• A Trick of the Light

  • A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel
  • By: Louise Penny
  • Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
  • Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (6,405 ratings)

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A Trick of the Light  By  cover art

A Trick of the Light

By: Louise Penny
Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
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Publisher's summary

A New York Times Notable Crime Book and Favorite Cozy for 2011
A Publishers Weekly Best Mystery/Thriller books for 2011

With A Trick of the Light, Louise Penny takes us back to the deceptively peaceful village of Three Pines in this brilliant novel in her award-winning, New York Times bestselling series featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache.

"Hearts are broken," Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. "Sweet relationships are dead."

But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow's garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara's solo show at the famed Musée in Montreal. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Quebec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light. Where nothing is as it seems. Behind every smile there lurks a sneer. Inside every sweet relationship there hides a broken heart.

And even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they've found is the truth, or simply a trick of the light.

"Penny has been compared to Agatha Christie [but] it sells her short. Her characters are too rich, her grasp of nuance and human psychology too firm...." --Booklist (starred review)

©2011 Three Pines Creations, Inc. (P)2011 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“The superbly gifted Louise Penny is on my secret shortlist of must-read authors, and A TRICK OF THE LIGHT proves why. Artist Clara Morrow is about to have a prestigious show of her paintings when her childhood friend is found murdered, and the finger of suspicion points to Clara. Chief Inspector Gamache is called to investigate, and using his trademark powers of deduction and his intuitive knack for the right question at the right time, he exposes the darkness that underlies the bright stars of Montreal's art world, where competition between friends, and even between husband and wife, can turn lethal. Ultimately, of course, it's Louise Penny who steals the show, and A TRICK OF THE LIGHT will not only keep you engrossed from start to finish, it will teach you something new about love, truth, and the human heart.” —Lisa Scottoline

“Penny, elevating herself to the pantheon that houses P.D. James, Ruth Rendell and Minette Walters, demonstrates an exquisite touch with characterization, plotting and artistic sensitivity. And there could be no better explanation of A.A. than you will find here.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Outstanding….With her usual subtle touch and timely injections of humor, Penny effectively employs the recurring motif of the chiaroscuro, the interplay of light and dark, which distinguishes Morrow's artwork and which resonates symbolically in the souls of the author's characters.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Featured Article: Best Mystery Series—Listens That'll Take You Right to the Crime Scene


While a standalone mystery is great when you're in the mood for a one-and-done, sometimes you want to feed your craving with an entire mystery series—knowing there's a world and characters you can keep coming back to for the satisfaction of solving crimes. With audiobooks, you get the added bonus of sinking deeper into the setting, clues, and suspects as the story is performed for you, so you'll feel like you're alongside detectives, ready to bust a case.

What listeners say about A Trick of the Light

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Welcome back to the Village of 3 Pines

I've listened to well over 200 audiobooks and I like a good detective story. Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache ranks for me far above the jaded, violent, tormented creations in modern detective fiction that seem so much to be the current fashion.
The Inspector Gamache stories have evolved to be about more then just "the case". The lives of the villagers in 3 Pines have become as much part of any new installment of the series then the hunt for the murderer, especially in this installment. That gives the books an additional dimension, no silly filler stuff, no gratuitous violence or almost laughable sexual encounters to keep the readers interested between the different steps of the investigation, but sweet, sad, intelligent, stupid, infuriating, and because of all that interesting characters, exist in the space "between" and around the actual case story.
Ralph Cosham has become, at least in my ears, very much the voice of Gamache. In a way he has become as much the voice of the stories then George Guidall simply is Walt Longmire in the Craig Johnson series (another series that, while it is a very different environment, I believe you will like if you like Inspector Gamache) .

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84 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing

As I knitted a shawl and listened, the characters wove themselves into the fabric. I will always look at my shawl and think of the interesting place this book took me.

An intelligent and thoughtful mystery, it was captivating. Thank you Ms. Penny for again for providing such a wonderful story.

Although Mr. Cosham does a great job of narration, I did get lost a few times in the scene transitions. The sentences ran together, and it took me a few seconds to realize the scene and characters were completely different from the previous sentence. Adding a few seconds break between these transitions would have helped. This is only a minor stumble to an otherwise fabulous narration.

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48 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Great Art Deserves a Great Story

Since I'm on a roll with these Gamache novels and it appears few people are reading my reviews on the series, Im going to take a risk and ramble...

