Title: A World of Curiosities*
Author: Louise Penny
Rating: 2.75 stars / 5 stars
*This post contains affiliate links. If you make purchases after using these links, I will earn a percentage of your purchase without any further cost to you.
Favorite Quote: “Olivier took a few steps into the Old Train Station and Gabri followed. The men were very familiar with the large open space. It was home to their volunteer fire department. Both were members, and Ruth was the chief. Self-appointed, admittedly. But being essentially a dumpster fire herself, she was familiar with flames.” Penny, Louise. A World of Curiosities. Minotaur Books, New York. E-book, ed., 2022.
Review: This. Pains. Me. Let’s talk about what’s working in this novel so I can avoid the bad stuff as long as possible. Louise Penny is so clearly a talented, evocative writer. Three Pines and its inhabitants spring off the page - a real place and real people. Returning to the pages of a Penny novel is akin to returning home or sinking into a comforting hug…most of the time.
Unfortunately, A World of Curiosities missed the mark. Multiple times.
Despite impressive world building and character building - both hallmarks of a Penny mystery - thematically, this book just does not make sense in the context of the other Gamache books. Inspector Gamache, up until this book, was a man who saw and sought goodness…who didn’t demonize people, even when they were suspected of heinous crimes. He regularly rooted for, and helped foster, the underdog, Jean Guy Beavoir included.
All that changed with A World of Curiosities.
In this book, not only doe Gamache demonstrate a belief that humans can be born evil, the chosen target for this belief begins this novel as a traumatized child who was the victim of [TRIGGER WARNING AND SPOILER ALERT] child sexual assault. And rather than have this serve as a learning moment for Gamache, he is instead proven right when this child, now an adult, is a cold-blooded killer who targets Gamache and his family. The lesson seems to be…evil can be born. And a child can be evil. Both of these are antithetical to the ethos of the Three Pines world.
The primary mystery, too, is not nearly as well developed as Penny’s other novels and instead requires readers to suspend disbelief - that a single man could not only manipulate higher-ups in a prison to mastermind an escape, but also travel internationally and assume the identity of a [SPOILER ALERT] pastor in Three Pines - especially since this man is a self-sworn enemy to Gamache who Gamache has not only worked closely with but also betrayed. This man literally ate in Gamache’s home…and he didn’t notice who he was? That’s not the alert, almost preternaturally smart and astute head of homicide that readers have come to know and love.
About that Quote: Unlike many of this book’s departures from the tried and true Louise Penny formula for a delightful, insightful cozy mystery, this quote sees a return to prime Penny wordplay and humor. It was a breath of fresh air throughout a novel that so often strayed into uncharted, and candidly unwelcome, territory for Penny’s novels.
Have you read A World of Curiosities? Share your thoughts below!
Comentarios