chief Inspector Gamache presses for information, Myrna is reluctant to reveal her friend’s name. Mystified, Gamache soon discovers the missing woman was once one of the most famous people not just in North America but in the world, and now goes unrecognized by virtually everyone except the mad, brilliant poet Ruth Zardo.

As events come to a head at the Sûreté, Gamache is drawn ever deeper into the world of Three Pines. Increasingly, he is not only investigating the disappearance of Myrna’s friend but also seeking a safe place for himself and his still-loyal colleagues—if such a refuge exists amid mounting danger. Is there peace to be found even in Three Pines, and at what cost to Gamache and the people he holds dear?

Gamache is quite sneaky in this one and it is only at the end, you appreciate how sneaky he has been over several years – definitely playing the long game.

There is beautiful settings, the usual cast of characters (although Reine-Marie is in Paris) and an interesting case to solve as well as the shenanigans in the Sûreté.

A review.

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June 25, 2025 · 8:12 pm

The Beautiful Mystery (#8) – Louise Penny

The Beautiful Mystery – Louise Penny

I do like Inspector Gamache books. I have been listening to this one – read by Adam Sims.

Here is the blurb …

No outsiders are ever admitted to the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, hidden deep in the wilderness of Québec, where two dozen cloistered monks live in peace and prayer. Ironically, for a community that has taken a vow of silence, the monks have become world-famous for their glorious voices, raised in ancient chants whose effect on both singer and listener is so profound it is known as “the beautiful mystery.”

But when the renowned choir director is murdered, the lock on the monastery’s massive wooden door is drawn back to admit Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Sûreté du Québec. There they discover disquiet beneath the silence, discord in the apparent harmony. But before finding the killer, before restoring peace, the Chief must first consider the divine, the human, and the cracks in between.

This one is not set in Three Pines, but in an isolated monastery (Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups). It has all things that I love about Gamache novels – great settings, interesting plot, and intriguing characters. There is some political intrigue in the Sûreté bureaucracy – Gamache didn’t get rid of all of the rot when he arrested Arnaud – I think it will continue for a few more novels. The way this one ended (no spoilers) made me a bit sad, so I have quickly started number 9.

A review.

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June 17, 2025 · 4:01 pm

War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

I am just recording here that I listened to War and Peace. Thandiwe Newton is a fabulous narrator. This version was translated by Aylmer Maude.

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May 19, 2025 · 1:19 pm

A Trick of the Light – Louise Penny

A Trick of the Light – Louise Penny

Another Inspector Gamache novel – number 7 (I still have plenty to go)

Here’s the blurb …

“Hearts are broken,” Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. “Sweet relationships are dead.”

But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow’s garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara’s solo show at the famed Musée in Montréal. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Québec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light. Where nothing is as it seems. Behind every smile there lurks a sneer. Inside every sweet relationship there hides a broken heart. And even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they’ve found is the truth, or simply a trick of the light.

I do like these novels and all of the characters (well most of the characters – I still haven’t warmed to Peter (Clara’s husband)). I love the writing and the settings, and I am hoping for a bit of romance in the next one. For me these novels aren’t really about the crime, but how the characters live together with kindness and empathy.

A review

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May 6, 2025 · 3:05 pm

Wives and Daughters – ELizabeth Gaskell

Wives and Daughters – Elizabeth Gaskell

I have read this before and watched the BBC adaptation. The theme for my book club is ‘wives’ and so, this seemed an appropriate choice.

Here’s the blurb …

Molly Gibson is a young girl who has been raised by her widowed father. During a visit to the local aristocratic ‘great house’ of Lord and Lady Cumnor, she loses her way in the estate and falls asleep under a tree. When she wakes up, she gets distressed at the thought of spending the night at the mansion, but to her relief, her father arrives to collect her. Seven years later, Molly is an attractive and rather unworldly young woman, which arouses the interest of one of her father’s apprentices. Mr. Gibson discovers the young man’s secret affection and sends Molly to stay with the Hamleys of Hamley Hall. Molly falls in love with Roger, the younger son of Mrs. Hamley, but it appears that he is more interested in Cynthia, Molly’s new stepsister from her father’s second marriage.
Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) was an English novelist and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor, and are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature. Some of Gaskell’s best known novels are Cranford, North and South, and Wives and Daughters.

