Waiting on Wednesday - The Nature of the Beast

This is a weekly event that highlights a book we can't wait to be published.  It's hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Louise Penny is a favorite author of mine, maybe my most favorite.  Her mysteries set in Three Pines, a village in Quebec, are always anticipated, read quickly, and then maybe read again.  At this point, there are 10 books in the series and the 11th will be published in the late summer.  Armand Gamache is the protagonist and he is now retired from his Chief Inspector duties with the Surete' du Quebec.  He and his wife have moved to Three Pines, the place that is not on any map and that is only discovered when it is needed by an individual.  It's a sort of Shangri-la, a Brigadoon, a refuge from the storms of life.....but, there are also dark things that lurk.  There always have been, for if one is in a refuge, the edges harbor monsters.  My book for this week:

The Nature of the Beast

by Louise Penny

Publication Date:  August 25th

Hardly a day goes by when nine year old Laurent Lepage doesn't cry wolf. From alien invasions, to walking trees, to winged beasts in the woods, to dinosaurs spotted in the village of Three Pines, his tales are so extraordinary no one can possibly believe him. Including Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache, who now live in the little Quebec village.

But when the boy disappears, the villagers are faced with the possibility that one of his tall tales might have been true.

And so begins a frantic search for the boy and the truth. What they uncover deep in the forest sets off a sequence of events that leads to murder, leads to an old crime, leads to an old betrayal. Leads right to the door of an old poet.

And now it is now, writes Ruth Zardo. And the dark thing is here.

A monster once visited Three Pines. And put down deep roots. And now, Ruth knows, it is back.

Armand Gamache, the former head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec, must face the possibility that, in not believing the boy, he himself played a terrible part in what happens next.