A Fatal Grace (Chief Inspector Gamache)

Product Information

I believe I didn’t meet Louise and her husband, Michael, in person until Malice Domestic in Crystal City, VA, in the spring of 2008. By that time, Still Life had won many awards (including the Anthony, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Dilys, and New Blood Dagger) for Best First Novel, but not the Agatha; and we didn’t want to jinx anything by expecting her to win Best Novel for A Fatal Grace. I remember how thrilling it was when she did win—but what I had forgotten, until Louise mentioned it recently, was that the awards banquet happened to fall on my birthday. Now that she reminds me—and how remarkable for her to remember—I know that she and Michael insisted on taking me to lunch on that Saturday, and made more of a fuss about my birthday than they did about her chances of winning the Agatha. They were as warm and brilliant and funny as you might imagine from reading Louise’s books, and it’s been a joy to work with her ever since. RECAP

The mystery was a bit more complex than last time and although I guessed the murderer from early on I enjoyed the ride and the plot twists. The writing is beautiful, poetic in places, and it managed to transport me to the snow covered Three Pines, a place I plan to revisit soon.Gamache tells Lemieux, “All the mistakes I’ve made have been because I’ve assumed something and then acted as though it was fact.” Have you ever made important assumptions that turned out not to be true? Each had a tale to relate about how a person – perhaps unknowingly – did something that Gamache or Longpré chose to see as a sign. This got me thinking about signs and whether we stumble on them or whether we choose to see them when we need them. Or whether it’s a little of both. I’m not going to discuss the plot, other than to say that the unpleasant woman who was murdered was mourned by nobody, and her impending doom is mentioned in the first sentence. There are a few scary moments, but this is not a thriller. It is a just a good story told in good company. He'd already become cruel in her company. And he'd begun despising himself. But not quite as much as he despised her.

Another significant change involves Three Pines resident Bea Mayer (Tantoo Cardinal), whose Be Calm Centre shifts from a yoga and meditation center in the books to an ever-changing, Indigenous arts space in the series.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

But it is a one-on-one conversation that had me re-reading this time around. A Personal Connection to A Fatal Grace Unfortunately, my annoyances with the series grew, not lessened. The characterization is all off, it is full of half-researched assertions and pretentious nonsense. The only positives I can find is the writing and a reasonably good ending. CC was a despised woman. Obnoxious, cruel, -she was maddeningly bad news- to the people who knew who she was, but did not reveal the secret. And beside him an enormous child was wearing a sleeveless sundress of the brightest pink. Her underarms bulged and flopped and the rolls of her waist made the skintight dress look like a melting strawberry ice cream. It was grotesque.