Waiting on Wednesday – The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating. This week’s pre-publication “can’t-wait-to-read” selection is:

The Beautiful Mystery (Unabridged Audio)

by Louise Penny
Narrated by Ralph Cosham

Publication Date: August 28, 2012

I knew this was coming out, but didn’t realize how soon! If you haven’t met Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, the head of Homicide for the Surete du Quebec yet, here’s your chance. I’m sure these are great books to read, too, but I listen to them on audio, narrated by Ralph Cosham. He brings out the humor in this mystery series, but has the appropriate gravitas for the many serious themes that run through the books (including, but not limited to, murder).

Listen to an audiobook sample on the author’s Web site here. She also reports that the audio edition of The Beautiful Mystery has already won an Earphones award from Audiofile. (See? I told you they were great audiobooks!)

Read my review of one of the earlier books in the series here.

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Miracles of Science in the Amazon: State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (AUDIO)

Narrated by Hope Davis, State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (Harper Audio) recently won the 2012 Audie Award for literary fiction. Very well deserved! It is an incredible performance of a story that starts with the barest of news of the death of a colleague somewhere in the Brazilian jungle and gradually develops into a Heart of Darkness-style journey from Minnesota to the Amazon for Dr. Marina Singh.
A tall, dark-haired woman of Indian-American descent, Marina (pronounced on the audiobook as “More-ray-na”) was the consummate outsider among the other Minnesota natives – tall, blond, and easily sunburned. The idea that she would be sent alone to the Amazon, after the death of the last emissary of the Vogel Pharmaceutical Company, Anders Eckman, Morena’s lab-mate and friend, father of three young boys, who also went along, seems crazy, but is explained by the delicacy of the mission and the dangerously eccentric secrecy demanded by the doctor in charge of the jungle camp, Annick Swenson, who is on the verge of developing a fertility drug that will make Vogel’s fortune. The complexity of the story grows rapidly from the opening scene, developing tendrils and offshoots in a matter of hours like a rainforest vine.
In a remarkable reading, greatly enhancing my enjoyment of the story and the characters, narrator Hope Davis conveys Marina’s natural scientific detachment, outsider’s tendency to observe without engagement, and reluctant probes into her own state of mind after she is transported to a setting far more exotic and remote than her childhood trips to visit her father in India prepared her for.
The psychological, suspenseful, and topical aspects of the complicated story intertwine in combinations that seem unbelievable yet inevitable, making this an excellent choice for a book discussion group. I highly recommend this as an audiobook!

Listen to an excerpt from the HarperAudio edition of State of Wonder here.

Other opinions of State of Wonder audiobook (mixed):
Audiobook Jukebox (Find links to other reviews here)
Devourer of Books
Everyday I Write the Book
Literate Housewife

State of Wonder
Patchett, Ann
HarperAudio, 2011
ISBN: 9780062072498
Unabridged Length: 12 h, 25 m
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Inspector Armand Gamache Does It Again: The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny

I just came back from another visit via audiobook to Three Pines, the idyllic village hidden away in the woods of Quebec, populated by artists, intellectuals, and quirky individuals of all stripes who are horrified each time they discover that someone among them is a murderer. With the seventh book in this mystery series by talented author Louise Penny on the way in August, the charming villagers of Three Pines (and the outsiders who find their way to the B&B there) have to confront this shocking truth fairly often.
The first book about Three Pines and the courtly, crime-solving Chief Inspector Gamache of the Surete du Quebec, Still Life, was instantly compared to the classic English mysteries of Agatha Christie and there’ve been no shortage of favorable reviews and awards for the series ever since. Reviewers have recommended Louise Penny to fans of P.D. James, Donna Leon, and Dorothy Sayers, among others.
I have been suggesting the Armand Gamache books for a few years to readers looking for a traditional-style mystery series that’s not too violent but not a cozy; humorous but not cutesy; and has characters with some depth whom the reader learns more about over the course of the series.
I don’t read many mysteries, but today, listening to the end of The Cruelest Month (superbly narrated as all of the books in the series are by Ralph Cosham), it struck me that the books appeal to me in the same way Jane Langton’s Homer and Mary Kelly mysteries do. The likeable main characters are witty, kindhearted, and have a few realistic failings, while the dislikable minor characters are also so three-dimensional (for a mystery, anyway) that the reader can empathize with them, as well. Since there unfortunately hasn’t been a new mystery from Jane Langton since 2005’s Steeplechase, I’m glad that I have the rest of the Inspector Armand Gamache series to listen to.
BTW, this series should also appeal to readers who like descriptions of food in their books. The meals served up at the Three Pines bistro and bed and breakfast in Three Pines always sound delicious!

The series so far:
Still Life
A Fatal Grace
The Cruelest Month
A Rule Against Murder
The Brutal Telling

Listen to a sample of the Blackstone audiobook edition of The Cruelest Month here.