The Cruelest Month: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel
I loved the first book in Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache mystery series, Still Life, so much that I included it in the minimalist summer reading guide. (I got Will hooked on the series, too, which is always high praise.)
Publisher’s description:
Welcome to Three Pines, where the cruelest month is about to deliver on its threat. It’s spring in the tiny, forgotten village; buds are on the trees, and the first flowers are struggling through the newly thawed earth. But not everything is meant to return to life. When some villagers decide to celebrate Easter with a séance at the Old Hadley House, they are hoping to rid the town of its evil, until one of their party dies of fright. Was this a natural death, or was the victim somehow helped along? Brilliant, compassionate Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec is called to investigate in a case that will force him to face his own ghosts as well as those of a seemingly idyllic town, where relationships are far more dangerous than they seem.