By Louise Penny

He expected people to play fair. Rules meant order. Without them they’d be killing each other. It began with butting in, with parking in disabled spaces, with smoking in elevators. And it ended in murder.

The murder of one of the Morrow family provides what is really just a mcguffin in the novel, whose main focus is the absolutely fascinating portrayal of a family as dysfunctional as one can possibly be. And one whose members are not what they appear to be on the surface. Yet the whys and wherefores don’t really hold up 100% under scrutiny.

We find out more about Peter Morrow and are given hope that his disintegration into his dark place may be stopped or at least slowed. I wonder how much Clara understands what lies beneath Peter’s benign surface. She may not be as clueless as she is portrayed. Hopefully we will understand even more by the end of the next installment in the series. We learn more about Armand’s backstory. I hope we will learn more about Reine-Marie in future books.

The murder story itself is a mixed bag. It was very disconnected from the rest of the novel in the end due to who the murderer turned out to be. The “how” is diabolical and clever. The “why” was very weak and the method chosen didn’t make a lick of sense. (Unless I am missing something.)

**3.5 stars, round up to 4 because of the contribution this novel makes to giving insights into the recurring characters as a whole.***I wonder, since this is Peter’s family, if we will be seeing any one them again in future books. That would be interesting.

June 8, 2018