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Bury Your Dead is a novel about life and death—and all the mystery that remains—from #1 New York Times bestselling author Louise PennyChief Inspector Armand Gamache is on break from duty in Three Pines to attend the famed Winter Carnival up north. He has arrived in this beautiful, freezing city not to join the revels but to recover from an investigation gone hauntingly wrong. Still, violent death is inescapable—even here, in the apparent sanctuary of the Literary and Historical show more Society, where one obsessive academic's quest for answers will lead Gamache down a dark path. . .
Meanwhile, Gamache is receiving disturbing news from his hometown village. Beloved bistro owner Olivier was recently convicted of murder but everyone—including Gamache—believes that he is innocent. Who is behind this sinister plot? Now it's up to Gamache to solve this killer case. . .and relive a terrible event from his own past before he can begin to bury his dead.
"Few writers in any genre can match Penny's ability to combine heartbreak and hope."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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Armand Gamache is Chief Inspector of the Sûreté du Quebec and acknowledged as a fine policeman. As this book opens however he is on leave, recovering from the physical and emotional scars left by events that we don’t know the details of until well into the book. He has gone to Quebec City to stay with his former boss and to conduct some historical research. This activity leads him to become involved in an investigation into a local murder. Although not yet ready to return to work in an official capacity his involvement in this interesting case does provide him some respite from reflecting on the terrible events that have led to his being on leave. At the same time he has become concerned that the resolution to his last case, show more depicted in The Brutal Telling, might have been incorrect so he asks his colleague Jean Guy Beauvoir, also on leave and recovering from injuries he sustained in the same events that still affect Gamache, to return to Three Pines and see if he can spot something the investigative team missed.
Louise Penny is a consistently good teller of stories but she has outdone herself here, juggling three quite distinct stories without a thread dropped or a wobble made. The re-investigation into the last Three Pines murder is probably the simplest of the stories told and stems from everyone’s belief that the man who went to prison for that murder wouldn’t have behaved as stupidly as it appears he did. Jean Guy is told to approach the re-opened investigation with the assumption that the man is innocent and see what else he can find out on that basis. Unlike Gamache Jean Guy has not been a big fan of the odd little village and its quirky inhabitants but it seems to offer just what he needs for his recovery.
In Quebec City Gamache is doing some research at the Literary and Historical Society library. This peculiar institution is home to all the books and personal papers which capture the history of Quebec’s tiny English-speaking community. The building, the collection it houses and the people who look after it have all seen better days. When Augustin Renaud, an eccentric character who has spent his life searching for the burial site of Quebec’s founder, Samuel de Champlain, is found in the sub-basement of the building Gamache is asked to become involved in the investigation by the elderly librarian. She thinks he will be more sympathetic to the English than other French people. I must admit to finding this story particularly engaging, involving many interesting historical tidbits and a thoughtful depiction of the separatist movement (as well as much walking around the historical city by Gamache and his adorable sounding dog Henri). Fittingly this is a case that is solved mostly by old-fashioned policing.
The final story is the recounting of the events that have led to Gamache and Jean Guy being on leave. Penny has for the most part resisted the temptation to indulge in too much sentimentality here, which for me makes it all the more compelling. Told mostly via Gamache’s remembered conversations with another of his colleagues, with occasional input from Jean Guy, this thread is a contrast to the case unfolding in Quebec City, involving very modern problems and the latest policing techniques.
For me this series has not, in the past, quite reached the ‘must read’ list primarily because I found its hero a bit too perfect and its fictional setting a bit too quirky. Here though we spend less time in quirky Three Pines and Gamache’s perfection is a little tarnished (if only in his own eyes) which made the book a much more credible and satisfying read than its predecessor. The intertwining stories had me hooked from beginning to end and I adored Adam Sims’ narration, complete with mild French accents where appropriate (le puff, le pant as my favourite cartoon character would say). show less
Louise Penny is a consistently good teller of stories but she has outdone herself here, juggling three quite distinct stories without a thread dropped or a wobble made. The re-investigation into the last Three Pines murder is probably the simplest of the stories told and stems from everyone’s belief that the man who went to prison for that murder wouldn’t have behaved as stupidly as it appears he did. Jean Guy is told to approach the re-opened investigation with the assumption that the man is innocent and see what else he can find out on that basis. Unlike Gamache Jean Guy has not been a big fan of the odd little village and its quirky inhabitants but it seems to offer just what he needs for his recovery.
