Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

5 STARS

Chief Inspector Gamache - Book 6

Have you ever finished a book and just wandered about aimlessly, unable to settle at doing anything, unable to concentrate because you're just busy feeling? That's how I've felt for the past hour or thereabouts. Since I finished Bury Your Dead.

Moonlight Murder was right. It was indeed a devastating emotional onslaught. SO many times my throat got real tight and I'm pretty sure I cried my way through the final 3 chapters.

So The Brutal Telling (Gamache #5) came out in 2009 and Bury Your Dead (Gamache #6) came out in 2010, a year later. HOW did Penny fans last??? *LOL* I'm so glad I didn't have to wait a year between the two. I was able to go directly from one to the other, something I rarely do these days.

Okay, so... the mystery of the murder of the historian was interesting and at times even fascinating - especially for this anglophone Quebecker. I liked the characters we met in Quebec City, especially Gamache's mentor and I loved all the insight we got on Gamache himself. More insight on the man at work than in his personal life this time.

And I loved Beauvoir going back to Three Pines on Gamache's orders. It gave me a different intimate perspective on the Three Pine inhabitants. AND the further insight we get on Beauvoir, although there's one sublot I can see coming a mile away, I just don't know how Penny's going to handle it. :)

The underlying thread through all this is the incident that took place that 'sends' Gamache to Quebec City and thereby Beauvoir to Three Pines. That is what ripped my heart into teeny-tiny pieces. All these characters that I've come to care so much about! All these beautifully flawed human beings. They all, each and every one of them (okay, maybe not Marie-Reine) have a part of them that's unlikable or even unlovable. But I think I love each and every one of them. :)

Maybe I'm babbling, I don't know. This book (and the previous one as well) have left me rather gutted. *LOL* But dammit, this is one excellent, excellent read! So much more than a murder mystery, really.

I'm spent!