Review of 'How the Light Gets In (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #9)' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
This is not the first Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novel I've read. I've enjoyed this and two others. How the Light Gets In had moments of and one story line of incredulity, so I couldn't appreciate much other than the ambiance, food and characters of bucolic Three Pines. The murder of the last of a world-famous Quebec quintuplet seemed gripping at first, but doesn't get much treatment and a minimum of likely suspects. The legerdemain seemed sloppy to me, particularly about how law enforcement superiors ignore or misunderstand the capabilities of wireless communication.
I'm no detective, but some clues were glaring and it must have been Gamache's more urgent, dominant distractions that kept him from figuring out what alert readers have solved in the middle of the novel.
Three stars for Quebec at Yuletide, strong female supporting characters, and quintuplet story line. Deductions for "I need you to look at …
This is not the first Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novel I've read. I've enjoyed this and two others. How the Light Gets In had moments of and one story line of incredulity, so I couldn't appreciate much other than the ambiance, food and characters of bucolic Three Pines. The murder of the last of a world-famous Quebec quintuplet seemed gripping at first, but doesn't get much treatment and a minimum of likely suspects. The legerdemain seemed sloppy to me, particularly about how law enforcement superiors ignore or misunderstand the capabilities of wireless communication.
I'm no detective, but some clues were glaring and it must have been Gamache's more urgent, dominant distractions that kept him from figuring out what alert readers have solved in the middle of the novel.
Three stars for Quebec at Yuletide, strong female supporting characters, and quintuplet story line. Deductions for "I need you to look at this now, see how everyone distrusts each other? Or seems to? I'm going to awkwardly and hastily reveal things at the end because you're allowed to figure X out, but I left out too much about Y for you to make a calculated guess, and I'm expecting my readers to accept that a cellphone user who's a senior law enforcement officer wouldn't have signal strength indications on his display screen. Too bad you couldn't keep your suspension of disbelief up."
