BKMT READING GUIDES



 
Confusing,
Pointless,
Unconvincing

4 reviews

The Long Way Home: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel
by Louise Penny

Published: 2014-08-26
Hardcover : 373 pages
3 members reading this now
4 clubs reading this now
5 members have read this book
Recommended to book clubs by 3 of 4 members

Happily retired in the village of Three Pines, Armand Gamache, former Chief Inspector of Homicide with the Sûreté du Québec, has found a peace he'd only imagined possible. On warm summer mornings he sits on a bench holding a small book, The Balm in Gilead, in his large hands. "There is ...

No other editions available.
Add to Club Selections
Add to Possible Club Selections
Add to My Personal Queue
Jump to

Introduction

Happily retired in the village of Three Pines, Armand Gamache, former Chief Inspector of Homicide with the Sûreté du Québec, has found a peace he'd only imagined possible. On warm summer mornings he sits on a bench holding a small book, The Balm in Gilead, in his large hands. "There is a balm in Gilead," his neighbor Clara Morrow reads from the dust jacket, "to make the wounded whole."

While Gamache doesn't talk about his wounds and his balm, Clara tells him about hers. Peter, her artist husband, has failed to come home. Failed to show up as promised on the first anniversary of their separation. She wants Gamache's help to find him. Having finally found sanctuary, Gamache feels a near revulsion at the thought of leaving Three Pines. "There's power enough in Heaven," he finishes the quote as he contemplates the quiet village, "to cure a sin-sick soul." And then he gets up. And joins her.

Together with his former second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and Myrna Landers, they journey deeper and deeper into Québec. And deeper and deeper into the soul of Peter Morrow. A man so desperate to recapture his fame as an artist, he would sell that soul. And may have. The journey takes them further and further from Three Pines, to the very mouth of the great St. Lawrence river. To an area so desolate, so damned, the first mariners called it the land God gave to Cain. And there they discover the terrible damage done by a sin-sick soul.

Editorial Review

An Amazon Best Book of the Month, August 2014: In her previous novel, the international bestseller How The Light Gets In, Louise Penny left her embattled homicide inspector, Armand Gamache, in the idyllic village of Three Pines, on the edge of a new phase of life: retirement. At the start of The Long Way Home, the tenth in Pennyâ??s wildly popular Inspector Gamache series (you can buy â??Vive Gamacheâ?? t-shirts and mugs from Pennyâ??s website), Gamache and his wife are finally at peace, mixing among the quirky, testy inhabitants of Three Pines. But recovery would make for a dull book, so trouble soon finds Gamache when his neighbor Clara seeks help finding her missing husband, who left town in a funk over Claraâ??s success as an artist. In dragging Gamache from his reverie, Clara realizes sheâ??s awakened something in the ex-chief. Thereâ??s a mythic heft to the story--man canâ??t escape the past, or evil, or death. Though the descent into darkness, and the search for a â??sin-sick soul,â?? at times felt overly ominous, I liked Pennyâ??s exploration of art, jealousy, and the lengths to which people will go to create something that matters. But, as with the entire series, itâ??s Pennyâ??s chiseled characters that make this novel such a treat. Three Pines is a cozy, friendly place, but even amid the picturesque pines of southern Quebec, sin and sick souls are always lurking. --Neal Thompson

Excerpt

No Excerpt Currently Available

Discussion Questions

Suggested by Members

Al least some of the members should have read other Gamache books for your group to the most from this book
by [email protected] (see profile) 02/07/15

Notes From the Author to the Bookclub

No notes at this time.

Book Club Recommendations

Member Reviews

Overall rating:
 
 
by Lora Glass N. (see profile) 02/17/16

 
by Susan B. (see profile) 06/17/15

 
  "THE LONG WAY HOME by Louise Penny"by Becky H. (see profile) 02/07/15

THE LONG WAY HOME by Louise Penny
This was my first Inspector Gamache novel and that was a mistake. I should have read the preceding novels first! Even at the end of the book I was still s
... (read more)

 
  "The Long Way Home"by Elizabeth P. (see profile) 12/17/14



Peter Morrow hadn't returned after the year he and Clara had agreed upon for his return so the search for Peter began. Of course, Armand Gamache was asked to be involved even though he h

... (read more)

Rate this book
MEMBER LOGIN
Remember me
BECOME A MEMBER it's free

Book Club HQ to over 88,000+ book clubs and ready to welcome yours.

SEARCH OUR READING GUIDES Search
Search




FEATURED EVENTS
PAST AUTHOR CHATS
JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

Get free weekly updates on top club picks, book giveaways, author events and more
Please wait...