Sunday 9 October 2011

A Trick of the Light

Finished October 6
A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny, read by Ralph Cosham
Absolutely wonderful. I thought her last one, Bury the Dead, was her best one, but this one comes darn close. As this series progresses, her characters become more complex. Part of that is because you get to know more and more about them, but she also looks at the motivations, reactions and interactions in interesting ways.
Here, Clara is finally having the evening every artist dreams of, a celebration of her work. When the body of a woman from her past is found in her garden the morning after, many questions arise. Who invited or brought her? How did she find Three Pines? What was she doing there? are just some of them.
In addition, Clara takes a harder look at the people around her. She has always been a people pleaser, a smoother of the waters, but at what cost? And what does she need to change to be truly happy?
Gamache and Beauvoir are still recovering from the horrible experiences they had earlier, and the progress is slow.
The theme here is dark and light, shadow and sun, and whether the things that come forward are the truth or, as the title says, a trick of the light.
I laughed, I cried, and I hated to see the book end. A great read.

2 comments:

  1. Shonna: I enjoyed A Trick of the Light when I read and reviewed it last month. Louise has a wonderful combination of plot and character analysis.

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  2. I agree Bill, and she gets better with every book.

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