How the Light Gets In

How the Light Gets In 

  - Louise Penny

 My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It is difficult to write a review of this book without giving away spoilers, but I will try to do so, though it may make the review a little vague and abrupt.

Once again, we have two parallel story lines - a murder mystery, and the escalating conflict between Gamache and Francoeur. The only common thread between the two is the murder victim's connection with The Three Pines village.

The murder mystery is not the focus in this book, and serves as a rather poor excuse for Gamache's visit and presence in the village. The murderer is rather obvious once we get the few facts that are eventually used by the inspector to reach the conclusion. The story itself is interesting though, from the cultural and psychological perspective.

The main focus is Gamache's investigation into what Francoeur is really planning for. This is more of a thriller than a mystery, and is quite a good one, but with an end that is a little to theatrical. I did not find the sinister plan completely unbelievable as several other readers, only the extent seemed rather extreme.

One major interest in this series is the development of the story arcs of the primary characters, which had been more or less believable so far. But the events in this book do not just stretch the belief, they reach up to a cinematic climax and a happy-ever-after ending. Gamache is increasingly becoming too-good-to-be-true; I really like him, but the other characters like Jean-Guy or Nichol or Clara, with their own flaws and constant character development, are much more interesting.

The writing style in this book was jittery. I felt there were several instances of repetitions of the same events or explanations. But what annoyed me most was a whole bunch of chopped sentences, two-three words, attempting to build up the tension during the climax. I am not sure if other books didn't have this or I did not observe it, but in this one I definitely noticed. I do hope we have a smoother story and style in following books, because I have really enjoyed this series.