Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Trick of the Light: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel
    A Trick of the Light: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel
    A Trick of the Light: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    A Trick of the Light: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel

    Written by Louise Penny

    Narrated by Ralph Cosham

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A New York Times Notable Crime Book and Favorite Cozy for 2011
    A Publishers Weekly Best Mystery/Thriller books for 2011
    With A Trick of the Light, Louise Penny takes us back to the deceptively peaceful village of Three Pines in this brilliant novel in her award-winning, New York Times bestselling series featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache.

    "Hearts are broken," Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. "Sweet relationships are dead."

    But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow's garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara's solo show at the famed Musée in Montreal. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Quebec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light. Where nothing is as it seems. Behind every smile there lurks a sneer. Inside every sweet relationship there hides a broken heart.
    And even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they've found is the truth, or simply a trick of the light.

    "Penny has been compared to Agatha Christie [but] it sells her short. Her characters are too rich, her grasp of nuance and human psychology too firm...." --Booklist (starred review)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateAug 30, 2011
    ISBN9781427213211
    A Trick of the Light: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel
    Author

    Louise Penny

    LOUISE PENNY is the author of the #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Globe and Mail bestselling series of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novels, and coauthor with Hillary Rodham Clinton of the #1 New York Times bestselling thriller State of Terror. She has won numerous awards, including a CWA Dagger and the Agatha Award (nine times), and was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Novel. In 2017, she received the Order of Canada for her contributions to Canadian culture. Louise lives in a small village south of Montréal.

    More audiobooks from Louise Penny

    Related to A Trick of the Light

    Titles in the series (15)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      ‘A Better Man’ Shows Louise Penny At Her Compelling Best

      Sep 5, 2019

      Her Three Pines mystery series, with Inspector Gamache, is a rare one that becomes more interesting the longer it goes on.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Echoes

      Jun 22, 2022

      Echoes
      9 min read

    • Article

      STEPPING Out

      Feb 26, 2020

      STEPPING Out
      10 min read

    • Article

      Second Language

      Aug 14, 2017

      Second Language
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Witch Finders

      Jul 16, 2020

      Beth pulled her cloak tightly around her. It was the very last day of October and the air was damp and chill. Dead autumn leaves lay in deep piles in the woods and smoke curled into the night air from her cottage. Not far to go now. She bent her head

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Glass Ceiling

      Aug 21, 2023

      ‘You’re late.” Evangeline glanced up from her workbench, neck already aching from the intricate creation before her: a hat decorated with no fewer than six hummingbirds, pinned to netting so fine it would look as though the creatures were, indeed, fl

      6 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      O Fortuna, Velut Luna

      Sep 15, 2018

      What is Miss Treece’s trouble, according to a popular notion? The man A has failed to show up. Arousing herself at the restaurant, she fixes her lipstick when her solo supper concludes and takes herself down the stairs situated behind the bar. There,

      3 min read

    • Article

      STEPPING Out

      Mar 4, 2020

      STEPPING Out
      9 min read

    • Article

      Cherubs

      Jul 5, 2023

      Cherubs
      10 min read

    • Article

      J. Jezewska Stevens

      Dec 15, 2017

      The party was a failure. I can’t even tell you what a failure it was. There are no words. Only a great pain in my chest when I wake up. On the veranda. It’s better when I sit in the chair. Oh, but then I can see around. The gauzy curtains, pushed by

      15 min read

    • Article

      Cul-de-Sac

      Dec 1, 2021

      That old rage for order: how my father drove a square mouthed mower over-and-back, over-and-back, each row of neatly trimmed grass cut just like he told his barber: boy’s short, regular. O pioneer, taming this joke bit of prairie, no bindweed or dog

      5 min read

    • Article

      Summer Beach Reads

      Jan 10, 2021

      Summer Beach Reads
      7 min read

    • Article

      Typewriter

      Aug 2, 2021

      Chère Madame. Vous ne vous rappelleriez pas de moi, mais de ma part… Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap… She flicks the return bar – PING – and her fingers fall back into rhythm. Catherine’s French comes as naturally as the movement of her