In Quebec City Gamache is doing some research at the Literary and Historical Society library. This peculiar institution is home to all the books and personal papers which capture the history of Quebec’s tiny English-speaking community. The building, the collection it houses and the people who look after it have all seen better days. When Augustin Renaud, an eccentric character who has spent his life searching for the burial site of Quebec’s founder, Samuel de Champlain, is found in the sub-basement of the building Gamache is asked to become involved in the investigation by the elderly librarian. She thinks he will be more sympathetic to the English than other French people. I must admit to finding this story particularly engaging, involving many interesting historical tidbits and a thoughtful depiction of the separatist movement (as well as much walking around the historical city by Gamache and his adorable sounding dog Henri). Fittingly this is a case that is solved mostly by old-fashioned policing.
The final story is the recounting of the events that have led to Gamache and Jean Guy being on leave. Penny has for the most part resisted the temptation to indulge in too much sentimentality here, which for me makes it all the more compelling. Told mostly via Gamache’s remembered conversations with another of his colleagues, with occasional input from Jean Guy, this thread is a contrast to the case unfolding in Quebec City, involving very modern problems and the latest policing techniques.
For me this series has not, in the past, quite reached the ‘must read’ list primarily because I found its hero a bit too perfect and its fictional setting a bit too quirky. Here though we spend less time in quirky Three Pines and Gamache’s perfection is a little tarnished (if only in his own eyes) which made the book a much more credible and satisfying read than its predecessor. The intertwining stories had me hooked from beginning to end and I adored Adam Sims’ narration, complete with mild French accents where appropriate (le puff, le pant as my favourite cartoon character would say). show less
Bury Your Dead is Louise Penny’s sixth Three Pines mystery. Other reviews here before me have detailed the plots (all three), and how closely tied this book is to prior works in the series (especially The Brutal Telling, which really must be read first.) When I was offered the book as an Early Reviewer, I had never read Louise Penny. For the last four weeks, I hardly have been able to set her books down.
I started with A Brutal Telling, book five, and found it easily able to stand on its own, so read it first, please. Then I read books one and two while I waited for Bury Your Dead to arrive. By now, I have read all but book three, and am hopelessly addicted.
In A Fatal Grace, book two of the series, Inspector Armand Gamache tries to be show more mentor to a young agent who struggles to meet his expectations in the Surete. In a rare moment of honest and intimate conversation, the agent admits her overwhelming drive to make up for the misdeeds of an uncle who failed her entire family and caused the deaths of many. Gamache’s advice to her is three words: “Bury your dead.” His meaning was clear. Some memories are not meant to kept alive, because they haunt and hurt.
In book six, Penny has taken this theme and examined it in all its complexities. Some memories clearly are meant to be cherished and kept alive. On the other hand, obsessions with the past can damage and destroy: in Penny’s words, “while forgetting the past might condemn people to repeat it, remembering it too vividly condemned them never to leave.” Choosing which memeories are which is the subject of grief, and Penny clearly portrays the painfulness of the process. Gamache struggles to choose how he wants to remember recently fallen comrades, while the declining (and hidden) Anglo community in Quebec City clings to its history like a lifeline. Beauvoir re-opens an old, painful case while he heals from his own physical and emotional trauma. But not all wounds can be healed, and closing some opens others.
Bury Your Dead is a wonderful, thought-provoking addition to the Three Pines series. Highly recommended.
Note: this review quotes an Advance Readers' Edition; quote may vary from the final published version. show less
I started with A Brutal Telling, book five, and found it easily able to stand on its own, so read it first, please. Then I read books one and two while I waited for Bury Your Dead to arrive. By now, I have read all but book three, and am hopelessly addicted.
