I got a bit burned out on nonfiction and picked up something available from the library.   I’ve surprised myself in becoming rather attached to this series.  I’ve worked hard to appreciate them but after reading 12 out of 18.  I’ve got 2 to go and I’ll consider myself caught up because I really can’t listen to Ralph Cosham and I enjoy listening to mysteries.  

Glass Houses
By Louise penny
2017 / 
Read by Robert Bathurst 13h 32m 
Rating A- / mystery – thriller 
(#13 in Detectivec Gamash series) 

A strange party crasher dressed entirely in black arrives for the Halloween party at The Bistro, a coffee shop in Three Pines where most of the setting of this series takes place.  It a way that setting is a character itself made up of the beautiful but remote location and the people of the village.

The village of Three Pines is an idyll, a place for family, friends and comfort. There’s a bistro, a bed-and-breakfast, a bakery, a bookshop, and other small businesses all owned by different residents. You can’t get there directly unless you’re very familiar with Three Pines. The average person gets lost two or three times before arriving. That said, bad people do wander in from time to time. That’s okay – the sometimes retired Chief Inspector Armand Garmache of the Surete du Quebec is on hand to detain them if necessary.

This crasher, costumed entirely in black is not really doing anything wrong, he/she simply stands very still in one place. Gamache and his wife Reine-Marie are at the party and notice the stranger and his/her effect. It’s only the next day when the body of another party attendee, a woman this time, is found in the basement of the church that he thinks he might should have done something. A new Bistro employee has some knowledge of the strange visitor’s costume and tells the group the costume is that of a 
“cobridor” which, in Spain, is either a debtor or, relatedly, a conscience to create shame.

And then Gamache and his assistant, Jean-Guy, start collecting and juggling clues – did the stranger kill the woman? Just about all of quirky residents of Three Pines were in attendance. so that juxtaposes the thrills, suspense and tensions of the best thrillers on the market with the cozy atmosphere of the Three Pines.

Enjoy.