Et cetera : What We're Reading: The Cruelest Month

I stumbled across my choice for this month's Adventures in Bookclubbing completely by accident; I have been wanting to read 'The Cruelest Month' by Louise Penny ever since I finished 'A Fatal Grace.' 'The Cruelest Month' takes place during Easter time, so I waited until this Spring to start.

The book begins with the following excerpt from 'The Waste Land,' the highly celebrated poem by T. S. Eliot: "April is the cruelest month, breeding..." A light bulb went off, and I decided it fit our book club's 'April' theme perfectly!

'The Cruelest Month' is the third book in the Chief Inspector Gamache series. The series is wildly popular and has 19 books to date with the 20th planned for a Fall 2025 release. The series takes place in a small village in Quebec and features many close friends, Chief Inspector Gamache, and murder. In this book, several friends gather for a séance at the old Hadley house, which is rumored to be haunted and was prominently featured in the first two books.

The séance is led by a visitor to their community who is a practicing Wiccan. During the séance they hear a shriek and a thud, and when they turn on the lights one of their friends has died - apparently 'scared to death' based upon the look on her face. Was it fear? Or was it murder? Inspector Gamache is called to investigate, and the story continues from there.

These books are like a warm sweater and cup of tea on a stormy night; cozy, yet dark and mysterious. I love Penny's descriptions of foods throughout. The food never takes center stage but is always nearby. In fact, for last week's Books & Cooks Cooking Contest I made her recipe for Tourtiere, a French meat pie that is traditionally served at Christmastime in Quebec. I highly recommend the series for lovers of cozy mysteries and detective fiction. 'The Cruelest Month' currently has 4.2/5 stars on goodreads.com.

Happy reading!

~Kelly Henkle, Library Director