The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny: A review

The monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups is hidden deep in the wilderness of Quebec. It is home to two dozen cloistered monks who live lives of contemplation and prayer, locked away from the world. They tend their gardens and their chickens and make chocolate-covered blueberries for sale or exchange with other monasteries and they sing.

They sing plainchant, Gregorian chants. This music over the centuries has become known as the "beautiful mystery" because of its profound and almost magical effect on both singer and listener.

Even though the community of Saint Gilbert have taken a vow of silence, they raise their voices in these chants and a recording of them singing has been sent out into the world where it became a sensation. People love the music. Unfortunately, within the community the recording causes sensation also. And dissension.

The community divides along the lines of those who want to make more recordings to raise money to support the repairs that need to be made to the abbey and the traditionalists who want nothing further to do with the outside world, who want to keep their music just for themselves as their offering to their God. And now this dissension has ended in murder.

Their renowned choir director, an expert on Gregorian chants, has been murdered, his head bashed in, and the gates of Saint Gregory have had to be opened at last as Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his second-in-command Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Sûreté du Québec arrive to investigate and capture the murderer. There are twenty-three suspects, the other monks at the abbey.

The relationship between Gamache and Jean-Guy has changed subtly since the last book in the series, A Trick of the Light, which I read just last week. Jean-Guy is separated from his wife and Gamache's daughter Annie is separated from her husband. The two have acknowledged their feelings for one another and are engaged in an affair which they believe they have kept secret from everyone including Annie's parents. Jean-Guy is off the pills that had him in an addictive grip in the last book and he is finally happy. Consequently, his relationship with his chief seems much more relaxed.

Both Gamache and Jean-Guy continue to heal from their wounds suffered in a shootout a couple of books back, but Gamache has worked hard at healing and is much further along than Beauvoir. Jean-Guy's recovery is still tentative and when the hated Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté shows up at the monastery to "help" with the investigation, Gamache soon comes to suspect that his ulterior purposes may include messing with Beauvoir's mind. Little does he suspect just how right he is or that before he can solve the ugly mystery of the monk's murder, he will have to again face the demons of that awful experience at the warehouse.

This time the only members of the Sûreté homicide team involved in the investigation are Gamache and Beauvoir. Louise Penny seems to want to concentrate on their relationship and develop it further. The truth is that the two love each other as father and son, even though Beauvoir thinks he has hidden his relationship with his mentor's daughter. But those feelings leave him open to be manipulated by an evil man who is willing to take advantage of them. Chief Superintendent Francoeur is just such an evil man, a murderer of souls.

And so Gamache must not only find a murderer of monks, he must find a way to save the young man whom he and his family love.

As usual, Penny carries us along in the flow of her story, dropping clues along the way, and, as usual, she makes us care very much about her characters. I'm already looking forward to the next book to see what will happen in this continuing story.

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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