Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

by Joan Baril

A long time ago, in another lifetime, I was a military wife living at Camp Valcartier military base outside Quebec City.  My biggest problem in a francophone milieu was the difficulty finding reading material in English but my sanity was saved by a fellow military wife, Margaret Wylie, who told me about a private Anglophone library in Quebec City called The Literary and Historical Society and suggested I join. 

Louise Penny has made the Literary and Historical Society library the centrepiece of her mystery novel, Bury Your Dead.  Her detective hero, Inspector Gamache, becomes involved when a dead body is found in the sub basement of the historical building, a body which leads him into the labyrinths of Quebec history.

Another Penny Treat

Bury Your Dead - News and Reviews

Louise Penny's new thriller, Bury Your Dead, which will be coming out in the US and Canada in September.  (The US cover is on the left above and the Canadian on the right. )

The book has received a rare starred review in the Kirkus Reviews. Here's part of what they wrote:

"Gamache's excruciating grief over a wrong decision, Beauvoir's softening toward the unconventional, a plot twist so unexpected it's chilling, and a description of Québec intriguing enough to make you book your next vacation there, all add up to a superior read. Bring on the awards."

And Booklist has also given Bury Your Dead a starred review. Here's an except:

"Penny’s first five crime novels in her Armand Gamache series have all been outstanding, but her latest is the best yet, a true tour de force of storytelling….Penny hits every note perfectly in what is one of the most elaborately constructed and remarkably moving mysteries in years."