A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny
What's It About?
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns to investigate murders while dredging up old village secrets and facing his own demons.In Louise Penny’s new mystery, World of Curiosities (Minotaur), the past and present of Québec Sûreté Chief Inspector Armand Gamache once again collide in the idyllic village of Three Pines. But this time, in its most deadly form possible.
Siblings with a Shady Past
It is spring, and as the villagers prepare for a special celebration, the winds blow Fiona and Sam Arsenault, a troubled young brother and sister, into town. They are the children of a woman bludgeoned to death more than a decade ago in a case which brought Gamache and his future number two and son-in-law, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, together. Although the siblings were implicated in their mother’s death, only Fiona paid for the crime.
However, Gamache and his wife, Reine-Marie, believed in her innocence and took Fiona under their wings. Fiona has returned to the Gamaches as a graduate of the École Polytechnique, but Gamache remains skeptical about Sam. He senses a dangerous monster from the past lurking inside Sam.
Mysterious Art and Other Curiosities
The Arsenaults’ shady past is not the only harbinger of evil to blow into Three Pines.
Gamache’s alarm grows when a 160-year-old letter written by a long dead stonemason is discovered, mentioning his bricking up of a room somewhere in Three Pines. When the secret room is uncovered and the bricks are removed, Gamache and the villagers enter a world of curiosities, including the discovery of a mysterious painting, The Paston Treasure. The artwork contains puzzles and hidden messages that propel Gamache to search his past and his heart to protect those close to him.
Rule of Three and Other Themes
In Gamache’s eighteenth outing in the Three Pines series, Penny explores the familiar themes of art, family and community throughout the complicated page turner. Penny also continues to explore an unspoken “rule of three” within her latest novel.
Throughout the Three Pines series, readers have witnessed Gamache’s great kindness in adopting and redeeming numerous young people with troubled pasts. Three such persons appear in World of Curiosities: Jean-Guy Beauvoir, an angry, undisciplined officer; Fiona Arsenault, a young woman found guilty of her mother’s death; and Amelia Choquet, another troubled officer. Each plays an integral role in resolving a crime everyone believed had been as long dead as its victim.
The rule of three also appears to Gamache in his search for the identity of an old enemy who has arrived in Three Pines to threaten everything he holds dear. No spoilers here!
Streaming Series on the Way
This is a big week for Louise Penny. The release of A World of Curiosities serves as an entrée to the main course, the long-awaited release of Amazon Prime’s Three Pines series on Dec. 2. From the producers of Netflix’s The Crown, the series based upon Penny’s novels will star Alfred Molina as Gamache.
Empathetic and astute Gamache, who believes in goodness, kindness and light, investigates murders while dredging up old village secrets and facing his own demons in eight one-hour serial dramas. Initially, the villagers are suspicious of Gamache, and the deeper Gamache digs into the secret lives of the eccentric people seeking refuge in mysterious Three Pines, the more it affects him.
Similar to the novels upon which they are based, Gamache will also uncover police failings in the murder case of Indigenous women and the internal corruption in the Sûreté.
In 2021, the readers of The Washington Post named Armand Gamache as its most beloved fictional detective, beating out Poirot and Sherlock Holmes. It will be interesting to see whether Molina fits the bill as the endearing, intelligent and haunted character readers adore.
The brilliant A World of Curiosities continues the legacy of Three Pines, Gamache and Louise Penny. The intricately plotted tale of kindness, redemption and forgiveness will thrill ardent Penny fans and hook new ones on her Gamache series and Three Pines.
