review: the brutal telling by louise penny

The small town of Three Pines is shocked when a man all of the residents claim not to know is found dead in the bistro. Inspector Gamache and his team start the investigation, which uncovers some interesting facts like his expensive dental work that make them realize The Hermit is not a tramp as they first suspected. Unfortunately, they still have no leads on who the man is or who killed him and why. Gamache and the others interview the citizens, but get nowhere until a newcomer to Three Pines stumbles upon a cabin revealing many of the dead man’s secrets.

Having not read the first four books of the series, I feel I shouldn’t be too critical. Perhaps the things I didn’t like are things I’d enjoy if I had prior knowledge of the characters. I struggled through the parts about characters not directly involved with the plot. I kept thinking that by the end there would be some way to tie it all into the central storyline; instead those characters and stories just seemed to be excess. However, I can see that people familiar with the stories might enjoy these bits if those characters were central to previous plots. Although I put down The Brutal Telling a few times, by chapter 25 I was very interested in finding out who killed The Hermit.
3/5
ARC Review