a world of curiosities

I just finished reading A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny. It's Book 18 in her Three Pines/Chief Inspector Gamache series. I love Penny's Three Pines novels. I love Three Pines. If you don't know of it, it's a small fictional village in a forest in Quebec, and it's peopled with quirky characters. People who are searching, because they are lost, find their way to Three Pines, and I don't mean because they are lost in the forests. The village has a bookshop, a cafe, a bakery, and a bed and breakfast, plus characters to greet you warmly and keep you entertained. It also has a duck with a penchant for swearing. This village has everything that a tired and hungry traveller could possibly want. It also has a mortality rate that is quite alarming, much like Midsomer in the UK - if you know you know. In this story there's a psychopath living amongst the villagers, and also a serial killer is on the loose. I've read almost all of Penny's books featuring Armand Gamache, and I'd rate Curiosities right up there amongst her best. The identity of the villain/s kept me guessing until the end, and the mystery that Gamache and his colleagues have to solve is first rate. It involves a real world painting called The Paston Treasure (artist unknown) that resides in Norfolk Castle Museum in the UK, which looks every bit as intriguing as the role it plays in the plot here.

It's always a downer to finish a book that I've loved and devoured, and there isn't always an easy fix for that kind of hangover. However, in this case, I had an amazing stroke of luck. Only a couple of days after finishing Curiosities, I found the next book in the series, The Grey Wolf, for just a couple of pounds, in a charity shop. What's more, it is a hardback edition, and it is signed by the author. I'm really pleased to have found such a treasure. I have much respect for Louise Penny, and not only as an author. I've seen and heard her interviewed on-line, and she's someone with a lot of integrity; she's warm, funny, and just seems very kind. Also, and here's a curious thing, we share a birthday.





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