I don't think I can praise this series enough. As an overall, continuing story, Penny has created characters to both know and love. All the things I've come to find to be Penny's best points (the creation of art and some history of Québec and Canada) are absent from this book—at least in their typical role—and yet, this was an outstanding book. Intelligently written, How the Light Gets In builds to such an amazing crescendo that I found myself, in the last 20%, to be simultaneously on the edge of my seat and on the verge of tears.

The forward motion of the newest murder and corresponding plot is intriguing, but the hardest punch comes from all that has been building since the beginning of this series: the Arnot case. Up to a fevered pitch the story climbs, and with Penny's beautiful writing leading the way, I don't know how she can top this one.

The climb is perfection in timing, reveal, and atmosphere. Never have you seen Gamache so vulnerable and so calculating, so alone and yet still such a leader. Penny elevates the typical mystery genre with every story, but here she reaches epic proportions. I absolutely adored this ending, and as the story unfolded, it was one of those where all you want to do, as the reader, is climb into the pages and help the people you've come to know so well. Here, let me help. I know more than you do...please stop. Please wait. Please listen. Please.

I am utterly committed to these books, these people.