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Scarlet PEBBLE

      Feb 28, 2024

      The Scarlet PEBBLE
      9 min read

    • Article

      DULCE DOMUM From The Wind In The Willows

      Nov 1, 2022

      DULCE DOMUM From The Wind In The Willows
      11 min read

    • Article

      Let’s Play Dead

      Mar 3, 2020

      There was a man, let’s call him Henry VIII. There was his wife, let’s call her Anne B. Let’s give them a castle and make it nice. Let’s give her many boy babies but make them dead. Let’s give him a fussy way of being. Let’s make her smart and sneaky,

      17 min read

    • Article

      The Man I Should Have Married

      Dec 29, 2019

      The Man I Should Have Married
      11 min read

    • Article

      Only a Fragrance

      Sep 1, 2022

      Only a Fragrance
      3 min read

    • Article

      Come Stay

      Jan 16, 2024

      Come Stay
      23 min read

    • Article

      Echoes

      Jun 29, 2022

      Echoes
      9 min read

    • Article

      HERNAN BAS New and Recent Work

      Dec 15, 2018

      HERNAN BAS New and Recent Work
      6 min read

    • Article

      Six Poems

      Feb 28, 2023

      Dear C, At first Virgil’s poem is quite dull; equivocalnames of products at The Container Store: Elfa White Medium Drawer, Mesh NarrowRolling Cart (Medium Solution), Narrow Classic Mesh Box and the number of pirouetting starseach product attained. An

      5 min read

    • Article

      Lost Children

      Aug 4, 2022

      Lost Children
      5 min read

    • Article

      Splash

      Feb 9, 2018

      Splash
      6 min read

    • Article

      It’s Come to This

      Sep 1, 2021

      It’s Come to This
      16 min read

    • Article

      La Otra Historia

      Jun 30, 2022

      La Otra Historia
      14 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Trick of the Light

    4/5

    1,140 ratings93 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Touching the human spectrum - at the end I found tears of joy in my eyes. Brava, Louise Penny!
    • 4/5
      I really enjoy the flawed and very realistic characters and Penny's exploration of emotional and spiritual chiaroscuro in her mysteries. It's subtle, quiet, and thoroughly mesmerizing.
    • 5/5
      This might be my favorite book so far in the series.
    • 4/5
      I don't usually begin a series like this in the middle, but this was the earliest book my library had and I wanted to see if I would like the writing.With six books worth of missing character development and plot, I was definitely missing out on some back story. That said, the author does a brilliant job of filling in just enough detail to make it understandable without boring veteran readers. I found the characters vivid, compelling and well-rounded. The mystery itself was complex and intriguing. It seemed a good balance of familiar mystery tropes and unique plot twists. To my relief, the mystery was not the only thing this novel had going for it. The characters had their own dramas going on that kept me turning pages. In some ways, the murder at the heart of the novel was not the raison d'etre, but merely a catalyst.While not the best way to start a series, I do know that I'll want to get a hold of the other books and learn more about the past of these characters.
    • 5/5
      I lovethe characters. You never know where Louise will take them!
    • 5/5
      Louise Penny outdid herself with this one. I kept changing my mind as to who the murderer was. Her novels are not a basic formula like to many. I enjoy her plots, twists and turns and the characters.
    • 5/5
      I've read them all, but this is one of my faves. Absolutely classic Gamache. And Ralph Cosham's voices are exquisitely perfect for the characters.
    • 5/5
      As with all books in the series, a fascinating exploration of the human experience wrapped in the guise of a who-dun-it. Central to this book is the question of whether people can truly change — for better or for worse. The journey is fascinating in the many possibilities offered in the process of solving a murder and among characters we may think we know who now transform before our very eyes. I could myself repeating the very first words of the book, “Oh, no, no, no,” to more than one character on more than one occasion. Fascinating, immersive and intelligent, “A Trick of the Light,” elevates mystery to art.
    • 5/5
      Another excellent story by Louise Penny taking place in Three Pines. Lots of character development of Beauvoir, Clara, Myrna, Gamache and others representing the art scene and members of AA.
    • 4/5
      A Trick of the Light has to do with a painter artist being able to express emotion ever so gently in a painting. This book has to do with murder, competition and a very venomous art critic who ruined many lives with her words. The story was well written. The actual person who was the murderer was not who the reader would expect. Four stars were awarded to this book.
    • 5/5
      Louise Penny's cozy mysteries are becoming less cozy. There is a darkness developing as the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series continues. This novel follows after "Bury Your Dead" and although it can be read as a stand alone book references to the one previous are made. In fact, it is benefited by having read all the earlier books.

