Peter Morrow is missing. Peter is one of the best regarded artists in Canada, or at least he was until his wife's talent (and fame) outstripped his. Tired of his petulance, Clara sent him packing with a plan to meet again in one year and reassess one another. But when he doesn't return she senses something must be amiss and so turns to her friend Armand Gamache, former Chief Inspector of Quebec's Homicide Unit, to track him down.
Louise Penny has written a wonderful mystery with all of the requisite twists and turns. Her characters are quirky, but fairly fade into the background so that the real star is her plot (as it should be). I've read only one other Penny novel (Bury Your Dead, which is also an Inspector Gamache novel), and of the two I preferred the Bury Your Dead to Long Way Home for the reason that the former is set in Quebec City and is alive with the sights and sounds of that lovely city. The small villages along that Saint Lawrence that form the setting of Long Way Home do not have the same vitality.
One of the great things about Penny's mysteries is that they are quick and light reads, a form of pure entertainment. I read this one on an airplane recently - my only regret was that the flight ended before I could finish.
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