In A Fatal Grace, book two of the series, Inspector Armand Gamache tries to be show more mentor to a young agent who struggles to meet his expectations in the Surete. In a rare moment of honest and intimate conversation, the agent admits her overwhelming drive to make up for the misdeeds of an uncle who failed her entire family and caused the deaths of many. Gamache’s advice to her is three words: “Bury your dead.” His meaning was clear. Some memories are not meant to kept alive, because they haunt and hurt.
In book six, Penny has taken this theme and examined it in all its complexities. Some memories clearly are meant to be cherished and kept alive. On the other hand, obsessions with the past can damage and destroy: in Penny’s words, “while forgetting the past might condemn people to repeat it, remembering it too vividly condemned them never to leave.” Choosing which memeories are which is the subject of grief, and Penny clearly portrays the painfulness of the process. Gamache struggles to choose how he wants to remember recently fallen comrades, while the declining (and hidden) Anglo community in Quebec City clings to its history like a lifeline. Beauvoir re-opens an old, painful case while he heals from his own physical and emotional trauma. But not all wounds can be healed, and closing some opens others.
Bury Your Dead is a wonderful, thought-provoking addition to the Three Pines series. Highly recommended.
Note: this review quotes an Advance Readers' Edition; quote may vary from the final published version. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.This book was a game changer in the series. I’ll admit I was unsatisfied with the conclusion of the last book, it turns out Gamache was as well. Even though someone was arrested and sent to jail, he’s not convinced and he reopens the case. While his second in command, Beauvoir, is investigating that in Three Pines, he’s in Quebec spending time with his old mentor. Of course, he ends up solving a murder that happens in the literary and historical society. The third plot follows a huge trauma has happened, before the book begins, to Gamache and his team. The full story is revealed slowly and we understand why he is physically and emotionally broken. It was a powerful story dealing with guilt, grief, and losing faith in those we look show more up to. show less
The last book was sad, this one was a lament. I expected it to resolve the matter that led to Olivier’s arrest in the previous book and it did, but there was so much more in it that Olivier’s case ended up being little more than a subplot. The main part of the mystery took place in Quebec City and was built around the founding of Quebec along with flashbacks to the last case Gamache and Beauvoir worked on. That last case gave the story a sorrowful tone as Gamache mourned the aftermath of a wrong decision. Overall, this was a book filled with mystery, history, wry wit, and masterful character development.
In the sixth Inspector Gamache novel, Louise Penny blends three storylines: Armand Gamache is pulled “unofficially” into the investigation of a murder at Quebec City’s Literary and Historical society. Gamache’s right-hand man, Jean Guy Beauvoir, is in the village of Three Pines quietly reopening a previous case. And both men are recovering, emotionally and physically, from an incident which resulted in the death of several members of the homicide division led by Gamache.
I was happy to see Beauvoir in Three Pines taking a second look at events in the previous book, which had a very abrupt and shocking ending. Gamache’s murder case was right up his street, relying on specialized historical knowledge which only a few people show more would possess. The story of the police incident unfolded through each man’s thoughts, as they relived the horrible scenes and tried to figure out how they could have prevented what ultimately happened. Penny delivered a fantastic combination of suspense and emotion that had me simultaneously choked up and on the edge of my seat.
This book is my favorite of the series, so far, and I know I’ll read the next one soon. show less
I was happy to see Beauvoir in Three Pines taking a second look at events in the previous book, which had a very abrupt and shocking ending. Gamache’s murder case was right up his street, relying on specialized historical knowledge which only a few people show more would possess. The story of the police incident unfolded through each man’s thoughts, as they relived the horrible scenes and tried to figure out how they could have prevented what ultimately happened. Penny delivered a fantastic combination of suspense and emotion that had me simultaneously choked up and on the edge of my seat.
This book is my favorite of the series, so far, and I know I’ll read the next one soon. show less
This is my favorite book of the year. Penny's prose, whether inside Inspector Gamache's head or out, pulls the varied threads of this amazing story together so well. Gamache is recuperating in Quebec City, dabbling in some historical research when a murder involving another driven historian is discovered. Unofficially, Gamache is invited to participate in the investigation. In the meantime, Three Pines still flutters through his mind, with daily notes from bistro owner Gabri. Finally, he sends Inspector Beauvoir, who is also recovering from their recent case to Three Pines, to take a fresh look at who may have killed the hermit.
