Books Reviews

Bury Your Dead – Book Review

By Angela Youngman Feb 23, 2011, 16:16 GMT

It is Winter Carnival in Quebec City, bitterly cold and surpassingly beautiful. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache hascome not to join the revels but to recover from an investigation gone hauntingly wrong. But violent death is inescapable, even in the apparent sanctuary of the Literary and Historical Society- where an obsessive historian\'s quest for the remains of the founder of Quebec, Samuel de Champlain, ends in murder. Could a secret buried ...more

Chief Inspector Gamache is asked to help investigate the murder of a man in the English Library of Quebec.  In doing so, it brings up a long dead mystery as to where the founder of Quebec was actually buried.  Can Gamache solve the two mysteries? 

While he is doing that, his side kick Beauvoir is in Three Pines taking a second look at the conviction of Olivier for the death of the Hermit.  Was Olivier really a murderer? Did the team - including Gamache - make a mistake?

The plot idea is quite a good one, and all too relevant with so many convictions being overturned as later evidence arises but overall I was disappointed by this story.  It was not as good as Louise Penny's previous books.  I found it very slow, and drifting.  It did not keep my attention and I found myself skimming sections. 

The main reason seems to be a lack of pace and speed. At times too it was confusing as to time frames, and as to which crime was under consideration.  Perhaps more editing might have helped.