A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny ©2022, is her 18th novel in the series about the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec. As a fan of Louise Penny I am familiar with her cast of characters and very much enjoy revisiting them. The characters that are old friends – second in command Jean Guy Beauvoir, wife Reine Marie, bistro owners Gabri and Olivier, book shop owner Myrna, artist Clara, eccentric old poet Ruth and her duck – beckon me to read on farther. Moreover, as a bonus, the mystery and murder motive in this book harken back to the very first case that Armand and Jean Guy work together, where their deep and lasting relationship first began.
This novel takes place in the quaint Canadian village of Three Pines where a huge painting is found in a secret room. The mystery in this novel hinges around that huge painting, with clues sprinkled throughout the images. This painting is a parody of a real painting Paston's Treasure, which per Wikipedia
The Paston Treasure is an oil painting that serves as a historically rare record of a cabinet of treasures in British collecting. Commissioned by either Sir Robert Paston or his father Sir William Paston in the early 1670s, it depicts a small fraction of the Paston family's collected treasures.
New characters – which arouse suspicion – are strong, three dimensional, and highly developed. The climactic action scenes are well written and riveting. The mystery itself is quite convoluted. I was grateful that in the final chapters, the author has Armand Gamache explain to the villagers "what happened". The plot and clues do all hang together, but a debriefing for the readers was welcome.
I must admit, though, that familiarity with the characters and setting are what made this book so enjoyable for me. I do not think it would fare so well as a stand alone read. I anxiously waited for it to be released and, for me, it was well worth the wait. Perhaps not so for the Louise Penny uninitiated. If I remove my fan-based bias, I feel I need to rate it three stars; but I will still eagerly await her nineteenth novel in the Gamache series.
★★★☆☆ Better than average; not a waste of time
It's always fun to find a series where you anticipate the next book! I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment in the Mercy Thompson Series by Patricia Briggs, but a light mystery sounds fun too!
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