I wonder if Louise Penny identifies most with Claire, the talented artist whose genius is discovered in the 25 th year of her marriage? Claire's husband Peter had been the successful artist and bread winner until this point. Suddenly she is viewed as the real talent and Peter struggles mightily over it. I'd bet Penny encountered the same issues when her first novel sold.

AA figures prominently in the story. Several suspects and the victim are intimately involved with the 12 step program. At first, all of the police team including Gamache view the program suspiciously as a cult. Most of the team ever grows to trust it's membership. Like her other novels, Penny uses the humility and wisdom of Gamache to seek out the deeper meaning in key relationships between the suspects.

The art world, and I assume the literary world is exposed as petty, immature and stifling.

Words can destroy lives, sticks and stones just break bones.

The mystery was secondary to the story itself.

Ralph Cosham is a brilliant narrator.

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43 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Where is Louise Penny going with these?

Oh no, no, no, Louise Penny. Before all you Louise Penny fans kill me, let me say I have loved this series since it first came out and preordered a hardbound copy back in May. Bought the audio book the day it was made available. Louise is exceptional in her ability to bring the reader into the scene. You can taste the food, see the location, and smell the environment. She still has that ability in this novel and I was transported to Three Pines once again. BUT where is she going with her characters? I am so unhappy with the direction she is taking the main characters that I'm not sure I have a desire to buy or listen to her next book. Felt like we were ending up a soap opera . . . will little Billy kick his drug habit or sabotage his mentor in the process, will Jane take Dick back, did Spot come home - is that spot there? I think she was trying to create a cliff-hanging ending that would draw us back; but, to me, all she did was trivialize her characters.

As always, Ralph Cosham did an outstanding job of narration!

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32 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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I just enjoy going back to Three Pines

A comfortable place, good friends, good food, a great book (being read to while knitting), a hot milky drink, a little perfectly pronounced French thrown in. Ah, Bliss... Ms Penny and Mr Cosham just keep raising the bar. Very difficult to stop and go to bed. I loved this book! (but A Case Against Murder is still the favorite of the series). Sit back and enjoy the experience.

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28 people found this helpful

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Wonderful as always

It's like stopping in at Olivier and Gabri's bistro on a chill winter evening for something warm and delicious. These characters are by now my old friends, and yet the books have too much depth, are too intelligently written to be considered a Cosy. Each book reveals more layers to the people of Three Pines, as well as Inspector Gamache, Jean-guy and the rest. And I don't think I would ever be able to read Louise Penny's books as long as I can listen to the wonderful Ralph Cosham narrate, since he IS Inspector Gamache!

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not quite the best yet...

I love this series and adore the narrator. All of the Inspector Gamache novels have a touch of the fabulous (in all three senses of the word: extraordinary, amazingly good, and mythical) but this particular novel strained credulity in a different--and not so wonderful--way.

It was Gamache's nearly total ignorance of the way Alcoholics Anonymous works that bothered me the most. I find it hard to believe that a career policeman would not have had multiple contacts with AA. I rather felt like the author had just discovered AA and wanted to make sure we readers learned all about it. It made me impatient.

I believe I would have preferred an approach such as this: "Gamache was well aware of the challenges facing AA members, having tried and failed many years ago to persuade a friend and colleague to attend one of the many meetings held weekly in Quebec. His failure pained him deeply, as his friend's impaired judgment had fatal consequences one frigid night after the two policemen had left a local bistro where much too much whiskey had been consumed."

Then we could have got on with the story, knowing that Gamache and the readers were on the same page. Occasional references to AA policies and procedures could then be sprinkled in without the pedantic and somewhat tedious recitations that slowed the story considerably.

But! I love this series and adore the narrator! I can hardly wait for the next book!

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Wonderful detective novel!

I'm again listening to four Gamache series novels by Louise Penny that I have not previously reviewed. It is no surprise that A TRICK OF THE LIGHT has earned a 4.7 star average rating. Ralph Cosham, who died several years ago, narrates beautifully. Fans of the modern detective genre are guaranteed to love this series.

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11 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Just Keeps Getting Better

Louise Penny has developed a series and a set of characters that keep on becoming deeper, more interesting, more compelling. And Ralph Cosham does a masterful job of conveying these characters and their foibles. I've listened to or read each book in the Inspector Gamache series, and have enjoyed each one more than the one before. The Quebec setting, the plot lines, and again, the characters, are all so real, and their dramas are all intriguing. Love this series, this author and this reader!!!!

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Best in the 3 Pines Series

Just when you thought the series could not get better, it does! Start with Still Life and continue through this book.

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