Mystery Books Store
A Fatal Grace (Three Pines Mysteries, No. 2)
RRP: $6.99
Our Price: $5.59
You Save: $ 1.40 ( 20% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
Author: Louise Penny
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $5.59
You Save: $ 1.40 ( 20% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
Author: Louise Penny
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur
Average Customer Rating:
Experimental feature: Order A Fatal Grace (Three Pines Mysteries, No. 2) from the UK, Canada, Germany or France by clicking an appropriate flag below.
Some items available at Amazon.com are not available in all countries.
Some items available at Amazon.com are not available in all countries.
A Fatal Grace (Three Pines Mysteries, No. 2) Description
Binding: Kindle Edition
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
Format: Kindle Book
Label: St. Martin's Minotaur
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2007-05-15
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur
Product Release Date: 2007-05-15
Studio: St. Martin's Minotaur
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
Format: Kindle Book
Label: St. Martin's Minotaur
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2007-05-15
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur
Product Release Date: 2007-05-15
Studio: St. Martin's Minotaur
Editorial Review of A Fatal Grace (Three Pines Mysteries, No. 2)
Customer Reviews of A Fatal Grace (Three Pines Mysteries, No. 2)
Customer Rating: 
Review Summary: guilty pleasure?
Review: I very much enjoyed "Still Life" but unfortunately "A Fatal Grace" is not nearly as entertaining. I had the same kind of experience reading it that one of the inhabitants of Three PInes, Clara, had when viewing the Christmas window in a department store in which she formerly had been completely able to lose herself: an unpleasant realization shattered the fantasy.
A psychopathic minor Martha Stewart is murdered in Three Pines at Christmas. She is a woman so horrible that most of the villagers have motives to kill her. Inspector Gamache of the Surete believes that the key to her death lies in her mysterious past which seems to be somehow connected to Three Pines.
The characters from "Still Life" reappear, but instead of being quirky and eccentric, they are now overdrawn black-or-white cardboard figures. The village is no longer just charming--it's greeting card perfect. Inspector Gamache, always too good to be true, is now a saint. Apparitions of God appear. The victim is an impossibly motivated woman with a literally unbelievable rationale. A subplot having to do with politics within the Surete is supposed to draw us further into the series, but really seems an unnecessary distraction.
However, Ms. Penny's work has moments of descriptive power and good humor, and I have to confess to enjoying the descriptions of Three Pines during the Christmas season in spite of myself. I hope her future novels return to the level of her first.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: It's Fatal for Sure
Review: I loved Still Life, the first book in this series, and I was glad to learn that a second book was available and a third in hardback. That elation didn't last long. The quality of the first and second book seem to be reversed. How could the same author write that first wonderful book, and then write this. I know that authors take missteps, but so soon? It's like a bad, bad cozy with convoluted characterizations and inane dialogue. I'm on page 40 because I kept hoping it would get better. I can't take it. For example, the characters who seemed quirky in the first one, are just annoying in this one. Overdone and ANNOYING. The scene changes are not done well and just seem jerky. As I read, I find myself, wondering, "What?" Descriptions are unnecessary and some are just plain bad. For example, one person's sweater is described as being made of "cashmere or kittens." Please. There must be other ways to describe soft without making reference to dead kittens. Read this a direct quote from the book: "She trudged along the dark, snowy, congested streets, pedestrians bumping into her and giving her disgusted looks, as though fat children had spread their feelings like icing on slabs of cake, and swallowed them." What? I rest my case. I read the following somewhere and it fits here perfectly, "Life is too short to read a bad book."
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Worthy of the Agatha
Review: A reader returning to Three Pines will be delighted to find it changed by the events which occurred in Still Life, but unaltered enough to reacquaint us with its charming melange of interesting characters. Armand Gamache - sensitive, tender, wise, and loyal, is fast becoming one of my favorite sleuths. Warning: read this book in a warm spot cradling a cup of coffee for Ms. Penny will make you feel every ounce of the cold Canadian winter.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Cranford on ice
Review: An interesting cozy, set in a simulacrum of an English Agatha Christie type village in the tundra of Quebec. A group of elderly ladies are the main suspects. The Anglophones refer to the patch of ice and snow in the center of town as the village green and Father Christmas comes after they have sung carols in the Anglican church. It seems a long way from Mordecai Richler. There's a good basic whodunnit plot, involving an electrocution on ice at the height of the frenzied excitement of a curling match.
