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Sep 18, 2018m0mmyl00 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This is the second book in Louise Penny’s series, though not the second of hers I have read. As usual, she chose an interesting tidbit to weave throughout the story. This time, it was the art of painting the inside of a glass ball to create a luminously beautiful Christmas ornament. The villain of the story, CC de Poitiers, named her “philosophy” after this technique; she advocated repressing and denying all emotions, keeping them “inside.” CC herself was particularly suited to this practice, as she was universally disliked by all, including her husband and child, her lover, all the inhabitants of Three Pines, and the reader. She was electrocuted during a curling match (really!) and Gamache sprang into action, ascertaining that it was a homicide rather than an accident as was initially believed. He schooled the smart-ass young upstarts who disrespected his thoughtful approach to investigating the event, figured out the killer, handled the case compassionately toward all, and won everyone over in the end, of course.