A review by kmg365
The Cruellest Month by Louise Penny

3.0

I'm just going to say it.

There's too much poetry in this series. Maybe even too much of the arts in general. This is not an attitude I was expecting from myself, but after three books, I can't deny the feeling. Three Pines is a tiny village. Yet it's home to one award-winning, nationally famous poet, and now two nationally known painters (that is assuming that one plot thread ultimately happens the way I expect it to). Also a poet who desperately wants to be nationally famous, but doesn't have the talent. And a guy who makes art with dead trees.

So I guess the rule is this: In a village, you can either have the most evil house in Canada, OR you can have the highest percentage of population paid to write or paint, but you can't have both.

Those quibbles aside (with an additional quibble about all the comments from Québécois characters about how “weird” the English are), I like the series. I like the idea of a goodhearted cop who isn't afraid to put other cops behind bars. I like the touches of whimsy, like hard-as-nails Ruth Zardo and the orphaned ducklings. I really liked the weaving of Sarah Binks into the narrative-- a classic Canadian novel that I had never heard of before. I'm devastated to find that it doesn't seem to be available in audio format, because I would enjoy the heck out of a novel devoted to mocking bad poetry.

I don't think we've heard the last of the Arnot case, but I was relieved to finally get a detailed explanation, and some closure in the case of Agent Nicole's bizarre behavior. Another relief will be if Ruth's behavior in future books isn't quite so relentlessly mean, a possible outcome teased here.

Right now this series is filling the void left by the death of Marian Chesney, who previously fulfilled most of my cozy mystery needs. (I am reading the R.W. Green volumes, but he doesn't dash them out as quickly as Marian did.) I would defect to a different series if I could find one with more humor (and set in England), but I'll keep visiting Three Pines until then.