Bury Your Dead

For many years I was an avid reader of Agatha Christie mysteries, until I virtually exhausted her body of work. Bury Your Dead is the first mystery I’ve read in many years that was on par with Agatha Christie’s works. Louise Penny is a master storyteller, expertly weaving mystery and backstory into the fabric of Quebec City. She truly captures the ambiance of the city, making me wish that I had read Bury Your Dead before I went to Quebec City, rather than after I had already visited, so to seek out some of the more interesting buildings and institutions she describes. Her depiction of Quebec buried under glistening snow is enough to make me consider a winter visit, no small accomplishment. One of my favorite aspects of this book is that there are really three separate mysteries, each with a different story, set of characters, and motivations, at work here. The result is a book that is deeply engaging and intellectually stimulating, while also being a lot of fun, at least for those who like to solve a mystery before all is revealed.