      I do not like to give too many details about well written mysteries, such as this. The story is enhanced by discovery upon discovery that develops the plot. I am always so afraid of saying to much.

      Having said that--a very brief synopsis is as follows: The story opens with Clara Morrow (a regular character) terrified about her first solo art show at a musée in Montreal followed by a celebratory party in her home village. The following morning, the body of a woman is found in Clara's garden.

      As the plot develops Gamache is thrust into the world of art (both as art and as business) and addiction. He, and others, are forced to recognize the fragility of relationships and the limits of human acceptance.
    • 5/5
      These books! it's so hard to see the characters suffer, to see when they misstep and the process as they find their way. It's even hard to see them succeed sometimes, in fear of what that change will bring. Clara's solo show is finally happening, and Olivier is trying to rebuild his life in Three Pines. Gamache and Beauvoir are trying to recover from the horrific attack in the previous book, and I can see heartache unfolding -- but healing, too. This is very much a book about heartache and healing and making mistakes and making amends. It also has a lot of lovely things to say, lots of lovely language and imagery and ways to think about the world. I have to have faith that things will come around. I really, really hope they do.
    • 5/5
      Clara Morrow, achieved a goal far above what she ever dreamed: A solo exhibition at the Musee in Montreal. The reviews, on the whole, were very high as were the spirits of the people involved. Her future success was assured.The next morning, however, everything crashed. After the showing, Clara held a reception at her home in Three Pines. The next morning, the body of someone who had been her closest friend in her younger days, was found in her garden. The friendship had ended under difficult circumstances and they had had no contact for decades. During part of that time, the friend had become an art critic though what she had been doing the past decade was unknown. She had not been invited to the reception and could not have gotten there accidently.Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, a friend of Clara and no stranger to Three Pines, received the job of solving the murder. There were no shortage of suspects including owners of three major art galleries, one of whom had cancelled a show for her and her husband who was jealous of her success. A TRICK OF THE LIGHT provides a lot of information about what can determine the quality of a piece of art and the inner workings of the people who display and sell art.There is also interesting information about Alcoholics Anonymous.It has the same detail, characters, wit, and excellent writing style as Louise Penny’s previous books in the series as well as some surprises about both some characters and their actions.
    • 5/5
      I’ve liked these alright so far, but was maybe waning a bit with the last two. But this one really kept my interest and entertained me. There were a couple shortfalls with the case, but the character relationships made up for it, and the case was generally decent. This is my favorite so far.
    • 5/5
      A Trick of the Light is book number seven in Louise Penny’s seventeen-book Chief Inspector Gamache series. The novel falls near the halfway point of the series in more ways than one. By this point, longtime series readers already knew the main characters well enough to appreciate how their experiences were changing them and their relationships to each other. Gamache and his fellow cops had been through a traumatic experience that changed all of them — and some were more obviously than others still suffering from the psychological trauma of the shootout they were so lucky to have survived. But Gamache and his second-in-command, Jean Guy Beauvoir, who both first came to Three Pines on a murder investigation, by now consider several of the villagers friends, a development that often complicates their official visits to the community. Much has been revealed about personal relationships already, but those relationships continue to evolve in A Trick of the Light. Gamache and Jean Guy are struggling to define the way they see each other after what they experienced together in the infamous warehouse gun battle that will forever mark their careers and their feelings about each other. Jean Guy’s marriage is in trouble; Annie’s (Gamache’s daughter) marriage is in trouble; and the cracks in the marriage of Clara and Peter Morrow (longtime Three Pines residents) are about to shatter that relationship. Still, despite the number of times that Gamache has been called to Three Pines on serious police business, he realizes now that he loves the place and feels great peace there. All of these things foreshadow a new phase in lives that will be explored in the second half of the series.Right now, though, Clara Morrow is enjoying the moment. After years of struggling as the anonymous artist wife of her slightly better known husband Peter, whose art pays most of the family bills, Clara is about to get the break of a lifetime: the major solo show that could suddenly make her famous and wealthy. Despite Clara’s fears that it is all too good to be true, the show goes well and the reviews, though a bit mixed, are enthusiastically positive in the publications that count most in the art world. But Clara, as it turns out, was right to