The Nature of the Beast

Starred review from June 15, 2015
The bucolic Quebec village of Three Pines again proves no refuge in Penny’s stellar 11th Armand Gamache novel (after 2014’s The Long Way Home). Gamache has settled in the small community after retiring from the Sûreté, where he worked as a homicide detective. But he’s drawn back to the hunt after Laurent Lepage, a nine-year-old boy with a penchant for crying wolf, is found dead under circumstances that Gamache finds suspicious. The death followed Laurent’s latest fantastic—and disbelieved—claim, of having found a gun as big as a building with a winged monster on it in the woods. Despite Gamache’s unofficial status, he’s allowed to work the case, which takes multiple unexpected turns. In this typically engaging and fairly clued installment, Gamache wrestles with whether he can truly be content with the quiet life Three Pines offers, a struggle that echoes the choices, past and present, others have made about their responsibility to confront the evil the human spirit is capable of. Series fans will delight in Penny’s continued complex fleshing out of characters they have come to love. Author tour. Agent: Teresa Chris, Teresa Chris Literary Agency.

July 1, 2015

Penny's 11th series entry (after The Long Way Home) has Armand Gamache slowly adjusting to retirement in the small, idyllic, Quebec village of Three Pines. When a local boy is found dead in a ditch, Gamache, feeling guilty about ignoring the young man's tall tales, becomes involved. Soon the familiar cast of characters, including Clara, Gabri, Inspector Beauvoir, Ruth, her duck and the serene Reine-Marie, are all involved in the investigation of the murder and the unthinkable object that precipitated the terrible act. A thread that subtly runs through the book is the disquiet Gamache feels as he tries to find his purpose now that he is no longer the chief inspector of the Surete. VERDICT A strong sense of place, a multilayered plot, and well-crafted (and for Penny's fans, familiar) characters combine for a thoughtful, intriguing tale. More than a simple mystery, Penny's novel peels away the emotional and psychological layers of the inhabitants of Three Pines. Although this book may stand alone, reading the previous titles will give readers context to truly understand and enjoy this latest in the series.--Terry Lucas, Rogers Memorial Lib., Southampton, NY

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2015
The winds of change are freshening in Three Pines. Armand Gamache, former chief inspector of the Surete du Quebec, now retired to the idyllic village north of Montreal, is starting to feel twitchy, pondering the next stage in his life. But even as the future signals change, the past is calling forth a nightmare. When the shocking death of a nine-year-old boy with a penchant for telling tall tales sends Gamache to the woods, looking for clues, he discovers that the boy's last tale was tall but true: a giant missile launcher is found hidden in the woods, pointing toward the U.S. Is it the work of Gerald Bull, a real-life rogue physicist who actually built such a gun? Penny builds this fascinating and still little-known slice of Canadian history into a compelling mystery that leads to an exciting but tantalizingly open-ended finale. A few too many coincidences may be required here to link Three Pines to Gerald Bull's bizarre, shocking career, but the overarching metaphorthe presence of a very large serpent in paradisewill resonate powerfully for devotees of this compelling series.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A 400,000-copy market distribution, combined with all manner of online promotion and Penny's astounding popularity, will ensure that the curious story of Gerald Bull and his very big gun will soon be common knowledge across the world.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)