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A Rule Against Murder
(aka The Murder Stone)
An Armand Gamache # 4

by Louise Penny

     

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his wife Reine are at the Manoir Bellechasse, an isolated, luxurious, lakefront inn.  This is where they spend their annual summer vacation, but this is also where they’ve come to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

Also at the inn for a family reunion are the Finneys, during which Irene, the matriarch of this large, eccentric family, is having a massive marble statue installed in the garden, in memory of her long dead first husband, the father of her children.

During a terrible summer storm the statue falls from its pedestal and crushes one of Irene's daughters, Julia Martin. There seems to be no way the statue could have moved without human involvement.

Gamache finds himself investigating what must be a murder.  He discovers that there is no lost between the middle-aged children of Irene Finney's dysfunctional family.  All are suspects to Gamache, but so is the owner-innkeeper, Clemintine Dubois, her chef, Veronique, her maitre d'hotel Pierre Patenaude, and Elliott, a young waiter.  Gamache must uncover hidden motives and long buried secrets before he can find the murderer and solve the mystery of how the statue was moved.

A Rule Against Murder is an expertly plotted mystery.  It is filled with suspense.   The character development is excellent.  The building which houses the inn is described in rich detail.  The descriptions of the locale are breathtaking. The sense of time and place is partially evoked with the inclusion of French dialogue. (You don't need to remember your high school French to understand it!)

Reviews of other titles in this series

A Rule Against Murder #4
A Trick of the Light
#6
A Long Way Home #10

The Book

St. Martin’s Press
January 20, 2009
Hardcover
0312377029 / 9780312377021
Mystery
Amazon

The Reviewer

Barbara Buhrer
Reviewed 2009
© 2009 MyShelf.com