be worried because the morning after her celebratory party in Three Pines her husband discovers a dead body in their backyard. Once again, Gamache and his investigatory team set up shop in little Three Pines. And that’s when the fun begins. Gamache will learn the dirty little secret of the Québec art world: nothing is as it first seems; it is a world of greed, jealousy, ego, and dirty tricks. The book jacket puts it this way:“Behind every smile there lurks a sneer. Inside every sweet relationship there hides a broken heart. And even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they’ve found is the truth, or simply a trick of the light.”Bottom Line: All of the best detective/crime series have one thing in common: memorable characters that readers enjoy revisiting year after year. Setting and plots are important, of course, but without continuing characters the reader can truly care about, those alone will not make a series stand out from the crowd for long. Louise Penny, remarkable storyteller that she is, offers the whole package. If you are not already reading the Gamache series, you need to grab a copy of Still Life (2005) and get started.
    • 4/5
      Artist Clara Morrow's art is finally recognized by a one woman show at the Musee in Montreal. At the party to celebrate in the village of Three Pines, former art critic Lillian Dyson is murdered in the Clara's garden, Chief Inspector Gamache from Montreal is called in to solve the case.Many of the suspects are rivals in the Quebec art scene and have come to Three Pines for the party and in the case of five art gallery owners, the chance to sign up the newly discovered Clara Morrow. As Gamache and his team of Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir and Agent Isabelle Lacoste chase down leads and investigate the many suspects, they discover that not all is pleasant or happy in the art world.Meanwhile, Inspector Beauvoir struggles with his marriage breakdown and his secrete love for Gamache's married daughter, Anne and the PTSD from the recent gun battle in which both he and Gamache were seriously wounded and both still suffer physical pain from the wounds.This is an especially complicated case which compels the reader to follow the leads with investigators which makes putting the book down.
    • 4/5
      I love her characters. In this story some relationship start to shift and change. A body is found in Clara's garden after her art opening in Montreal. It's her childhood friend who betrayed her and then started to self-destruct. Penny always has grand themes woven into the fabric of her stories - light, hope, change, betrayal, jealousy. AA and the commercial art play a part. I've never loved Ruth more than in this book
    • 5/5
      Like the last one in this series that I reviewed ditto
    • 5/5
      Looking forward to reading all of Louise Penny's books. Glad I picked this one up. I'm now a fan
    • 4/5
      Loving the deep dives into the main characters.
    • 4/5
      Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache books are always erudite and beautifully written. And there is always a lesson to be learned from them as well as more to learn about human failings as well as human strengths. This book is no different. Gamache and his crew are back in Three Pines investigating another murder. This one was discovered in Gamache's friends' Peter and Clara Morrow's garden. It's late spring in Three Pines, and only about six months since the warehouse disaster in Montreal. Gamache and his team, especially Jean-Claude, are still dealing with the fallout from that terrible time when the Surete lost four young officers. This new death in Three Pines pokes at some unhealed sores for Gamache and Jean-Claude. Clara is revelling in a triumphant opening displaying her paintings at the prestigious Musee gallery in Montreal. It is at her celebratory party when the body is found in her garden, and to Clara's dismay she realizes that it is her best schoolfriend that is lying dead in her flower bed - a friend that she hasn't seen for years after a bitter split, Gamache has to trowel through a lot of old newspaper reports and critiques to find the motive for this one. As they search they also rake up a lot of hard feelings and they spike up a lot of buried resentment. Revenge rears its ugly head, and seeps into the idyllic spring season in beautiful Three Pines. Justice does prevail in the end, but not before deep-seated secrets are unearthed. Hopefully these will be addressed and resolved in the next book in the series. Gamache has some personal issues with his next-in-command that need to be resolved fairly soon as well, if he wishes to keep his incomparable team together. I can't wait to read the next book to see if that does happen.
    • 4/5
      Another Three Pines murder, this one happened after Clara's first solo art show. The victim is someone from her past. Gamache's investigation takes him deep into the art world and AA meetings as he circles the murderer.
    • 4/5