I listened to this, it was read by Prunella Scales, read very well, but I kept thinking of Fawlty Towers.

This was fabulous – the characters in particular. I think we all know people like Mrs. Kirkpatrick, and then Mrs. Gibson, self-serving and jealous, but with a veneer of kindness. The blustering Lady Cumnor who knows how everyone should live and tells them so (shades of Lady Catherine De Burgh, but much kinder). And then there are the lovely characters, Roger, Molly, Lady Harriet and Mrs Hamley. Kind and thoughtful.

The setting is good too – I could see Hamley Hall and The Towers, as well as the village of Hollingford.

What was it about? People chosing their life partners. Some of the partnerships were good – Lord and Lady Cumnor, Squire Hamley and his wife, the Browning sisters, but Dr and Mrs. Gibson were ill-suited. She wanted to be supported financially and he wanted a mother for his daughter. They didn’t get to know each other well enough to see how very ill-suited they were. Cynthia is a flirt and broke some hearts (including Roger), but might settle in the end. I think the key message is not to rush into anything, but take time to get to know someone well.

There is a read-along happening here.

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April 20, 2025 · 6:01 pm

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain

My book club is reading James by Percival Everett. I have already read it (as part of my Booker short list reading), so I thought I would listen to Huckleberry Finn and see how they were connected.

Here is the Wikipedia summary

Commentators readily distinguish three parts in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In the first, the author believes he is writing a children’s entertainment, a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Then, at the beginning of Chapter XVI, he experiences difficulties and stops writing. It is at this point that his hero questions the notions of good and evil that he has been taught. It will take Twain seven years before he regains his creative momentum. Finally, in a third part— a highly controversial “burlesque about-face  —the character of Tom Sawyer reappears, selfish, cruel, and unconscious. Huck falls under his influence again, and the author returns to the “Tom Sawyer” spirit of the beginning.

This is not my favourite book – I know it is an American classic, but it wore me down. The constant use of the N word, and the bit at the end when they play at rescuing Jim was excruciatingly awful. The sections where it was Huck and Jim having adventures were enjoyable and interesting.

I know it is meant to be a satire and we see characters that are more like caricatures, and Huck grapples with the morality, first of helping a slave escape and then secondly of slavery itself. But I feel it has not aged well, and James does a much better job of show casing the awfulness of slavery and the selfishness (and ignorance) of the people white people.

From the Guardian

I definitely don’t agree.

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March 31, 2025 · 2:56 pm

Bury Your Dead – Louise Penny

Bury Your Dead – Louise Penny

Another Chief Inspector Gamache book! I love these novels.

Here’s the blurb …

It is Winter Carnival in Quebec City, bitterly cold and surpassingly beautiful. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has come not to join the revels but to recover from an investigation gone hauntingly wrong. But violent death is inescapable, even in the apparent sanctuary of the Literary and Historical Society – where an obsessive historian’s quest for the remains of the founder of Quebec, Samuel de Champlain, ends in murder. Could a secret buried with Champlain for nearly 400 years be so dreadful that someone would kill to protect it?

Although he is supposed to be on leave, Gamache cannot walk away from a crime that threatens to ignite long-smoldering tensions between the English and the French. Meanwhile, he is receiving disquieting letters from the village of Three Pines, where beloved Bistro owner Olivier was recently convicted of murder. “It doesn’t make sense,” Olivier’s partner writes every day. “He didn’t do it, you know.” As past and present collide in this astonishing novel, Gamache must relive the terrible event of his own past before he can bury his dead.

For this one Gamache and Beauvois, both recovering from terrible injuries, separate and solve different murders. Beauvois in Three Pines looking into the Hermit’s murder (A Brutal Telling), and Gamache gets swept up into an investigation in Quebec City. Once again, the descriptions are magnificent – I want to go to Quebec City now.

The structure of this one was interesting as well. We know something terrible has happened, Gamache and Beauvois are both on leave, but the story is unfolded gradually told from their different perspectives.

A review

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March 27, 2025 · 12:46 pm

The Brutal Telling – Louise Penny

The Brutal Telling – Louise Penny

Another Chief Inspector Gamache novel – and I have started the next one! I really enjoy listening to these novels.

Here’s the blurb …

Chaos is coming, old son.

