Murder Among the Pines


Book Description

Small-town police chief Maxine "Max" Benson is just settling into her new life when her ex appears on the scene. Apparently, he and his new young lover just happen to be visiting her area on holiday. Max left her marriage and the Toronto police to become chief in Port Ainslie, where she runs a three-person department with few problems and enjoys a different pace of life. That's all about to change when Max's ex-husband is accused of killing his young lover right in Max's own backyard. It seems that only Max's superior detection abilities can save him from an almost certain conviction. This is the third book in the Maxine Benson mystery series.




In the Pines


Book Description

The murder ballad holds a rock-solid position in US roots music and the Great American Songbook for decades. Telling the stories of sometimes true and often not-so-true-crimes and other horrific events, they are raw stories full of unrequited love, betrayal, life, and death. The song form stems from the Anglo-Saxon ballad tradition, where stories were orally passed on to a mostly illiterate population. Dutch cartoonist Erik Kriek was inspired by five old and new murder ballads — including songs by modern masters such as Nick Cave, Steve Earle, and Gillian Welch — and used them as a launching point for five special and ruthless graphic narratives that dig deep into the darkness of Americana, in which guns and religion maintain an uneasy balance.




In the Pines


Book Description




Murder in Ocean Pines


Book Description

Murder in Ocean Pines has splashes of suspense and mystery, set in a small, bayside town near Assawoman Bay on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It includes colorful characters in a summer community, loyal friendship, budding love, unrelenting abuse, bull-dog courage, and light humor.




Murder Below Zero


Book Description

It's almost summer in small town Port Ainslie. Or is it? Temperatures are so far below normal that Police Chief Maxine Benson and her team are wearing sweaters. But is it cold enough to freeze the body of the man found in a ditch on the outskirts of town one morning? Maxine starts to investigate, but she is elbowed aside by the mostly-male provincial police force so she takes charge on her own. Soon she's visiting the victim's cold-hearted widow, tracking the widow's mysterious brother, and confronting the killer alone in a tract of forest. Will Maxine's skills solve this twisting tale of a case?




Murder in the Pines


Book Description

"The year is 1921 in Carmel-By-The-Sea, California. Fresh out of Mills College, Nora Finnegan aims for a journalist's career at a time when her peers are marrying and bearing children. Hired by the publisher of the Carmel Pine Cone, the fledgling reporter is eager to tackle meaningful topics, not the mundane stories that he assigns her. When he grudgingly gives her more significant subjects to cover, Nora finds herself reporting on a heated conflict over an East Coast developer's proposal to build a hotel on Carmel's unspoiled, white sand beach. Although she attempts to maintain objectivity, Nora's sympathies lie with the townspeople -- the Bohemian artists and writers who are determined to protect their habitat. First one prominent person, and then another, are murdered. Nora's tenacious inquiry into their deaths make her a target by someone intent on silencing her."--Back cover.




A Rule Against Murder


Book Description

Read the series that inspired Three Pines on Prime Video. A Rule Against Murder, the fourth book in Louise Penny's award-winning and critical revered mystery series features the wise and beleaguered Inspector Armand Gamache. It is the height of summer, and Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache are celebrating their wedding anniversary at Manoir Bellechasse, an isolated, luxurious inn not far from the village of Three Pines. But they're not alone. The Finney family—rich, cultured, and respectable—has also arrived for a celebration of their own. The beautiful Manoir Bellechasse might be surrounded by nature, but there is something unnatural looming. As the heat rises and the humidity closes in, some surprising guests turn up at the family reunion, and a terrible summer storm leaves behind a dead body. It is up to Chief Inspector Gamache to unearth secrets long buried and hatreds hidden behind polite smiles. The chase takes him to Three Pines, into the dark corners of his own life, and finally to a harrowing climax.




The Nature of the Beast


Book Description

The Nature of the Beast is a New York Times bestselling Chief Inspector Gamache novel from Louise Penny. 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.




Cat Killed A Rat


Book Description




A Great Reckoning


Book Description

Instant New York Times bestseller: #1 in Hardcover Fiction #1 in E-book Fiction #1 in Combined Print and E-book Fiction "Deep and grand and altogether extraordinary....Miraculous." —The Washington Post "Artful...Powerful...Magical." - The New York Times Book Review "Superb" - People “A Great Reckoning succeeds on every level." —St. Louis Post-Dispatch #1 New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny pulls back the layers to reveal a brilliant and emotionally powerful truth in her latest spellbinding novel. When an intricate old map is found stuffed into the walls of the bistro in Three Pines, it at first seems no more than a curiosity. But the closer the villagers look, the stranger it becomes. Given to Armand Gamache as a gift the first day of his new job, the map eventually leads him to shattering secrets. To an old friend and older adversary. It leads the former Chief of Homicide for the Sûreté du Québec to places even he is afraid to go. But must. And there he finds four young cadets in the Sûreté academy, and a dead professor. And, with the body, a copy of the old, odd map. Everywhere Gamache turns, he sees Amelia Choquet, one of the cadets. Tattooed and pierced. Guarded and angry. Amelia is more likely to be found on the other side of a police line-up. And yet she is in the academy. A protégée of the murdered professor. The focus of the investigation soon turns to Gamache himself and his mysterious relationship with Amelia, and his possible involvement in the crime. The frantic search for answers takes the investigators back to Three Pines and a stained glass window with its own horrific secrets. For both Amelia Choquet and Armand Gamache, the time has come for a great reckoning.