Bury your Dead by Louise Penny

In most jobs you can make a mistake and nobody dies. But in some jobs; air traffic controllers, fire fighters, and police detectives mistakes can be deadly. These jobs have a built in terror factor; the terror that if you fail people may die.

It’s this terror that Louise Penny uses to create suspense and plot development in her latest book, Bury your Dead. Once again we meet Inspector Gamache. He’s in Quebec city recovering from a deadly mistake. While there he becomes involved in a murder mystery and a historical mystery. And if that wasn’t enough mystery, the fact that he may have made a mistake in the Three Pines case (The Brutal Telling) begins to haunt him.

While he is going about the city looking for clues to the murder, we are given access to his thoughts as he plays back his most recent mistake; the one that resulted in a leave of absence from his job. If this hadn’t been handled properly it could have become very confusing for the reader but instead the transitions between real time and his thoughts are smoothly done and the reader is caught up in the story playing in Gamache’s head as much as the one playing out around him. Gamache’s side-kick, Inspector Beauvior reopens the Three Pines case, giving us yet another narrative to follow in this complex but entertaining novel.

This is also a book about history, specifically Quebec’s history. In fact it’s possible to think of Quebec, it’s history, it’s present and it’s politics as another character in the novel. Penny’s love for the province she lives in is very evident throughout all her novels. But the descriptions of the places and people in this one made me want to book my next vacation there.

You could read this book as a stand alone; there’s enough information about the people of Three Pines and the previous murder case to go on. However, the real pleasure in reading Louise Penny’s books is getting to know the characters and their surroundings. She was a journalist before writing fiction and has the journalistic eye for detail and commentary.

Bury Your Dead is a compelling, complex book that examines history and portrays the present through excellent story telling and interesting characters. Buy the book, read the series, you will be glad you did.