The Beautiful Mystery: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel

I am a huge fan of the Armand Gamache series, but I prefer the ones set in three Pines. The Beautiful Mystery begins by delving deeper into the lives of Gamache, Beauvoir, and Armand’s daughter, Annie. I like when the over arching storyline continues to move forward in each installment.The setting of The Beautiful Mystery is absolutely breathtaking. I love the solitude and isolation of the small wooded island. I loved the juxtaposition of the head of the Sûreté and the head of the abbey. Just when you think the tension is at its breaking point, the hound of the Lord shows up!Things really take off from there. There are many themes that are explored, including finding healing/peace, accepting our human weakness, escaping or dealing with the past, division among followers, and the power of silence. The Beautiful Mystery ponders, “the Divine, the human, and the cracks in between.”I am a lover of all music and have listened to Gregorian Chants throughout my life, so I enjoyed this aspect of the book. I greatly enjoyed Umberto Echo’s The Name of the Rose, so I greatly enjoyed a murder mystery set Inside the closed walls of a religious order. If that type of story appeals to you, or a good “everyone’s a suspect” in a locked room mystery (my favorite is the movie Clue), I highly recommend this book.

I am far from an organized reader. That is, I don't plan my readings beyond the last page of my current read. This Gamache novel was no exception; but a fortunatechoice. In The Beautiful Mystery, I was able to see the beginning of Louise Penny's backstory regarding the (future), ongoing close and central relationship between Gamache and his son in law, Jean Luc Beauvoir. I continue to be critical of Ms. Penny's (too frequent and long?) digressions into individual characters' personal musings on their relationships. The mystery and its outcome was once again interesting for me.And I enjoyed the easily read and understood historical education on Gregorian chants and the evolution of "memes" into the present day written musical communication... Thank you...... Bill Arick

This book and the preceding one were incredibly good, either that or they're crack! I've given my daughter all of the previous books in this series and she's reading them like chocolate kisses. That's a confirmation that they're really good. We don't usually agree on books.

Wonderful work of description. Incredible imagery. Sad but inspiring belief; in God, in man, in music and in love of life and fellow man.

The Beautiful Mystery is set in an isolated abbey in the far north of Quebec, where the prior has been murdered in the Abbott's private garden. Chief Inspector Gamache and Inspector Beauvoir arrive to investigate among an order of twenty-four Monks--now only twenty-three--who have chosen to dedicate their lives to God and to music. Their music of choice, and in fact their raison d'etre, is Gregorian Chant. Their order, the Gilbertines, have been hidden away for centuries after fleeing Europe and the Vatican during the Inquisition.The good news is that Gamache and Beauvoir have a finite group of twenty-three monks as suspects, and they're all cloistered in the abbey. There's nowhere to run. The bad news is that the monks are a divided group, with two factions emerging. One faction favored the murdered prior, and his efforts to capitalize on their music, while modernizing their lives. The other faction favors the Abbott's efforts to resist change and protect what he perceives as their history and their vows.As is the case with all of Louise Penny's stories, there are lots of interesting characters to come alive on the pages. Since this novel is not set in Montreal or Three Pines, as most have been, more of the characters, and all of the suspects, are new.As is also the case with Penny's novels, there are intertwining storylines wrapped around common themes. In The Beautiful Mystery, the themes are group interactions, loyalty, and betrayal. Some of them will be resolved, but some will quite obviously continue into the next Gamache story, and the next.

Amazing next book in the series. Incredibly evocative, on many levels. Even though these books are now a television series, so grateful to be reading the books first.

Interesting characters

A book about battling inner demons, protecting your beliefs. About how a moments weakness can change your life. The end of this book shook me

I will read this book from start to finish. I really must as I have been in and out of the book daily since I developed a nasty cold and have been, sleeping, reading and both again n but I've had difficulty with consecutive pages, much better today and as this is a fascinating story, I want in its entirety missing no details. A true Gamach fan

I first came across Louise Penny when we stayed at the Lake Louise Chateau and have now read the first 8 books. They have all been excellent.

Wonderful read. So enjoyed the story. Caught on in the history of it all. Louise Penny does not disappoint in her words,

Ein Inspector Gamache, der nicht in Three Pines spielt? Geht das?Diese wenig komplizierte Frage kann schnell mit „Ja“ beantwortet werden.Gamache und sein Inspector Beauvoir werden nach einem Anruf per Propellamaschine und Fischerboot zur abgelegenen Abtei des Gilbertinen-Klosters gebracht.Dort liegt im privaten Garten des Abtes die Leiche eines toten Mönchs. Nach erster Begutachtung findet Gamache außer einem kleinen Stück uralten Papiers mit seltsamen Zeichen in der Hand des Toten keinerlei Hinweis auf die Mordwaffe.Die Abtei wurde zuletzt durch ihre Musik-CD mit gesungenen Choralen bekannt und konnten somit erfolgreich die Abtei, die vorher dem Untergang drohte, wieder sanieren.Die Aufgabe, den Mörder unter genau den übrigen achtzehn Mönchen und dem Abt zu finden, stellt sich als schwieriger heraus, als anfänglich erwartet.Während Gamache ganz in der Musik des Chorals und in der Geschichte aufgeht, hadert sein Inspector Beauvoir erneut mit seinen privaten Problemen. Die erlittenen Verletzungen des Anschlages sind noch lange nicht überwunden.Als daraufhin auch noch der Vorgesetzte Francoeur mit fadenscheinigen Gründen in der Abtei auftaucht, wird beiden schnell klar, dass hier ganz andere Strippen gezogen werden.Musik und Glaube umgeben die ganze Ermittlung. Schweigegelübte, Gebote und der Drang nach Öffentlichkeit trieben die Mönche in unterschiedliche Lager. Die Abtei droht an Misstrauen und Furcht zu zerbrechen, bis eines Abends unverhofft ein Dominikaner-Mönch vor der hölzernen Tür steht und um Einlass bittet.Im Schatten der Inquisition und aus Furcht vor Rom kommt Gamache schneller zu einem gewünschten Ergebnis als erhofft, löst jedoch damit eine unvorhersehbare Kettenreaktion aus.Fazit:Ein Gamache Krimi ohne das besinnliche und beschauliche Three Pines ist also machbar. Die gewohnten Charaktere finden sich in der dunklen und ehrwürdigen Abtei genauso wieder wie in Oliviers Bistro zur Mittagszeit. Vor Klatsch und Tratsch sowie Neid scheinen auch die Männer Gottes nicht gewappnet zu sein. Schnell wird dem Leser klar, dass anerzogene Furcht und jahrhundertelanges Misstrauen schwer zu überwinden sind. Einzig der Glaube an Gott hält dieses abgelegene Kloster am Leben und zaubert diese ehrwürdigen Chorale zu Tage bis jedoch die Moderne auch hier Einzug hält. Dagegen kann sich scheinbar auch kein Mönch, auch nicht mit Gottes Hilfe wehren.

Away from Three Pines and the brilliant people there but somehow the sense of humour and acerbity from Ruth seeps through.Great read and learned a lot about early music