The Beautiful Mystery: Louise Penny (Chief Inspector Gamache) - Tapa blanda

Certain writers remain utterly reliable, utterly enchanting (Herald Sun)

Excellent....a captivating whodunit plot, a clever fair-play clue concealed in plain view, and the deft use of humor to lighten the story's dark patches. On a deeper level, the crime provides a means for Penny's unusually empathic, all-too-fallible lead to unearth truths about human passions and weaknesses while avoiding simple answers (Publishers Weekly)

Penny - who melds prose at once expressive and restrained with a keen understanding of human emotions - creates a novel that earns its title, a book that shines with the grace and compassion that stamp her work (Richmond Times Dispatch)

Haunting, brilliant...Chief Inspector Gamache is one of my favourite characters in fiction (Linda Fairstein)

Penny writes with grace and intelligence about complex people struggling with complex emotions. But her great gift is her uncanny ability to describe what might seem indescribable - the play of light, the sound of celestial music, a quiet sense of peace (New York Times)

With enormous empathy for the troubled human soul - and an ending that makes your blood race and your heart break - Penny continues to raise the bar of her splendid series (People)

For the reader, meanwhile, there's a final beautiful mystery to contemplate: How does Penny consistently write such luminous and compassionate books? (Seattle Times)

An ingenious, gripping and elegantly written mystery... an utterly magical read (Irish Independent)

Rich in character, language, humour and emotional tension, this is one of those books you immerse yourself in and miss once you've emerged (Morning Star)

A pleasingly ambitious novel . . . this is a novel that places its faith in characterisation, atmosphere and the endlessly fascinating psychology of the human mind (Irish Times)