Although the quirky characters of Three Pines may be hard to keep up with if you haven't read the previous show more book, The Brutal Telling, I think you could muddle through if you had to, but would be better off for reading that mystery first.
The story absolutely wowed me. Louise Penny did a great job. show less
Although the quirky characters of Three Pines may be hard to keep up with if you haven't read the previous show more book, The Brutal Telling, I think you could muddle through if you had to, but would be better off for reading that mystery first.
The story absolutely wowed me. Louise Penny did a great job. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.Dear Lousy Louise Penny,
You really know how to hurt a boy. You make, ex nihilo, people whose reality I completely buy into, whose very existence (in a well-ordered Universe) is simply necessary, and then you give them real, human flaws, and dreadfully painful pasts, and generally screw with my reality/fictionality compass.
And then you make them do yucky, tacky things. And even vile, evil ones. And somehow, throughout that process, you *don't* make me dislike them, or even judge them. You make me wince and cringe for their foolishness and then weep in anticipatory pain for the inevitable consequences of the actions YOU, Puppet Mistress of the Damned, make them perform!!
I just want to know one thing: How did you make so many people suffer show more these same pangs with only a few flicks of your cruel, cruel pen?
Your friend,
Little Richie D.
So if you're on the Three Pines Express, I don't need to sell this book to you. I do need to let you know a few things about it: 1) Not very much of it involves Three Pines, Clara or the bookstore. 2) The manner in which Lousy Louise stitches the three story lines together is disconcerting, and very effective most of the time; when a fourth story line is added, it becomes too much and feels like short shrift is given to some fan favorites. 3) Gamache and Jean-Guy are the primary movers in the stories, and each comes across as a multidimensional character with new and unexpected dimensions; but both are also required to do a little too much on-the-page soul searching for effectiveness, and the end result is each character now feels a little more fictional than before.
And we are ALL OVER THE PLACE all the time. I truly, truly wish we weren't given a picture that's quite so fractured. It's not quite as much fun as previous outings, but it's still head and shoulders above the vast majority of non-four-hankies-and-a-pistol books. It's a fine addition to the body of work Penny's accumulating, to be appreciated by the intelligent, thoughful commoner with nothing to prove. show less
You really know how to hurt a boy. You make, ex nihilo, people whose reality I completely buy into, whose very existence (in a well-ordered Universe) is simply necessary, and then you give them real, human flaws, and dreadfully painful pasts, and generally screw with my reality/fictionality compass.
And then you make them do yucky, tacky things. And even vile, evil ones. And somehow, throughout that process, you *don't* make me dislike them, or even judge them. You make me wince and cringe for their foolishness and then weep in anticipatory pain for the inevitable consequences of the actions YOU, Puppet Mistress of the Damned, make them perform!!
I just want to know one thing: How did you make so many people suffer show more these same pangs with only a few flicks of your cruel, cruel pen?
Your friend,
Little Richie D.
So if you're on the Three Pines Express, I don't need to sell this book to you. I do need to let you know a few things about it: 1) Not very much of it involves Three Pines, Clara or the bookstore. 2) The manner in which Lousy Louise stitches the three story lines together is disconcerting, and very effective most of the time; when a fourth story line is added, it becomes too much and feels like short shrift is given to some fan favorites. 3) Gamache and Jean-Guy are the primary movers in the stories, and each comes across as a multidimensional character with new and unexpected dimensions; but both are also required to do a little too much on-the-page soul searching for effectiveness, and the end result is each character now feels a little more fictional than before.
And we are ALL OVER THE PLACE all the time. I truly, truly wish we weren't given a picture that's quite so fractured. It's not quite as much fun as previous outings, but it's still head and shoulders above the vast majority of non-four-hankies-and-a-pistol books. It's a fine addition to the body of work Penny's accumulating, to be appreciated by the intelligent, thoughful commoner with nothing to prove. show less
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[T]his is brilliantly provocative and will appeal to fans of literary fiction, as well as to mystery lovers.
