A Rule Against Murder --by Louise Penny

Fiction / Armand Gamache Mystery (book 4)

313 pages 

5 stars

Armand and his wife, Reine-Marie visit their favorite ‘back woods’ lodge for a few days before their anniversary—the luxurious, isolated Manoir Bellechase. The Finney family are having their annual reunion, a month early, during the same time. The Finney’s are a dysfunctional family actually, quite nasty. Imagine the surprise when the late-comers turn out to be friends of the Gamache’s. Imagine the surprise of the Finney’s when one of their own is murdered, and it comes out that the polite and soft-spoken gentleman is Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surete Homicide and not a grounds man married to a housekeeper.

Ms. Penny uses a lot of French in her books, they are after all, set in French Quebec. However, she carefully lets those of us who don’t know French, know what the character’s say. 

Madame Dubois, who runs the lodge, has a rule against murder, and is none too pleased that the rule has been broken and one of her guests has been killed. I was fairly sure I had this one figured out, but, alas. I didn’t. I wasn’t even close. And very little of the book takes place in the village of Three Pines.