A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny (2009)

Another wonderful Chief Inspector Gamache book. This time he and his wife are on vacation celebrating their anniversary in a huge lodge - Manoir Bellechasse - across the mountain from Three Pines, where most of this series takes place. They are sharing the resort with the Morrow family reunion. Two of the regular characters in previous books were Peter and Clara Morrow from Three Pines. There was some mention that Peter came from a well off family, but had chosen the life of an artist and had not taken any funds from the family. But apparently he still feels obligated to attend the occasional family reunion. The family is quite dysfunctional with deep seated feelings of not being loved enough, mistrust, competition, dislike of each other. But they gather because mother has called them together to put up a statue of their late father. When someone dies in strange circumstances, Gamache is forced to bring in his team and start investigating. It could be any one of the family members or possibly the staff. Everyone has their secrets, their reasons for being in this place, far from the rest of the world.

Again I loved Gamache's gentle, but intuitive style. He has personal things going on too - besides having to cut short his vacation with his wife, he has a conflict with his son in Paris over the name of the future grandchild. Plus we learn of Gamache's father, who was labeled a coward for urging Canada to not join in the war that turned into WWII, but we learn the real story behind this.

With his side-kicks Jean Guy Beauvior and AGent Isabelle Lacoste they work their way through the mysteries of this murder, the biggest being how it was done. How does a heavy statue fall on someone? In the end, Gamache leads the family towards healing, though they will have to continue to work on it themselves.

I also liked the way the staff were portrayed, especially chef Veronique and her story. Interesting to learn about the issues around French and English speaking Canadians, especially in Quebec.