The Brutal Telling is the fifth episode in the Armand Gamache/Three Pines series. The series is set in the Eastern Townships region of rural Quebec, southeast of Montreal and just north of Vermont. Armand Gamache works for the Surete du Quebec, the provincial police force based in Montreal, and he often investigates crimes that occur in or around the remote village of Three Pines.

Three Pines is separated from mainstream civilization and surrounded by natural beauty. It's an inviting and idyllic paradise, with residents who know and care about one another. The trouble is that they seem to have more murders per capita than the number you would expect to find in a small town. I call this "The Cabot Cove Syndrome," illustrated by the Murder, She Wrote TV shows, where mystery writer Jessica Fletcher is constantly called in to solve a killing in her otherwise quiet harbor town in Maine.

Up until now, the victims and/or perpetrators of the Three Pines crimes have either been outsiders or fringe-dwelling characters that we haven't gotten to know too well. This time, the situation is different. A dead man is found in the popular bistro owned and run by Olivier Brule and Gabri Dubeau. Nobody seems to know this man, how he got there or where he came from. Except that right from the start, we readers understand that Olivier knows more than he's admitting: more than he's admitting to the authorities, to his partner Gabri and to his fellow residents. Perhaps even more than he's admitting to himself. How long will it take for Armand Gamache and his Surete team (including the detailed-oriented Isabelle Lacoste and the ever-amusing Jean Guy Beauvoir) to learn the truth about the man identified merely as "The Hermit"? And how long will it be before Olivier is forced to tell what he knows?

Louise Penny is adept at using the third-person point of view in order to weave her stories. She most often writes in third-person omniscient, which covers everyone and everything within sight. But sometimes the narratives narrow down to the views of specific characters, including Gamache, and here, Olivier Brule. As a result, we readers can be privy to information, emotions or scenes that remain unknown to the other characters. We're almost called upon to become participants in the investigations ourselves, because we are drawn into the mindsets of individuals with insider perspectives.

And in this story, especially, we'll all probably be rooting for and expecting a certain kind of outcome. Surely Louise wouldn't allow a trusted member of the Three Pines inner circle to turn out to be the culprit and the killer. Would she? Would she?

The first four episodes in this series can stand alone. You don't have to read them in order to understand the plots; although if you do, you'll have a more engaging, enlightening and addictive experience overall. But if you read The Brutal Telling, you'll want to quickly follow it up with its sequel, Bury Your Dead. Although "The Hermit" case gets solved here, it spills over into the next book, where it ends up as a strong secondary storyline to yet another murder. And quite frankly, from that point on, you will definitely want to read the rest of the books in order. You will be rewarded with recognizing the inside references and knowing the backstories of all of the characters. And you will no doubt come to consider the quirky residents of Three Pines to be comfortable companions that you get to hang out with for a while.