I was very slow in discovering Louise Penny's wonderful Inspector Gamache novels, and I still haven't read the entire series. I'm not even sure what caused me to pick up Bury Your Dead back in December 2010, but that has to be one of the most rewarding book choices I made during that entire year because it opened up a whole new world to me. Penny's fictional village of Three Pines is so real to me that I feel like I've been there, and I always look forward to my annual visit there via her latest Gamache crime novel. I hope she keeps them coming for a long, long time because Gamache, even when he's in retirement or semi-retirement, is one hell of a cop.
The video below is a CBS Sunday Morning report from July 2017, but it offers some insight into Penny and the relationship she has with her devoted fanbase. I got to thinking about her this morning while at Barnes & Noble because her fifteenth Inspector Gamache novel, A Better Man, will be available next Tuesday (August 27), and I want to grab a copy early on even if I don't immediately read it. Am I the only one who sometimes put my favorites away so that I can enjoy the anticipation of reading them? It's almost like I know I have some extra money in the bank. Weird, right?
One of my more hopeless book projects is to put together a hardback collection of all the Gamache books, so I jumped all over the two that I found on a B&N remainders table this morning: A Great Reckoning and Glass Houses. And then over lunch with a friend, the subject came up and he went out to his car and retrieved a pristine copy The Brutal Telling that he gave to me (some things are just meant to be). I already had an ARC of that one, but the hardcopy does give my mini-collection of Gamache books a little more consistency, so I was happy to get it.
And next week, I plan to add the new one. Life is good.
I think it's a wonderful plan to collect all the Gamache hardback editions. Bury Your Dead is one of the best I've read so far, although they do seem to get better and better as I get to each one. My next is book 10, The Long Way Home, in which I think Gamache is at long last retired. I feel the same way as you about Three Pines. It's probably as well it's not real as it would be overwhelmed with tourists. And no, you're not the only one who puts their favourite, much anticipated books, away for when you want something to read that you know will be good.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why, Cath, but I'm one of those "completists" who has to have a complete collection of anything I love or it just doesn't seem done. I know in this case that it won't be easy to find the earlier books at an affordable price but the chase is more than half the fun for me.
DeleteI'm working on another couple of favorite series, one of which is even more hopeless than the Gamache series because it started way back in the olden days (the eighties).
By the way, I just noticed that Penny also wrote a Gamache novella called "The Hangman" in 2010 that I also need to find. The hunt is on...
You're not alone at all! I'm reading this series slowly on purpose. That way I can savor every installment and truly enjoy each one. It's such a wonderful series that I don't want to rush it!
ReplyDeleteHa! I kind of figured all you guys had a secret stash hidden away somewhere that you take comfort from knowing is there. I actually got to the point with a couple of favorite authors that, for a while, I was reading them two books behind on purpose. That mean their latest release was my cue to finally read the one that was a year old. Not real sure what I thought that was accomplishing in the long run.
DeleteI'm a couple of books behind now, but I look forward to savoring them.
ReplyDeleteThat's two in the bank...you're rich.
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