ARE YOU LISTENING? FRIDAYS! BURY YOUR DEAD REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

WELCOME TO
BOOKIN' WITH BINGO'S

"ARE YOU LISTENING? DAY" 
I AM EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THIS FRIDAY'S
"ARE YOU LISTENING? DAY"
AUDIO BOOK CHOICE IS.....

GIVEAWAY ENDED
BURY YOUR DEAD
A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel
BY LOUISE PENNY

ABOUT THE AUDIO BOOK:

It is Winter Carnival in Quebec City, bitterly cold and surpassingly beautiful. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has come not to join the revels but to recover from an investigation gone hauntingly wrong. But violent death is inescapable, even in the apparent sanctuary of the Literary and Historical Society— where an obsessive historian’s quest for the remains of the founder of Quebec, Samuel de Champlain, ends in murder. Could a secret buried with Champlain for nearly 400 years be so dreadful that someone would kill to protect it?

Although he is supposed to be on leave, Gamache cannot walk away from a crime that threatens to ignite long-smoldering tensions between the English and the French. Meanwhile, he is receiving disquieting letters from the village of Three Pines, where beloved Bistro owner Olivier was recently convicted of murder. “It doesn't make sense,” Olivier’s partner writes every day. “He didn't do it, you know.” As past and present collide in this astonishing novel, Gamache must relive the terrible event of his own past before he can bury his dead.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Louise Penny is an award-winning journalist who worked for many years for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Her bestselling first mystery, Still Life, was the winner of the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys awards; and her second, A Fatal Grace, won the 2007 Agatha Award for Best Novel. She lives in a small village south of Montréal where she writes, skis, and volunteers.

MY REVIEW:

BURY YOUR DEAD by Louise Penny is the last in the Inspector Gamache Series and well liked by many with Penny hailed to be another Agatha Christie. I have a little different opinion but perhaps I am not fair in my judgment. I have not read the other books in the series and therefore, I felt lost quite a bit because even though the story is well written, there are so many references to what happened in the last book, THE BRUTAL TELLING, that I felt rather lost and confused. Although, there were flashbacks throughout the story, I am afraid, for one thing, that my lack of background hampered my enjoyment of this book.

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is in Quebec City to supposedly rest up after his last case and so spends time researching the LONG gone past and that is what has him in touch with the English Literary and Historical Society. But before he realizes it, he is involved in uncovering the truth about how a man died who is found in the Society’s basement in a shallow grave. Meanwhile, back in Three Pines, we find Jean Guy Beauvoir who Gamache has asked to look into what happened in a recent case there. They both find out that something is just not right in Three Pines. So now there are two murders being investigated.
 
I found that listening to the story, (although I don’t think it would have made it any better had I been reading it), seemed to take forever to get to the real meat in the story. With all the references to the past getting scrambled in my head, and multi-cases being investigated, Gamache left me behind. I just think the story was a bit too long winded for me and I think personally that even if I had read the other books, it wouldn’t have made it better for me. I think Penny writes beautifully in her creating interesting characters but getting to them took too long for me. I do think her vivid description of Quebec in the bone chilling cold of winter was lovely and detailed enough that it almost became a character in the story. I think there is enough to this book for new readers to at least want to go back and start from the beginning of the series and for current fans, perhaps this was a better book to listen to then it was for me. I guess the fact that it made me at least think about going back to read the earlier books in the series speaks volumes about Penny’s talented writing. I always like to temper a review like this with the thought that perhaps I was just not in the right frame of mind when listening to the story. I know I am in the minority about BURY YOUR DEAD so I think you really have to judge for yourself. I do know that at least by listening to the story as an audio book, I still had the advantage of doing other things so felt like it was time well spent.

 
GIVEAWAY
THANKS TO STEPHANIE AND THE GOOD

FOLKS AT MACMILLAN AUDIO BOOKS,

I HAVE THREE COPIES OF THIS JUST
RELEASED AUDIO BOOK
TO GIVE AWAY!

THE RULES:

--U.S. AND CANADIAN RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES, PLEASE
--INCLUDE EMAIL ADDRESS IN COMMENT
--ALL ENTRIES/COMMENTS MUST BE
SEPARATE IN ORDER TO COUNT
AS MORE THAN ONE ENTRY


HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOUT BURY YOUR DEAD THAT WOULD MAKE YOU WANT TO WIN THIS AUDIO BOOK

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND LEAVE A LINK I CAN FOLLOW IN THE ENTRY

+1 (OR +2) MORE ENTRIES: "LIKE" MACMILLAN AUDIO ON FACEBOOK HERE FOR +1, AND "FOLLOW" MACMILLAN AUDIO ON TWITTER HERE FOR ANOTHER +1

+1 MORE ENTRY: GO TO MACMILLAN AUDIO BOOKS WEBSITE HERE AND LISTEN TO THE AUDIO CLIP FROM ONE STORY FROM THE AND THEREBY HANGS A TALE AND COMMENT ABOUT IT

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT IF YOU HAVE ENTERED FOR LAST WEEK'S "ARE YOU LISTENING? DAY" AUDIO BOOK, AND THEREBY HANGS A TALE

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE OTHER CURRENT GIVEAWAY OF MINE THAT YOU HAVE ENTERED...JUST ONE, PLEASE

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
6 PM, EST, OCTOBER 15!