title: The Cruelest Month (Three Pines Mysteries, No. 3)
author:  Louise Penny 
description: Starred Review. Chief Insp. Armand Gamache and his team investigate another bizarre crime in the tiny Qubec village of Three Pines in Penny's expertly plotted third cozy (after 2007's <i>A Fatal Grace</i>). As the townspeople gather in the abandoned and perhaps haunted Hadley house for a sance with a visiting psychic, Madeleine Favreau collapses, apparently dead of fright. No one has a harsh word to say about Madeleine, but Gamache knows there's more to the case than meets the eye. Complicating his inquiry are the repercussions of Gamache having accused his popular superior at the Sret du Qubec of heinous crimes in a previous case. Fearing there might be a mole on his team, Gamache works not only to solve the murder but to clear his name. Arthur Ellis Awardwinner Penny paints a vivid picture of the French-Canadian village, its inhabitants and a determined detective who will strike many Agatha Christie fans as a 21st-century version of Hercule Poirot. <i>(Mar.)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  THE CRUELLEST MONTH
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Also by Louise Penny and available from Headline_
  
  
  
  
  
  Still Life
  
  
  
  
  
  Dead Cold
  
  
  # THE CRUELLEST  
  
  
  MONTH
  
  
  
  
  
  # Louise Penny
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © 2007 Louise Penny
  
  
  
  
  
  The right of Louise Penny to be identified as the Author of the Work has been
  asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
  1988.
  
  
  
  
  
  From _Sarah Binks_ by Paul Hiebert. © 1947 Oxford University Press Canada.
  
  
  
  
  
  Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
  
  
  
  
  
  ‘Half-Hanged Mary’ from _Morning In The Burned House_ © Margaret Atwood 1995
  reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Ltd, London.
  
  
  
  
  
  Extract from ‘Epilogue’ by permission of The Society of Authors,
  representative of the estate of John Masefield.
  
  
  
  
  
  Excerpt from ‘The Second Coming’ by W. B. Yeats used by kind permission of AP
  Watt Ltd on behalf of Michael B Yeats.
  
  
  
  
  
  First published in 2007 by
  
  
  
  
  
  HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP
  
  
  
  
  
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  Apart from any use permitted 