The Brutal Feeling by Louise Penny 2017 read

Read and absolutely enjoyed this in October, 2017, sent to me by a friend who found it at a booksale.  Louise Penny is a new author to me, but one very familiar to Canadians although she is an American.  I have ordered another of hers on my Kindle.  This was published in 2009.  I look forward to reading more.  I do not know when I have been so delighted readingan excellent mystery.  

Although  classified as a mystery this novel has intrigue,  enjoyable plots and revolves around excellent characters.  Chief Inspector Gamache is a central character in several of her books but it is not necessary to read them in any particular order.  I was immediately fascinated with the setting and the characters in this story set in the wilderness outside of Quebec, Three Pines, a fictitious village that has seen better times but now some newcomers hope to revive it as a tourist spot.  A tramp is murdered and left in the local bistro.

Back cover

A local character, Ruth Zardow with her pet duck is fond of leaving clue via poetry.  Page 58, "Are you deaf? "she shouted at Gamache, Beauvoir and Clara. " Dinners getting cold get inside."   Beauvoir felt his rectum spasm as he hurried past her.  Clara followed Beauvoir to the dinner table, but Gamache lingered.  It took him a moment to realize he wasn't alone.  Ruth was standing beside him, tall rigid, leaning on her cane, her face all reflected light and deep crevices.  "A strange thing to give Oliver, wouldn't you say?"The old voice sharp and jagged cut through the laughter from the village green.  "I beg your pardon." Gamache turned to her.  "The dead man.  Even you can't be that dense.  Someone did this to Olivier.  The man's greedy and shiftless and probably quite weak, but he didn't kill anyone.  So why would someone chose his bistro for murder?"  Gamache raised his eyebrows, "You think someone chose the bistro on purpose?"  "Well it didn't happen by accident, the murderer chose to kill at Olivier's Bistro.  He gave the body to Olivier."  ...."Nothing I ever gave was good for you," quoted Gamache. "It was like white bread to a goldfish."  Beside him Ruth Zardow stiffened, then in a low growl she finished her own poem.  "They cram and cram, and it kills them, and they drift in the pool belly up, making stunned faces and playing on our guilt..........as if their own toxic gluttony was not their fault. "......Was Ruth right?  Had someone chosen the bistro on purpose?  But this meant Olivier was somehow implicated.  Had he brought this on himself?  Who in the village hated the tramp enough to kill him and Olivier entough to do it there?  Or was the tramp merely a convenient tool?  A poor man in the wrong place.  Used as a weapon against Olivier? 

I could not determine who would be guilty and changed my mind several times reading this through until the last page, 372.  From the very beginning the author builds a character and then has a twist, the first being the relationship between Gabri and Olivier two men.....

 I readily give this one 5 *****