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Author Information
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Louise Penny was born in Toronto, Canada in 1958. She earned a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Radio and Television) from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Ryerson University) in 1979. Before she turned to writing mystery novels in 2004, she was a journalist and radio host for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in various cities across Canada for show more 25 years. She writes the Chief Inspector Gamache Novel series. She has won numerous awards including the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys awards for Still Life and the 2007 Agatha Award for Best Novel for A Fatal Grace. Louise's title, The Long Way Home, made the Hot Mystery Title's List for Summer 2014. Her titles The Nature of the Beast made The New York Times best seller list in 2015 and A Great Reckoning made The New York Times best seller list in 2016. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Canonical title
- Bury Your Dead
- Original title
- Bury Your Dead
- Original publication date
- 2010-09-28
- People/Characters
- Armand Gamache; Jean Guy Beauvoir; Paul Morin; Émile Comeau - friend of Gamache, former chief, retired living in Quebec City; Augustin Renaud - An eccentric, amateur archeologist, historian in Quebec City; Elizabeth MacWhirter - The head librarian at the Lit and His, and a member of the board. in Quebec City (show all 22); Tom Hancock - 33 Director of the Quebec Literary and Historical Society and Library. Minister of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church next door; Porter Wilson - Chairman of the board for the Literary and Historical Society (Lit and His for short) in Quebec City (Lit and His for short); Clara Morrow; Ruth Zardo; Gabri Dubeau; Olivier Brulé; Myrna Landers; Vincent Gilbert; Old Mundin; Yvette Nichol; Reine-Marie Gamache; Ken Haslam - Mid 60's. Director of the Quebec Literary and Historical Society and Library. in Quebec City; Edith - wife of Jean-Guy; Stuart Blake -the oldest Lit and His board member in Quebec City; Winnie - A librarian at the Lit and His. in Quebec City; Inspector Langlois - An inspector with the Québec City police
- Important places
- Québec, Canada; Québec City, Québec, Canada; Three Pines, Québec, Canada
- Dedication
This book is dedicated to second chances—
Those who give them
And those who take them- First words
- Up the stairs they raced, taking them two at a time, trying to be as quiet as possible.
- Quotations
- (p. 31) "My English isn't very good. It's OK, but you should hear the head librarian speak French. At least, I think she's speaking French. She clearly thinks she is. But I can't understand a word. In the entire intervie... (show all)w she spoke French and I spoke English. It was like something out of a cartoon. She must think I'm a moron. So far all I've done is grinned and nodded and I think I might have asked whether she's descended from the lower orders."
"Why did you ask that?"
"I didn't mean to. I wanted to ask if she had access to the basement, but something went wrong," he smiled ruefully. "I think clarity might be important in a murder case."
"I think you might be right. What did she say to your questions?"
"She got quite upset and said that the night is a strawberry."
"Oh dear."
Langlois sighed a puff of frustration. "Will you come in? I know you speak English. I've heard you at conferences."
"But how do you know I wasn't mangling the language too? Maybe the night is a strawberry."
(p. 37) "I understand that the night is a strawberry," said Gamache, smiling slightly.
"Oh, you heard about that, did you?" Elizabeth smiled. "Poor Winnie. No ear for languages. Reads French perfectly, you know. Always the highest marks in school, but can't seem to speak it. Her accent would stop a train."
(p. 62) Winnie Manning came in next and confirmed that the night was indeed a strawberry, but added that the English were good pumpkins and that the library had a particularly impressive section on mattresses and mattress warfare.
(p. 141) ...Winnie had greeted them, given them the bilingual brochures, and invited them to join. She'd even given some of the more brazen a brief tour of the library, pointing out the fine pillows on the walls, the collection of figs on the shelves, and asking if any of them would like to become umlauts. Not surprisingly, few did. But three people actually paid twenty dollars and joined, shamed into it by Winnie's obvious kindness and handicap.
"Did you mention that the night is a strawberry?" Elizabeth asked when Winnie returned with a membership payment.
"I did. They didn't disagree." - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)There was only silence then, and from very far away, the sound of children playing.
- Blurbers
- Ellerbee, Linda; Robinson, Peter; Bradley, Alan; Weinman, Sarah
- Original language*
- Englisch USA
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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