The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny

The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny

The Nature of the Beast is a New York Times bestselling Chief Inspector Gamache novel from Louise Penny.

Hardly a day goes by when nine year old Laurent Lepage doesn't cry wolf. From alien invasions, to walking trees, to winged beasts in the woods, to dinosaurs spotted in the village of Three Pines, his tales are so extraordinary no one can possibly believe him. Including Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache, who now live in the little Quebec village.

But when the boy disappears, the villagers are faced with the possibility that one of his tall tales might have been true.

And so begins a frantic search for the boy and the truth. What they uncover deep in the forest sets off a sequence of events that leads to murder, leads to an old crime, leads to an old betrayal. Leads right to the door of an old poet.

And now it is now, writes Ruth Zardo. And the dark thing is here.

A monster once visited Three Pines. And put down deep roots. And now, Ruth knows, it is back.

Armand Gamache, the former head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec, must face the possibility that, in not believing the boy, he himself played a terrible part in what happens next.

LOUISE PENNY is the bestselling author of seven previous novels featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, including the New York Times and Globe and Mail bestsellers. Still Life, her debut novel, earned the John Creasey Dagger, as well as the Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys Awards, and was voted one of Deadly Pleasures magazine's top five mystery/crime novels of the decade. Penny was the first novelist to win the Agatha Award for Best Novel four times: for A Fatal Grace, The Cruelest Month, and The Brutal Telling (all of which also won the Anthony Award for Best Novel), and for Bury Your Dead (which won the Dilys, Arthur Ellis, Anthony, Macavity, and Nero Awards).