Review: The Beautiful Mystery

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Normally I love this series and run right through the story but this book was very unsettling. I'm not really sure why it was but it took me forever to get through it. The monastery made me feel claustrophobic, the monks made me uncomfortable.--Their other worldliness and strange serenity without any expression of emotion other than the ecstasy they appeared to derive from the sounds of and the singing of Gregorian chants was too difficult for me. Apparently for Beauvoir it was hard to accept as well. Though the action seems to have only been over a couple of days, it seemed interminable with a great deal of repetition and focus on the series of religious devotions in the monks' day interspersed with duties and meals. These were used to mark off the days but became too much of a focus.

Beauvoir's inability, still, to deal with the failed raid that almost resulted in his death, his dependency on Oxy, the uncomfortable relationship of Gamache with Francoeur were interesting aspects of the story,however, and once the first 200 pages were complete and these plot points took over the story moved much more quickly...aided ..., of course, by the appearance of Brother Sebastien of the Inquisition--loved that part. The ending was terrific and sad at the same time. The motive and its revelation was worth the on again, off again method I used to get through to it.

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