A Fatal Grace

I am so well and truly hooked on this series by Louise Penny that, having finished this, the second installment of the Inspector Gamache// Three Pines mysteries, I feel like an addict in withdrawal . A little over a year has passed since Inspector Gamache came at Thanksgiving to solve a murder whose necessary ingredients had been simmering for decades. Now, at Christmastime, with the cold descending into killing sub-zero temperatures, repressed fury once again boils over in an incredibly complex and planful murder of the newest resident of Three Pines, CC de Poitiers. Everyone hated her, so the cast of initial suspects is large--her husband and daughter, her lover, the entire town. As usual, it all comes down to motive. CC is killed in plain view, at a curling match, by grabbing hold of an electrified lawn chair, sitting in a puddle of water on a frozen lake, without her gloves on--when it is freezing outside. No small feat, you will admit, to make that happen.
Intriguingly, the death of a homeless woman in Montreal may be intimately tied to this one, and serve to reveal who the murderer is. Three characters who played minimal roles in the first novel emerge as key witnesses here: Emilie, Beatrice, and Kaye. Along with the dead woman in Montreal, Elle, they all have names that can be reduced to letters: M, B, K and L. What a busy mind our author has. Like a snake curled around the base of the toilet, waiting to bite you in the butt, there is another line of trouble coiling around Gamache's life. The Arnot affair, mentioned only briefly in the previous book, is coming back to threaten him, although we do not find out exactly how that will happen in this book. We are surprised, in the end, at who is plotting against our dear Inspector. For he is irresistible, this thoughtful, compassionate, and highly ethical individual, who loves his wife and seems to consider himself a lucky and contented man. He cannot compromise for the sake of politics, however, and powerful forces hold this against him. Fortunately for me, there are more books in the series already out there, just waiting for me to get my next fix.
I don't entirely understand why, in this particular case, they needed to change the original title in England, Dead Cold, to A Fatal Grace. But under either title, you will be bound to fall in love with Three Pines, its inhabitants, and Inspector Gamache once you start reading.