A World of Curiosities

By Louise Penny. (Minotaur Books, 384 pages, $29.99.)

Heartwarming and heartbreaking. Love found and love lost. Evil and good. Crime and punishment. Family and foes.

Have we really been through 18 books in the stellar Armand Gamache series?

Canadian author Louise Penny reaches a crescendo with her latest tale from Three Pines, a wondrous hamlet outside Montreal. All of the quirky characters are back, plus a few new faces that bring a dark dimension to the ensemble.

Chief Inspector Gamache and his wife, Reine-Marie, are the heartbeat of the village. Years before, Armand rescued a young girl and boy from an abusive life. Armand befriended the girl, but shunned the brother, in whom he saw a brooding cruelty.

After many years, the siblings reappear. Armand is thrilled to see the girl, but he's shaken by the brother's reappearance.

Meanwhile, a letter from a dead stonemason has been sent, referring to a hidden room in an attic. What is inside shakes the townsfolk to the core: a painting, morbid and detailed, containing clues to stories none of them care to acknowledge. And a book of spells.

Gamache sets off with his eclectic team to hunt down the painter — and the answers to the riddles it holds.

The trail leads to a despicable mass killer whom Gamache prosecuted and delivered to a maximum-security prison years before. Has he escaped, or is he performing monstrous miracles from prison?

Don't be afraid to dive into Penny's latest installment if you haven't read the previous books. You will get hooked, and eventually you will devour those stories, too.

Ginny Greene is a Star Tribune copy editor.