The Long Way Home by Louise Penny

For the first time, I was disappointed in a book by Louise Penny who remains in my power rotation of authors. This is the eighth book we at Men Reading Books have reviewed by Penny, and until now, the reviews have been highly favorable. In The Long Way Home, Penny uses the usual cast of characters from Three Pines, the small village outside of Montreal. Artists Clara and Peter Morrow have been separated for a year, but Peter failed to show up on the anniversary of their parting, as he had promised. The separation had occurred because he was too jealous, angry and destructive because of Clara’s sudden and remarkable success with her art career, after Peter’s career had previously always eclipsed hers. Penny continues to write with remarkable sensitivity and insight into relationship issues between the various characters.

A few weeks after his failure to appear, Clara sought the help of her dear friend, the now retired Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surete Du Quebec. Gamache was continuing to recover from his wounds in the last case involving Three Pines, and his daughter had married Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his second in command, who was also nearly killed in the same battle which nearly killed Gamache.

There were multiple compelling story lines about the recovery of Gamache and Beavoir, and how the chase after Peter brought their recent brush with death painfully back into play. But the main plot involved the hunt for Peter. I thought Penny spent way to much time on the details of Peter’s new art work that he had produced in the year of separation, as well as the repeated efforts at trying to interpret the meaning of the changes in his technique and content. The resolution of Peter’s disappearance ultimately involved some of his and Clara’s professors in art school. It was absurd that a murder plot involved someone who was one was trying to murder another by an exposure to asbestos. The absurdity made all of the characters who were a part of that seem unbelievable, and for me, the story fell apart at that point.

The finale did bring an unexpected resolution of the main story line, but I must say that this one did not hold my interest like Penny’s other works. But, Penny has written too many good books for me to be put off by one substandard effort.