Louise Penny's "Glass Houses": A Gripping Mystery Novel

Amazon Customer: Pleasure

United States on Nov 08, 2023

BT: Reading this series is like coming back to Three Pines to visit old friends, sit by the fire at the bistro, have a comforting dinner at the Gamache’s, and sleep contented at the B&B.

United States on Oct 28, 2023

Amazon Customer: This writer is certainly my favorite in this genre. I could go on but will end by saying no other author I've read has had my total attention book after book.

United States on Oct 24, 2023

Gabby: Really enjoyed this book. It would make a great gift.

Canada on Oct 09, 2023

Denise Foster: great read, gets you into wanting more

Australia on Aug 28, 2023

David Kloth: I'm a huge fan of Louise Penny's Three Pines, CI Gamache novels. This one is #13 in the series, and I've read them all. Amazon Prime even has a TV series based on the book series and characters, as well as the primary location, but it just didn't work for me. I much prefer Penny's novels.

Every novel is a balancing act between plot movement toward resolution and the background of and for it. That is the setting? Why is it the setting? What is the history that brought the characters to this point in their lives? What are their emotions and motives for what they do? All of this is balanced against what happens next in the storyline.

In the overwhelming majority of Penny's novels, she maintains a fairly well-balanced narrative. I hate to say it, but on "Glass Houses" the wheels came off. The plot is excellent, and the story itself is a balance between what's happening, now, and flashbacks to what brought the characters to their present circumstances. However, the author seems to get bogged down in psychoanalysis of the characters. I understand that we need to feel the motivations of the characters, but at times Ms. Penny seems to be beating a dead horse.

That's...

United States on Jun 10, 2023

#EmptyNestReader: When a person dressed in black cape and black hood appears in the town square of Three Pines, standing as still as a statue and speaking to no one, people are initially curious. As time goes on and the mysterious statue remains, people grow suspicious, then angry. They demand that their newest resident, Armand Gamache, “do something’. Gamache also feels the darkness and fear, but what is he to do? No laws are being broken. He can only watch and wait along with everyone else. On the day the statue like figure disappears, a body is discovered in the church.

Armand Gamache has come out of retirement and has been appointed to the highest position at the Surete, Chief Superintendent. Having previous cleaned out the corruption within the Surete, he is now looking at crime statistics and what he sees is more than worrisome. It is clear, he says, that they are losing the war on drugs in Quebec as in the States. They cannot keep up with the pace of drug sales. New dealers arrive faster than they can be arrested and newer, more powerful, more addictive drugs hit the streets seemingly every day. Superintendent Gamache meets with his top, most trusted department chiefs and asks: is...

United States on May 15, 2023

J - loves books, reads booksJ - loves books, reads books: 4.5* A stranger dressed like the grim reaper stands on the Three Pines green. Is this figure, a modern day Cobrador, sending a message or taking revenge? Whatever it’s there for this figure is a disturbing presence and the villagers want it removed but, as no law is being broken, Gamache can do nothing.

When a body is found everything changes. Gamache is now Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté so it is Isobel Lacoste who heads up the investigation. Gamache is working, under the radar, on a major investigation.

The book opens at the murder trial of the accused and is told in flashback. Louise Penny has the knack of writing multiple storylines that are complicated, gripping and will keep you guessing right to the end incredibly well. You may think you know what’s happening and whodunnit but there is always a very neat change of direction or piece of information that changes everything bringing into play the connections and beautifully tying everything together. You also become incredibly invested with the characters who are so well written along with the setting which is wonderful. This book is no different and everything builds up to an ending that is tense,...

United Kingdom on Jul 30, 2021

Peter the constant reader: Finding the little village of three pines was a marvel. The ensemble cast of odd bods certainly add to each of the stories. I have come to feel part of the village life albeit a dangerous place. Ultimately the story revolves around Chief Inspector Gamache whom now is the top policeman in Canada.

In this story a mysterious figure appears in the village green. The menace is palpable and each person starts to think that this conscience is there for their particular past misdeeds. We know there has been a murder as Gamache is in the witness box at the trial. So we begin a journey of discovery. Who is the murderer and the victim. Why is Gamache worried about his testimony. We build to an exciting climax where all is eventually revealed. We find that Gamache must wrestle with his conscience and puts his career on the line.

This is not an easy book to read. Louise uses the device of flashbacks to the events as the trial proceeds. There is more time travel than Dr Who episode. This really slows down the story as Louise only reveals the clues later in a chunk of flash back dressed as a witness statement. Most of these flashbacks start unexpectedly with a lot at the start of a...

Australia on Oct 27, 2017

SJBSussex: I loved this, but I have read all her novels. I'm not sure how it would strike someone new to her work. Louise Penny's novels arouse in me something common as a child but rare as an adult: a sadness on leaving the characters and their world and a longing to return to the village of Three Pines. Like Tolkein's Lord of the Rings and Rowling's Harry Potter novels, these books are characterised by a combination of strong characters and sound values in the microcosm of the village (school), and huge issues of good and evil, truth and (in) justice which play out there as well as on the national stage. The life of the village is cosy in one way, yet far from it in another. There are mouth-watering descriptions of good food in the cosy bistro, yet moral nettles are grasped. Three Pines is inhabited by flawed characters we feel are real with all their foibles. These are people in a process of development from one novel to the next. They are really affected by the human cost of events, unlike the almost superhuman tolerance for horror expected of characters in series by other crime novelists. We see too, through Ruth and Clara, the complex ways life's difficulty is expressed in poetry and...

United Kingdom on Sep 17, 2017