      Clara and Peter Morrow are husband and wife and also full time artists. Maybe not big names, but they do make their living creating their art. They live in the small village of Three Pine, Quebec, a place not well known to many.But this was a big moment. A dream come true. They would be attending the vernissage at Musée d’Art Contemporain in Montréal, the opening preview of Clara’s solo show. Will this be recognition from the Art World or will they just laugh at her work?It is a success. Her dream is coming true! The gallery owners, art critics, and collectors are complimentary. What an evening!What an evening it becomes. After the vernissage, a group of people are invited to the Morrow’s home for an after party. Food, drink and good company: a good celebration that comes to a dead halt due to the dead body found in the Morrow’s garden. The body of someone well known to many people there. A person who is not well liked by many.Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his wife, Reine-Marie, are at both the vernissage and the after party. The Chief Inspector has friends among this group; the Morrow and a number of the residents of Three Pines. He is also a top ranking member of the Sureté, so the case is his to solve.Gamache is a man who studies people. He feels there can be much more to them that what they say and do. There may be more to them than they even realize. He takes his time, gets to know the people and is methodical in his style.The Gamache books seem to be written to read and savour. Not quickly, but leisurely. When I finish one, I feel like I have been there in person. Penny not only gives a good plot, she also creates the atmosphere of the location of the story and the personalities of the characters.
    • 5/5
      Louise Penny never disappoints.
    • 3/5
      A series that gets better as it goes along. Again, people relationships are a large part of the Three Pines saga. Several threads are resolved and/or stirred in this sequel. I'll be reading the next one.
    • 4/5
      Synopsis: 'Clara, who, as she nears age 50, has a one-woman show at Montreal’s leading museum. Following the show, she’s honored at a large party in the village, after which the body of a woman is found in her garden. The dead woman is a childhood friend of Clara’s who became an enemy. She finds that her husband is jealous of her sudden success, and she realizes that she must rid herself of him to be her own woman. In short, in just a few weeks, the ugly duckling is reborn as a liberated and lionized swan. The dead woman had been an artist (she, too, is improbably hailed as a genius) and art critic for Canadian newspapers. In the latter role, she made many enemies, who might have chosen to break her neck in Clara’s shadowy garden'Review: This is a lovely book with a very interesting plot and main character. It's a nice lead-in to the rest of her wor.
    • 5/5
      "Hearts are broken," Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. "Sweet relationships are dead."But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow's garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara's solo show at the famed Musée in Montreal. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Quebec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light. Where nothing is as it seems. Behind every smile there lurks a sneer. Inside every sweet relationship there hides a broken heart. And even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they've found is the truth, or simply a trick of the light.
    • 4/5
      Clara Morrow has finally made it in the art world. It is the night of her vernissage, a private art show where the most exclusive art dealers and critics of the art world gather with her friends for her grand reveal, followed by a private barbecue back in Three Pines. Clara has long struggled to make her mark, but the reviews are in and she's a success! Nothing could spoil her moment except for perhaps the body of a dead woman found in her back garden. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his righthand man, Inspector Jean Guy Beauvoir are called to the scene of the crime and soon reveal the murder victim to be Lillian Dyson. Lillian is a ghost from Clara's past, a former friend turned enemy. She is also a scorned member of the art community, famously known for falling off the map after a series of scathing reviews. Why was Lillian at this private after party at Clara's house? Was her murder the act of someone seeking revenge? Was it Clara?Louise Penny is at it again with the 7th installment in her Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. We find our dear Gamache still battling wounds left behind from the previous book and a tragic accident that was revealed within those pages. He is not the only person feeling pain from tragic experiences, as Penny also highlights the effects of this same accident on Beauvoir. Penny creates a novel of forgiveness in A TRICK OF THE LIGHT. She examines the ability of new and repeat characters to forgive those around them for a range of events. Everything from the impact of art reviews, police missions gone wrong, false arrests, lies to your spouse, and the murder of a child by a drunk driver are highlighted. To me this novel was more about the interactions of these characters and their ability to forgive those around them than the murder of Lillian Dyson. Penny captivated not only my mind, but also my heart in this book. So rarely do you find in the crime fiction genre this type of experience that I cannot stop myself from recommending readers to start with book one, STILL LIFE, and work your way through this series!If you’re looking to chat with other Louise Penny fans about the Inspector Gamache series, head over to the Penny Pushers Goodreads group and join in!
    • 3/5
      A continuation of the saga and moving it forward. Lots of drama in Three Pines and with its frequent guests. AA features in this one, as does the world of art. Forgiveness is a theme.
    • 4/5
      Another interesting plot twist