fiiiiinally returned to this series (i’m taking my time and loving it actually) and this one was definitely different than the rest, but still had me hooked! Gamache continues to be such an intriguing main character, with complexities that keep building, and Beauvoir continues to annoy me but in a minimally endearing way, and I’m very curious how the dynamic between them both will play out in the next one.

also, setting this one in a remote monastery and centering it on the murder of one of the monks led to a lot of peripheral commentary on abuse in the church, forbidden relationships among the men, why people give their lives to God, and how we connect with peace and hope, and it was thought-provoking for sure!