Louise Penny Livres

"Quittant sa retraite de Three Pines, Armand Gamache accepte de reprendre du service à titre de commandant de l'école de police de la Sûreté. À cette occasion, Olivier lui offre une curiosité : une carte centenaire qui était emmurée dans la salle à manger du bistro du village. Il n'en faut pas plus pour mettre l'ancien enquêteur sur la piste d'un passé qu'il préférerait sans doute oublier. C'est alors qu'entrent en scène quatre étudiants de l'école de police et un professeur... découvert assassiné. Dans la table de nuit de la victime, une copie de la carte de Gamache fait peser de lourds soupçons sur ce dernier. D'autant que son comportement avec une recrue au profil inquiétant désarçonne tout le monde, y compris le fidèle Beauvoir. Le commandant a ses secrets, mais les outrages du passé ne sont-ils pas plus dangereux lorsqu'on veut les occulter?" -- cover

Un dimanche d'automne, le jour se lève sur le charmant village québécois de Three Pines, et les maisons reprennent vie peu à peu. Toutes, sauf une... La découverte dans la forêt du cadavre de Jane Neal bouleverse les habitants de la petite communauté. Qui pouvait bien souhaiter la mort de cette enseignante à la retraite, peintre à ses heures, qui a vu grandir tous les enfants du village et dirigeait l'association des femmes de l'église anglicane ? L'inspecteur-chef Armand Gamache, de la Sûreté du Québec, est dépêché sur les lieux. Il ne croit guère à un accident de chasse. Au cours de sa longue carrière au sein de l'escouade des homicides, il a appris à se méfier des apparences. Tandis que ses adjoints procèdent aux premiers interrogatoires, il s'abstrait du tumulte, s'assied sur un banc, dans le parc du village, s'imprègne des lieux et fait ce qu'il sait faire le mieux : il observe. Alors, lentement, à force d'attention, la perfection du tableau s'estompe. Des craquelures d'abord invisibles lézardent le vernis, l'œil averti devine les retouches, les coupables repentirs, les inavouables repeints. Bientôt, la fresque idyllique livrera ses terribles secrets... Avec ce premier volet des enquêtes de l'inspecteur-chef Armand Gamache, Louise Penny a concocté un roman plein de charme, de subtilité et d'humour, dans la plus pure tradition des grands maîtres de la littérature policière.

The 16th novel by #1 bestselling author Louise Penny finds Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Quebec investigating a sinister plot in the City of Light On their first night in Paris, the Gamaches gather as a family for a bistro dinner with Armand’s godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz. Walking home together after the meal, they watch in horror as Stephen is knocked down and critically injured in what Gamache knows is no accident, but a deliberate attempt on the elderly man’s life. When a strange key is found in Stephen’s possession it sends Armand, his wife Reine-Marie, and his former second-in-command at the Sûreté, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, from the top of the Tour d’Eiffel, to the bowels of the Paris Archives, from luxury hotels to odd, coded, works of art. It sends them deep into the secrets Armand’s godfather has kept for decades. A gruesome discovery in Stephen’s Paris apartment makes it clear the secrets are more rancid, the danger far greater and more imminent, than they realized. Soon the whole family is caught up in a web of lies and deceit. In order to find the truth, Gamache will have to decide whether he can trust his friends, his colleagues, his instincts, his own past. His own family. For even the City of Light casts long shadows. And in that darkness devils hide.

*** NOMINATED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER *** 'Full of twists and turns . . . Wonderfully satisfying' KATE MOSSE There is more to solving a crime than following the clues. Welcome to Chief Inspector Gamache's world of facts and feelings. As a fierce, unrelenting winter grips Quebec, shadows are closing in on Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. When he receives a message about a mysterious case in Three Pines, he is compelled to investigate - a woman who was once one of the most famous people in the world has vanished. The investigation gathers momentum and Gamache is drawn into a web of murder, lies and unimaginable corruption at the heart of the city. Facing his most challenging, and personal, case to date, can he save the reputation of the police force, those he holds dear and himself? Millions of readers worldwide. One inimitable Chief Inspector Gamache.

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. On the first day of his new job, Armand Gamache is given the gift of an intricate old map that was stuffed in the walls of the bistro of Three Pines.the Qu.bec village he now calls home. The map eventually leads him to shattering secrets, and an old friend and older adversary. It leads the former Chief of Homicide to places even he is afraid to go. But must. There he finds four young cadets in the police academy, and a dead professor. And, with the body, a copy of the old, odd map. Everywhere Gamache turns, he sees one of the cadets.

'Makes most of her competitors seem like wannabes' THE TIMES There is more to solving a crime than following the clues. Welcome to Chief Inspector Gamache's world of facts and feelings. One cold November day, a mysterious figure appears on the village green in Three Pines, causing unease, alarm and confusion among everyone who sees it. Chief Superintendent, Armand Gamache knows something is seriously wrong, but all he can do is watch and wait, hoping his worst fears are not realised. But when the figure disappears and a dead body is discovered, it falls to Gamache to investigate. In the early days of the murder inquiry, and months later, as the trial for the accused begins, Gamache must face the consequences of his decisions, and his actions, from which there is no going back . . . Ten million readers. Three pines. One inimitable Chief Inspector Gamache. 'One of the greatest crime writers of our times' DENISE MINA

Former Chief Inspector Gamache has been hunting killers his entire career and as the new commander of the Surete Academy, he is given the chance to combat the corruption and brutality that has been rife throughout the force. But when a former colleague and professor of the Surete Academy is found murdered, with a mysterious map of Three Pines in his possession, Gamache has an even tougher task ahead of him. When suspicion turns to Gamache himself, and his possible involvement in the crime, the frantic search for answers takes the investigation to the village of Three Pines, where a series of shattering secrets are poised to be revealed ... Ingenious, gripping, and powerful, A Great Reckoning is the new spellbinding novel from number one bestseller, Louise Penny. Evocative and atmospheric, this magnificent work of crime fiction will stay with you long after you turn the final page

'Outstanding' THE NEW YORK TIMES 'No one writes evil like Louise Penny' ANN CLEEVES There is more to solving a crime than following the clues. Welcome to Chief Inspector Gamache's world of facts and feelings. As Quebec City shivers in the grip of winter, its ancient stone walls cracking in the cold, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache plunges into the strangest case of his celebrated career. A man has been brutally murdered in one of the city's oldest buildings - a library where the English citizens of Quebec safeguard their history. And the death opens a door into the past, exposing a mystery that has lain dormant for centuries . . . a mystery Gamache must solve if he's to catch a present-day killer. Millions of readers worldwide. One inimitable Chief Inspector Gamache.

The New York Times Bestseller 'Stellar . . . With her smart plot and fascinating, nuanced characters, Penny proves again that she is one of our finest writers' (People Magazine) In the green depths of spring, morning breaks on a woman splayed in a bed of flowers - her eyes wide, her neck broken. Her death is a mystery; so is the woman herself. But as Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his team peer into the dark corners of the victim's past, they expose a secret that rots at the very heart of their community - a secret that will implicate someone they've trusted for years. And as Gamache knows too well, in the flickering shadows of death, the truth may be just a trick of the light.