The Hangman (a novella)

I love Louise Penny’s writing and this is the only one that I hadn’t read, a novella, The Hangman. Arthur Ellis checked into the Inn and Spa just outside Three Pines, paid for a week’s stay in cash, then apparently hanged himself from a tree, even leaving a suicide note. But, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache was not fooled. The man’s hands and fingernails were clean, no evidence that he had actually climbed up in the tree to jump off and break his neck – someone had killed him and then hauled him up there in an attempt to fake his suicide.

In this very short work, all of the usual detective team and cast from Three Pines were there. The first clue was that Arthur Ellis is the name of award for Canadian Crime Writers. The real Arthur Ellis was the official name of Canada’s real hangman. The murdered man, under that alias, had come to murder someone else, but his intended victim(s) got to him first. Inspector Gamache sorted through the scant clues to solve the mystery and arrest the guilty party – it’s a good story, and now I’m waiting for Penny’s next full-length novel which is due out later this summer.