A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny

I spoke about the Chief Inspector Gamache novels at our last book club meeting.  As a preparation to recommending the series of books, I checked the Library catalogue and found them all there, but all on hold, so I put a request in on half a dozen, thinking maybe I’d get one or two over the next month or two.  I was overwhelmed to find four waiting for me the next week.  I wanted to confirm that these books were as good as I initially thought they were.  A Trick of the Light is every bit as good as How the Light Gets In.  I found the deep psychological analysis even better.  These novels are definitely cerebral exercises without the thriller special effects that so many American authors employ.

Of all those I checked out I am returning this week A Trick of the Light and A Rule Against Murder, which is six years old now.  Based on my “Trick Light” experience I will try The Beautiful Mystery for my next serious read.  I haven’t had a serious read for a while now.  Maybe the Investigator Yashim Series by Jason Goodwin was the last, three years ago.  Of course I don’t include continued reading of JCO or Parker (a modern author: prolific in death), Gibson, Allende, Martin Cruz Smith, Anne Rice, or Patchett.  These are all automatics, when they write.

I found it pleasing and refreshing to note that Penny hasn’t fallen into the trap of continually escalating plotline scenarios as she develops characters in a series of books.  Robert Parker fell into that trap with his Spenser series.  In the end he had to start afresh (!?) with Jesse Stone, Sunny Randall, and a Cole&Hitch western sheriff series. 

This book wasn’t one of our monthly reads so I’ll provide a short synopsis.  All the stories revolve around the sleepy little Canadian village of Three Pines just north of the Vermont, USA border; not unlike Lake Woebegone in Minnesota.  This is a well-used, but still great foil for introducing a set of mystery characters like in the game “Clue do”.

This story examines two themes: (1) the Canadian art world: artists, critics, and galleries and (2) the world of addiction and AA are involved, specifically OxyContin, Alcohol, and Percocet.  Several of the Montreal elite of the art world come to visit Three Pines before and after the murder.  Three Pines has its own artists and addicts.  Even the Sûreté and the Justice System have addicts and suspects.  The twelve steps of AA are integral to the solution of the crime. 

What I love so much about this story was that the entire action takes place in Three Pines, surrounded by our familiar cast of regular players.  This book could easily be dramatized in four acts: The Murder; The Suspects; Cases are Made; The Solution.  Within town there is: The B&B; the Bookstore; the Park, and Peter&Clara’s house.  There is nothing much to get in the way of a truly cerebral mystery story.  There are just the interactions between characters (classic drama) to advance the plot: chess games of the mind.  Classic mystery story.