Set in the art world just outside of Montréal, this book is a fascinating mystery. Clara Morrow is set to have a solo art exhibit at the Musée d'Art Contemporain in Montréal, and numerous friends, family members, and art critics have gathered. Although nervous, she gracefully accepts the accolades, while her husband Peter (also an artist) stands by. However, the next morning, a woman's body is found in the Morrow's garden in the neighboring village of Three Pines.

Although the woman is in a dress that practically screams for attention, nobody recalls seeing her. Once her face is revealed, Clara realizes that she knows who she is -- Lillian Dyson, an art critic with whom she was a childhood friend but hasn't spoken to in years because of a falling out during their art college days. Lillian certainly hadn't been invited to the event.

Because Lillian made a name for herself writing scathing, vitriolic reviews that tended to end artists careers, there seems to be no shortage of suspects. But the question remains as to how Lillian knew about the event in the first place and why she would come when there was no love lost between her and Clara.

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his second-in-command, Inspector Jean Guy Beauvouir, investigate this case; all while navigating the art scene and its nuances. Assisting them is Agent Isabelle Lacoste, who often gets stuck with the behind-the-scenes busy work. The investigation takes Gamache and Beauvouir inside the world of AA, where they begin uncovering another layer of secrets to unravel.

I felt that this book took awhile to get off the ground. However, it really picked up speed and I was completely hooked. The author has a writing style that is lyrical and beautiful. Because the story is set outside of Montréal, much of the characters' dialogue is sprinkled with French. While I could generally pick up from context what they meant, there were times when I looked up some of the French words, which I found a little cumbersome as I feel fiction should be able to be read by itself.

I should note that frequent references were made to an event which took place in an earlier book. While I was able to cobble together the overall gestalt of what happened, I feel that it could have been explained better for those jumping into the middle of the series.

The mystery itself was done well. There were plenty of suspects, and while one suspect was a bit too obvious (so I never counted that person as serious suspect), there were times when I changed my mind as to who the killer could have been, which always pleases me.

Book Summary

"Penny has been compared to Agatha Christie [but] it sells her short. Her characters are too rich, her grasp of nuance and human psychology too firm...." —Booklist (starred review)

“Hearts are broken,” Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. “Sweet relationships are dead.”

But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow's garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara's solo show at the famed Musée in Montreal. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Quebec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light. Where nothing is as it seems. Behind every smile there lurks a sneer. Inside every sweet relationship there hides a broken heart. And even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they've found is the truth, or simply a trick of the light.