My Take: A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny

I have been reading Louise Penny's Gamache series for years (this is the eighteenth book in that series), so I thought I knew what to expect from her by now. What I never expected this deep into the series is to read a book so much more complex, moving, and generally mind-blowing than any that preceded it. But she did it.

Readers of the series clearly understand how important Armand Gamache's family is to him, and how his beloved wife, his children and their spouses, and his grandchildren are to him. They have been, and forever will be, this Montreal policeman's highest priority. He will absolutely die for them. And now something from Gamache's past has come back to threaten the lives of Gamache and every single member of the family. Most terrifying, even if Gamache were to die protecting them, he knows that it is almost certain that they will still follow him death.

A World of Curiosities is so complicated and intricately plotted with subplots and flashbacks that I'm not going to risk posting a spoiler by trying to explain it in any detail. Let's just say the the storytelling skills on display here are of the highest caliber imaginable. In its basic form, it involves a monster criminal from Gamache's past who appears to have escaped prison without it having been noticed. The monster's one remaining goal in life has always been to get his revenge for what he feels is the betrayal on Gamache's part that kept him there for so long in the first place. Gamache fears that the man has help - and that it is possible that the help is coming from someone he himself is responsible for being back on the streets, someone Gamache has been close to for a long time. 

And he suspects nothing until a hidden room that was walled up over a century earlier is discovered in a Three Pines attic. Inside the room, villagers discover what at first appears to be the artistic masterpiece called The Paston Treasure that dates back to the mid-seventeenth century. The painting displays the treasures acquired by a wealthy collector of that period, and it is truly "a world of curiosities" - so much so that it has been intricately studied by expert historians for decades. But this is not that painting; this one has dozens and dozens of subtle changes and additions to it, and each of the changes turns out to be a clue about what is to come in Gamache's immediate future now that he has released the demon back into his world.

The Real Painting

I loved this book for its storytelling and what it had to say about multiple issues that still plague us today. But I think what I loved even more were the new things I learned about the origins of Three Pines and what Gamache and his family and friends learned about each other. This is a very satisfying addition to the Armand Gamache series, and longtime readers are guaranteed to count it as one of Louise Penny's best.