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4 new foreign mysteries to give you chills this Halloween

Craving a mystery from beyond our borders? Here are four great new mysteries from all over the world.

4. 'The Beautiful Mystery,' by Louise Penny

  • By Randy Dotinga

The Place: The monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, Quebec
The Time: Present day
The Victim: A monk, Frère Mathieu
The Detective: Chief Inspector Armand Gamache
 
No one from the outside is supposed to visit a monastery (whose name translates to "Saint Gilbert Among the Wolves") tucked away in the wilderness of Quebec. The monks are not to be seen, but they are to be heard: Their chanting, of words believed to be sent directly from God, is world-renowned.

Even one of the detectives who knocks on the door of the monastery is a fan of its music. But he's not there to get an autograph. A monk – the choir director – is dead by the hand of another in a room that seems to have been accessible to no one. The monks, freed from their vows of silence, betray a monastery with issues.

Penny, the author, meets the challenge of setting a death in an utterly exotic location and then making the mystery and investigation just as enthralling. Never mind the side plot, a romance between the detective and his boss's daughter that seems too perfect to believe. This is mystery writing at its best, a novel in which everything – the crime, the characters, the setting, the plot – pulls the reader to the final pages.

(Check out a clip of the audiobook here.)

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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