With those words the peace of Three Pines is shattered. As families prepare to head back to the city and children say goodbye to summer, a stranger is found murdered in the village bistro and antiques store. Once again, Chief Inspector Gamache and his team are called in to strip back layers of lies, exposing both treasures and rancid secrets buried in the wilderness.

No one admits to knowing the murdered man, but as secrets are revealed, chaos begins to close in on the beloved bistro owner, Olivier. How did he make such a spectacular success of his business? What past did he leave behind and why has he buried himself in this tiny village? And why does every lead in the investigation find its way back to him?

As Olivier grows more frantic, a trail of clues and treasures— from first editions of Charlotte’s Web and Jane Eyre to a spider web with the word “WOE” woven in it—lead the Chief Inspector deep into the woods and across the continent in search of the truth, and finally back to Three Pines as the little village braces for the truth and the final, brutal telling.

Once again, it’s a complicated murder with lots of twists and turns and suspects. But the best thing about these novels is the characters and the insight into their thoughts and motives.

The setting is always fabulous, and the descriptions of the food is mouth-watering.

I also enjoy the parts of the plot that involve the ‘extra’ characters. This one focused a bit on Clara and her solo show (not to mention Peter’s jealousy of her talent and now her opportunities).

A review.

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March 26, 2025 · 12:14 pm

The Idea of Perfection – Kate Grenville

The Idea of Perfection – Kate Grenville

This is the first novel I have read by Kate Grenville. I know of her, of course, she is a famous Australian author (which I think has put me off reading her, but the cover convinced me).

Here’s the blurb …

Harley Savage is a plain woman, a part-time museum curator and quilting expert with three failed marriages and a heart condition. Douglas Cheeseman is a shy, gawky engineer with jug-handle ears, one marriage gone sour, and a crippling lack of physical courage. They meet in the little Australian town of Karakarook, where Harley has arrived to help the town build a heritage museum and Douglas to demolish the quaint old Bent Bridge. From the beginning they are on a collision course until the unexpected sets them both free.

Elegantly and compassionately told, The Idea of Perfection is reminiscent of the work of Carol Shields and Annie Proulx and reveals Kate Grenville as “a writer of extraordinary talent” (The New York Times Book Review).

This was great, Harley and Douglas are fabulous characters – very believable. And I particularly liked Felicity Porcelline (and her fixation on winkles), and Freddy who sees himself as the lothario of Karakarook. This is a character driven novel (the best sort) and all of the characters have a lot of baggage. So it’s about happiness, trust and community.

The writing is beautiful and I agree with the above blurb – it is reminiscent of Carol Shields, and I would add Anne Tyler, however, the setting is very small town Australia (beautifully described – I could feel the heat, see the main street, and the local hotel).

This was published in 1999, but it is still very readable.

A review

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March 15, 2025 · 3:34 pm

A Rule Against Murder – Louise Penny

A Rule Against Murder – Louise Penny

I have become a fan of Louise Penny’s Gamache novels. This is the fifth one I have read (for some reason I listened to number 12 first). I do like Armand and all of the recurring characters (maybe not Peter).

Here’s the blurb …

“What happened here last night isn’t allowed,” said Madame Dubois.
It was such an extraordinary thing to say it stopped the ravenous Inspector Beauvoir from taking another bite of his roast beef on baguette.
“You have a rule against murder?” he asked.
“I do. When my husband and I bought the Bellechasse we made a pact….Everything that stepped foot on this land would be safe.”

It is the height of summer, and Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache are celebrating their wedding anniversary at Manoir Bellechasse, an isolated, luxurious inn not far from the village of Three Pines. But they’re not alone. The Finney family—rich, cultured, and respectable—has also arrived for a celebration of their own.
The beautiful Manoir Bellechasse might be surrounded by nature, but there is something unnatural looming. As the heat rises and the humidity closes in, some surprising guests turn up at the family reunion, and a terrible summer storm leaves behind a dead body. It is up to Chief Inspector Gamache to unearth secrets long buried and hatreds hidden behind polite smiles. The chase takes him to Three Pines, into the dark corners of his own life, and finally to a harrowing climax.

These novels are beautifully written with a visceral sense of place. The crimes (murders) are the skeleton of the plot, but it’s fleshed out by more character-driven themes; family relationships, selfishness, kindness, etc. And the murders are ingenious.

A review.

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