A review by bibliomania_express
The Cruellest Month by Louise Penny

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

The Cruellest Month by Louise Penny is the third Armand Gamache book. In this one, secrets, grudges, and betrayals play into both storylines. A death at a séance appears to be caused by fright. Meanwhile, newspaper stories attacking Gamache and his family put pressure on the Inspector. 

I had a hard time getting into this book. Part of that is the writing style. There's something about Penny's prose that rings weird to me. Perhaps it's the Quebecois sentiment. But I find the way the POV changes and the narrative style hard to immerse myself in. 

The other thing I noticed is how much pettiness and mean-spiritedness comes up in the internal thoughts of almost every character except Gamache. I feel like I'm supposed to like the Three Pines townsfolk, but I don't. Same goes for Beauvoir. 

I do think Penny does a great job tracing motivations and grudges, and not letting us get complacent about any of the reoccuring characters. I also liked that clues about the murder case twisted into the overarching plot, and vice versa. 

I have more books in this series, so I'll probably read the next one, but I'm running out of steam a bit.
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