The detective, Armand Gamache, is a Maigret type. Once the novelty of the setting has worn off the action is slow and it took about two hundred pages for me to get hooked. An unnecessary and unresolved subplot and back story in which Gamache is the victim of departmental politics and corruption at the Surete headquarters tends to drag things out. There is an excellent evocation of what it's like to live and drive in subzero weather.
Read this at the beach on a 90 degree day.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Poirot Lives in Quebec !
Review:
This is a real page turner! Gamache is a delight. The locale is described realistically and sensitively and the mystery keeps you guessing. I hope there are many, many more in the series.
Review Summary: guilty pleasure?
Review: I very much enjoyed "Still Life" but unfortunately "A Fatal Grace" is not nearly as entertaining. I had the same kind of experience reading it that one of the inhabitants of Three PInes, Clara, had when viewing the Christmas window in a department store in which she formerly had been completely able to lose herself: an unpleasant realization shattered the fantasy.
A psychopathic minor Martha Stewart is murdered in Three Pines at Christmas. She is a woman so horrible that most of the villagers have motives to kill her. Inspector Gamache of the Surete believes that the key to her death lies in her mysterious past which seems to be somehow connected to Three Pines.
The characters from "Still Life" reappear, but instead of being quirky and eccentric, they are now overdrawn black-or-white cardboard figures. The village is no longer just charming--it's greeting card perfect. Inspector Gamache, always too good to be true, is now a saint. Apparitions of God appear. The victim is an impossibly motivated woman with a literally unbelievable rationale. A subplot having to do with politics within the Surete is supposed to draw us further into the series, but really seems an unnecessary distraction.
However, Ms. Penny's work has moments of descriptive power and good humor, and I have to confess to enjoying the descriptions of Three Pines during the Christmas season in spite of myself. I hope her future novels return to the level of her first.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: It's Fatal for Sure
Review: I loved Still Life, the first book in this series, and I was glad to learn that a second book was available and a third in hardback. That elation didn't last long. The quality of the first and second book seem to be reversed. How could the same author write that first wonderful book, and then write this. I know that authors take missteps, but so soon? It's like a bad, bad cozy with convoluted characterizations and inane dialogue. I'm on page 40 because I kept hoping it would get better. I can't take it. For example, the characters who seemed quirky in the first one, are just annoying in this one. Overdone and ANNOYING. The scene changes are not done well and just seem jerky. As I read, I find myself, wondering, "What?" Descriptions are unnecessary and some are just plain bad. For example, one person's sweater is described as being made of "cashmere or kittens." Please. There must be other ways to describe soft without making reference to dead kittens. Read this a direct quote from the book: "She trudged along the dark, snowy, congested streets, pedestrians bumping into her and giving her disgusted looks, as though fat children had spread their feelings like icing on slabs of cake, and swallowed them." What? I rest my case. I read the following somewhere and it fits here perfectly, "Life is too short to read a bad book."
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Worthy of the Agatha
Review: A reader returning to Three Pines will be delighted to find it changed by the events which occurred in Still Life, but unaltered enough to reacquaint us with its charming melange of interesting characters. Armand Gamache - sensitive, tender, wise, and loyal, is fast becoming one of my favorite sleuths. Warning: read this book in a warm spot cradling a cup of coffee for Ms. Penny will make you feel every ounce of the cold Canadian winter.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Cranford on ice
Review: An interesting cozy, set in a simulacrum of an English Agatha Christie type village in the tundra of Quebec. A group of elderly ladies are the main suspects. The Anglophones refer to the patch of ice and snow in the center of town as the village green and Father Christmas comes after they have sung carols in the Anglican church. It seems a long way from Mordecai Richler. There's a good basic whodunnit plot, involving an electrocution on ice at the height of the frenzied excitement of a curling match.
The detective, Armand Gamache, is a Maigret type. Once the novelty of the setting has worn off the action is slow and it took about two hundred pages for me to get hooked. An unnecessary and unresolved subplot and back story in which Gamache is the victim of departmental politics and corruption at the Surete headquarters tends to drag things out. There is an excellent evocation of what it's like to live and drive in subzero weather.
Read this at the beach on a 90 degree day.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Poirot Lives in Quebec !
Review:
This is a real page turner! Gamache is a delight. The locale is described realistically and sensitively and the mystery keeps you guessing. I hope there are many, many more in the series.