The Long Way Home

My least favorite so far. I agree with what others said.
Hope next one is better. I still love the characters and the escape into Canada.

This entry in the three pines series is different from the previous books. A search for a missing character rather than a murder mystery. I enjoyed the change in plots. A very surprising ending which I did not see coming.

The ending of this installment was fantastic. Penny just took forever to get there.

Perhaps starting in the middle of a series is not the best way to read a novel. This was my first Louise Penny, and although I liked it, it didn't live up to the expectations I had based on the love my friends have for Louise Penny novels. Armand Gamache is newly retired after some traumatic event that is only alluded to, and his friends and family eye him anxiously to make sure he is okay. When one of the residents of Three Pines, the village Gamache and his wife are living in, confides her worry about her missing husband, though, he is drawn back into the life of a detective.

For all that it constantly refers to the hard and dangerous life of a detective, this book is wrapped in coziness. There are characters whose sole function is “lovable crank” or “supportive friend.” The characters spend evenings eating communal meals which are described with detail a foodie would appreciate. When it comes to detection, Gamache often gleans information from small details that the reader is not privy to until much later, which I find annoying.

This story takes place among a community of artists, and deals with artistic inspiration, authenticity, and risk taking. The subject matter was interesting, and I liked the setting of Quebec, but I was not bowled over by this book. I think I will read the first in the series before I give up on Louise Penny, though.

I think this is a 3-star review because I listened to the novel and the narrator's voice is quite pleasing and fits with my internal image of Gamache. Otherwise I would likely downgrade this for both writerly reasons AND for OMG seriously that is your plot? reasons.
I'm not a huge Penny fan, but dip into her novels when there is nothing else available at the library for me to listen to on dog walks–which means I like her well enough. Or maybe I just like her characters, who seem like real people–or at least as real as people in genre fiction mysteries can feel.
When Penny tries to get literary, though, when she wants to point out to her readers a theme or a thread or a device, she hammers us over the head with it in the most unsubtle fashion. Those moments really bum me out, because they seem to indicate that either Penny wants to write more literary stuff and is held back by talent or by commercial concerns, OR that someone wants her to do this and the thematic stuff gets inserted into her pleasant narrative with no feel for the rest of the text.

I've loved Louise Penny's Armand Gamache books. I picked up one because the photograph on the cover was gorgeous. Found out it was a series so I found the first one and off I went. I am now caught up with the series and oh so sad. For one, to be done with the series (so far, hopefully another one will be forthcoming) and two this was, well, it was shocking.

Peter is missing and you know that something terrible must have happened to him to keep him away from Clara. So the entire time I'm dreading what they will find. Now, Peter was always my least favorite villager from Three Pines. I think he was meant to be the opposite of Clara and their balance kept each other in check, but still I always felt there was no balance there. I felt like Peter didn't deserve Clara and I was so proud of her when she asked him to leave.

All the books in this series have been slow burners, but this was the most extreme of all of them. It took so long to get anywhere and most of it seemed to be everyone staring at art, the same art, over and over for pages and pages.

But it was so twisted up I remained unsure the whole time. I couldn't imagine that Peter was dead, but I couldn't understand why he wouldn't return to Clara so I was in limbo the whole time and everything about the ending was unexpected to me.

Holy cow.

I am new to Louise Penny, but I can honestly say, I am in love with this writer. She is an awesome storyteller. The description of the location, where the story took place, just beautiful. It had me take a look at Travelocity, to see the cost of visiting, Charlevoix, which I plan to do. This is the best story I have read all year. Full character development and storyline. I relished the story. A love story/mystery, it doesn't get any better than that. I will purchase this book to add to my library.