A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny

A Rule Against Murder is my eighth Louise Penny novel, so you already know that she is firmly in my power rotation of authors. She’s won five Agatha Awards. This woman writes excellent crime novels, so if this is your genre, make sure you’ve read her. These books are all in the Armand Gamache series which takes place in Quebec. Gamache is the Chief Inspector of homicide for the Surete du Quebec. Penny brings in Gamache’s usual crime-solving associates that fans of this series have come to love. This is the first story of the series that I’ve read which takes place mostly outside of Three Pines, an idyllic village just outside of Montreal. More than 100 years ago, the Robber Barons discovered Lac Massawippi, which is just north of the U.S. border, and they built the remote and magnificent Manoir Bellechase as a place of escape, a place to play, and a place to hunt and kill game. With changing times, Manoir Bellechase eventually was abandoned, until it was purchased and restored as an exclusive retreat for those who could afford it.

The Finney family has chosen this retreat to have its annual family reunion, a historically difficult encounter for all as the result of the family’s legendary cruelty to one another. They are a dysfunctional family of the worst order. The father is long since deceased, and while he continues to influence everyone, it is his wife, the matriarch who now holds the real power, including the division of a vast inheritance. The oldest of four kids, Julia, had wisely abandoned the family many years before, but she has decided to return for this year’s event when her own marriage has ended and her ex-husband has gone to prison as a result of a famous financial scandal. This year, the family has decided to erect a statue to the father of the four children, so Julia has come for the unveiling of the statue. It’s Julia who is killed in the most mysterious manner when the huge statue falls on top of her, as if dad killed the daughter who had left the family.

The main plot and subplots are interwoven with skill by Penny. It is her use of the subplots which gives her characters such richness and depth, much more so that what we usually see in his genre. And, the quality of her writing is wonderful. In telling the story of Gamache’s father who was seen by many, including the Finneys as a coward, Penny revealed that while Gamache’s father had been an advocate of keeping Canada out of WWII, when he learned of the horrors in the Nazi concentration camps, he realized his stance on the war was wrong. Penny wrote, “My father got up in synagogues, churches, in public meetings, on the steps of the Assemblee Nationale, and he apologized. He spent years raising money and coordinating efforts to help refugees rebuild their lives. He sponsored a woman he’d met in Bergen-Belsen to come to Canada and live with us. Zora was her name. She became my grandmother, and raised me after my parents died. She taught me that life goes on, and that I had a choice. To lament what I no longer had or be grateful for what remained. I was fortunate to have a role model that I couldn’t squirm my way around. After all, how do you argue with the survivor of a death camp?”

If I’m rating Penny on a 5-star system, she gets all 5.