leahthebooklover 's review for:

The Long Way Home by Louise Penny

4.0

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

Armand Gamache has retired from his position as Chief of Homicide for the Sûreté du Québec. He is living a quiet life in Three Pines with his wife Reine-Marie, but is perhaps still haunted by the ghosts of his past. Every morning he sits on a bench overlooking Three Pines with a slim book in his hands. A Balm in Gilead - he is looking for the balm for his own "sin- sick soul". When longtime friend Clara Morrow approaches him about her husband Peter's failure to return after their agreed upon one year separation has ended, Gamache is drawn back into the world of mystery and intigue as he, along with his friend and fellow detective (and now son-in-law) Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and various Three Pines residents try to trace Peter's whereabouts for the past year. Once again we are drawn into a strangely dark and vindictive art world. So many of the Three Pines books deal with art, both as a motive for crime, and as an outlet for emotions, both positive and negative. I always appreciate how expertly Louise Penny writes about her characters and their emotions. Her plots are masterpieces in the use of foreshadowing. One complaint I have had is how often the characters have these suddenly brilliant insights. In "The Long Way Home" it happens particularly when they are looking at supposedly awful and chaotic paintings. How are they are able to recognize that they are looking at abstract landscapes, and then pinpoint the exact location that each painting depicts, even though the locations are wildly remote and from different continents? The search for Peter is long, and there are no murders to solve until very near the end of the book. Sin-sick souls abound, however. Some find their healing balm (or at least move in that direction) and some do not. The ending was sad, but as always, leaves room for hope.