Another solid entry in the Inspector Gamache universe. Really taking time to add layers to some of our main characters, which I really enjoy. I did think it would almost be a locked door/locked inn mystery but we had to go back to Three Pines I suppose. Also despite the murder, I very much want to stay at this inn. A ... interesting take on

raising a kid without gender, but the motivations were seriously twisted. But I guess even presenting it as an option was more than I thought about in 2007.

Another thing -

they keep hinting at things like "What is up with Peter, he definitely has the temperament to be a murderer," and I don't not agree. 👀 What. Is. Going. To. Happen. Many books left to see!!!

 The setting for this book - a luxury hotel in the middle of the countryside - left me wanting to go there (sans murder, of course). The food - oh my goodness, the food! Not to mention the attentive staff, library, luxurious beds... But it was nice to return to Three Pines now and again too.
As usual in these books (so far at least), the characters drive the story, and there's a great cast of them here. As well as Gamache and his team, there's the complicated (and frankly weird) family at the centre of the murder mystery, the staff of the hotel, and the now familiar residents of Three Pines. The author throws in several nice red herrings, and there's some more backstory about Inspector Gamache's family and his relationship with Jean-Guy Beauvoir, which I enjoyed.
I found the denouement of this story a little less satisfactory than that of the previous books, but still a book I would thoroughly recommend.