StaceyHH

I really enjoyed this story, and the writing, Penny gives life to her main characters, makes you care about what happens to them. This novel was, to use an overused expression, a page-turner. There were several different storylines going at the same time, which is a plot device I enjoy. Two were mysteries, and one was a mystery only to the reader. It was this one I was most interested it, which created my only disappointment with the book. It was such a significant portion of the two ongoing storylines, coloring the reactions of both Gamache and Beauvoir, and yet, when the complete story was finally revealed, it felt incomplete, and left me wishing that Penny had added just a few more pages to the book, just to fill in this defining event. Penny employs multiple points of view to tell her story. It's a great way to present a mystery, but in my opinion, care has to be taken that this method doesn't become disjointed. If one switches back and forth between perspectives too quickly, it can become an irritation, instead of the intended effect of building suspense, filling out the story and characters. Mostly this novel handles it well, but towards the end of the book, there were a few instances of switching perspective in half-page chunks, which became a bit distracting.Still, I really liked the writing, and the story, and will be looking forward to more installments in this series, as well as returning to read the earlier books. I received this book as part of the Goodreads "first reads" giveaway program.