🌟🌟🌟💫

With flashes of the brilliance that have come to be expected from this author, one of my very favorites, this book also was weighed far too heavily down with an overly complex plot, too many unnecessary and loosely connected tangents, and an emphasis on visual references to the dark acts of a serial killer that made me squirm. It seems the original foundational elements that made this series shine so brightly – the cozy camaraderie of the Three Pines villagers; Armand’s sandalwood-scented twinkle, moral fibre and all-seeing wisdom; and a twisty but just-on-the-edge-of-solvable mystery – have transmogrified here to be all but lost in a kaleidoscope of horrific evil, insane and fiendish plotting, and an arch villain almost out of the pages of a comic book.

I know I will be in the minority here, as I do so love this series, but, unfortunately, this installment was not the read I had hoped for. To be sure, the lovely Reine Marie and Armand will have my heart forever. Here’s hoping their next adventure will bring back the glow they’ve single-handedly kindled for years.