A Trick of the Light - Louise Penny

A chief inspector in Quebec is called to a tiny village where he finds luminaries of the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light, where every sweet relationship hides a broken heart. n nA New York Times Notable Crime Book and Favorite Cozy for 2011 nA Publishers Weekly Best Mystery/Thriller books for 2011 n nWith A Trick of the Light, Louise Penny takes us back to the deceptively peaceful village of Three Pines in this brilliant novel in her award-winning, New York Times bestselling series featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. n nHearts are broken, Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book.

Sweet relationships are dead. n nBut now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow's garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara's solo show at the famed Musée in Montreal.

Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Quebec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light. Where nothing is as it seems. Behind every smile there lurks a sneer.

Inside every sweet relationship there hides a broken heart. nAnd even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they've found is the truth, or simply a trick of the light. n nPenny has been compared to Agatha Christie [but] it sells her short.

Her characters are too rich, her grasp of nuance and human psychology too firm.... --Booklist (starred review)n