The beautiful mystery

I sometimes feel that the books that do not take place in Three Pines are not as good. I like the familiar characters and setting, one of the benefits of reading a series and for the most part, those that have taken place outside of Three Pines have not been my favorites. The Beautiful Mystery has broken that streak.

More tense than its predecessors, The Beautiful Mystery sometimes felt like a horror/thriller. Trapped inside a centuries old monastery in the middle of the wilderness with a murderer sounds bad enough, but then you introduce an old villain and everything gets even more electrifying. There are moments that you can see coming a mile ahead and you wish you could reach into the book and stop the wreck from happening.

But you can't. And the wreck happens as intended, with pieces strewn everywhere. Leaving the reader to wonder where to go from here.

Again, the murder mystery is almost secondary to the storyline that has plagued the Chief since events even before Still Life. Here is the culmination of everything that has been working against him since the beginning. There is no happy ending here.