The Beautiful Mystery

The Beautiful Mystery

  - Louise Penny

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So far, this is the second book not set in The Three Pines, and is instead set in an isolated monastery in the midst of a deep forest. However, I did not find it as interesting as the story set in old Quebec town, where we had much more to learn about the history. Here we have a little bit of history of this particular monastic order, believed to have died out during the inquisition.

A lot of focus is given to the routine of the monks and the Gregorian chants, which became boring after few repetitions. The author repeatedly describes the immersive beauty of the chants and the music they are set to, but I could not feel it (even though I have had a little experience of chanting of mantras in my yoga classes and loved the feeling evoked by chanting in unison).

The explanation of the murder did not match the buildup of the mystery and was rather an anti-climax. Fanaticism can be, and is indeed, responsible for a lot of cruelty in the world, but I wonder if something as pure as prayer and music can evoke such strong feeling. Perhaps it can, but it stretches my imagination.

The manipulative ways of Francoeur and Gamache’s helplessness to do anything about it were depicted very well, and I truly detested him. It leaves us on a cliffhanger, wondering about his real motive (addressed in the next book).