An instant New York Times Bestseller and August 2017 LibraryReads pick!“Penny’s absorbing, intricately plotted 13th Gamache novel proves she only gets better at pursuing dark truths with compassion and grace.” —PEOPLE“Louise Penny wrote the book on escapist mysteries.” —The New York Times Book Review“You won’t want Louise Penny’s latest to end….Any plot summary of Penny’s novels inevitably falls … won’t want Louise Penny’s latest to end….Any plot summary of Penny’s novels inevitably falls short of conveying the dark magic of this series…. It takes nerve and skill — as well as heart — to write mysteries like this. ‘Glass Houses,’ along with many of the other Gamache books, is so compelling that, for the space of reading it, you may well feel that much of what’s going on in the world outside the novel is ‘just noise.’” —Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post
When a mysterious figure appears in Three Pines one cold November day, Armand Gamache and the rest of the villagers are at first curious. Then wary. Through rain and sleet, the figure stands unmoving, staring ahead.
From the moment its shadow falls over the village, Gamache, now Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté du Québec, suspects the creature has deep roots and a dark purpose. Yet he does nothing. What can he do? Only watch and wait. And hope his mounting fears are not realized.
But when the figure vanishes overnight and a body is discovered, it falls to Gamache to discover if a debt has been paid or levied.
Months later, on a steamy July day as the trial for the accused begins in Montréal, Chief Superintendent Gamache continues to struggle with actions he set in motion that bitter November, from which there is no going back. More than the accused is on trial. Gamache’s own conscience is standing in judgment.
In Glass Houses, her latest utterly gripping book, number-one New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny shatters the conventions of the crime novel to explore what Gandhi called the court of conscience. A court that supersedes all others.
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Louise Penny nails it once again. Her character’s make the books. The plots are wonderful because of the characters who are real people with real emotions SO looking forward to the NEXT book. Thank you Louise
Read every book in series. This one weak in writing, plit etc. Penny maralizi g about politics and cultural values too much.
Read the others first.
Louise Penny has written some fine books in this series, but I consider this one of her best.
Excellent!
This series keeps getting better and better! I love Inspector Gamache and the residents of Three Pines.
Please buy this book and take 2 to 3 days to savor slowly what is known as Three Pines…the town and the people …the sense of community. Listed as a mystery, this is one if the best pieces of fiction out there!
This is a wonderfully constructed puzzle with a murder taking place in Three Pines away from the bIg city and crimes and drugs. But as you immerse yourself, you realize that drugs hit everywhere and everyone in some way. And Gamache and his team is back on a case of one death and yet many deaths. And you realize this is a book about ideals and realities and conscience.
It helps to read her other books just to see how deeply woven Ruth and Myrna and others are in this small town. But you can enjoy this book as a stand alone. It takes time to write a novel and the fact this came out as we all deal with the opiod epidemic is amazing. And Gamache displays the perfect blend of hope/fear and law/anarchy and love. Love is forever a theme in her books as is hope and respect for the individual.
Take your time with this book and step away and reflect and if you are like me, you’ll want the book to never end. And have some tissues. And Clara and her art are always in the books as is Ruth and her poetry because as in life…they are important, essential as breathing. Breathe and read.
I have read all her books. An amazing writer, able to delve deeply into each character’s personality; weave together multiple layers of intrigue and timeframes such that you don’t want to stop reading till to reach the conclusion.
I have read of of Louise Penny’s Gamache series. This one I read in a day….the best one yet.
This is the most recent book in the best mystery series of today. I wish that I could live in Three Pines.
I just love what ever this lady writes and get her books when ever I can. Her characters are so real and she makes you feel part of the story!
If only my late mother had never introduced me to Louise Penny and Chief Inspector (now Chief Superintendent, but for how long?) Gamache…and yet, I can’t regret the hours of my life spent in Three Pines, or the money I’ve spent buying each new book in the series the minute it’s released. This book has the best elements of all my favorite books: characters who feel like old friends, a setting that I feel as if I’ve visited in real life when I finish the book, a plot that keeps me engaged in trying to help Gamache figure it all out, and issues I care about. Penny had me weeping in public as I read over lunch, laughing aloud in a (fortunately, empty) courtroom as I waited for opposing counsel, and being late for a meeting because I couldn’t bear to put this one down.