Reviews

A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny

priyakonanur's review

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

carolineeckels's review against another edition

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funny mysterious relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

larocquenroll's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

kmsourada's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Each book of the series, for me, gets better. A series about people and place. In this book, set in summer, I love the choice of Louise Penny choosing an isolated location that provided focus on characters. We learned more about Gamache and his personal history and furthered our understanding of his family (and I love his relationship with Reine-Marie).

Beauvoir becomes more interesting in this book.

Lastly, this book provided some history regarding Peter; given what we knew about him in the first three books.

I tandem read the physical book with the audio - Ralph Cosham is Gamache!

laurahobbs's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

rowellreads's review

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dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

madmom's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

5.0

deniset's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

askmashka's review

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

isalaur's review against another edition

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slow-paced

3.0

It took me a long time to get through this one. I just found everyone so unlikeable. I’m at the point that the only people in the series I can stand anymore are Gamache, his wife, and Agent Lacoste. And the family at the center of this murder are despicable.

In his book Gamache and his wife are on their annual vacation celebrating their anniversary at a remote wilderness lodge not far from Three Pines. The rest of the village of Three Pines doesn’t play much of a role in this one. There is an obnoxious family here celebrating a family reunion (though god knows why) and awaiting the arrival of another son and his wife. The family has no idea who Gamache is and look upon him and his wife with disdain, referring to them as the shopkeeper and his cleaning lady wife. Imagine their surprise when, after a murder occurs on the property they find out he is the head of homicide and now the man they’ve been unforgivably rude to holds their freedom in his hands!

There’s a lot of twisty, turny, convoluted stuff going on and the story arc moves very slow. I found myself drifting and distracted a lot. Part of the problem was I didn’t really care who committed the crime. 

We also get some background on Gamache and his parents. It ties in somewhat to the theme of the story but it seems extraneous. If I’d read this book first I’m not sure I’d have picked up another. For now I think I’ll take a break from the series to give it some breathing space before diving in again.