I was pretty sure who the murderer was, but the continual harassment of Gamache and his family had one surprise for me at the end. Whom can he trust among his team and his colleagues? This mystery was, for me, harder to solve than the murder of Madeleine Favreau in Three Pines. But besides the murder - which at first looks like something supernatural - Gamache is dealing with the continuing blowback from what we might call an Internal Affairs case that occurred before the first book in the series. Once again in The Cruelest Month, the almost-fairy-tale village of Three Pines is the setting for a murder case and Gamache and his team return to solve it. We hope it doesn’t scare you off from buying our future releases.Louise Penny’s books, set in Qubec, have such a sense of place that they could not be set in Ontario, British Columbia, or the Maritimes. Thank you for buying our first anthology.

Enjoy the stories, revel in the cruelty therein, and know your purchase is benefiting a deserving charity somewhere. We’re going to keep doing these anthologies, regardless of how big any of us get, and they’ll always be for the benefit of a charity (or charities). Right now, we’re a group of writers who all want to make it big. The proceeds from the anthology you’re reading are going to the author’s favorite charity. While we examined cruelty in our stories, we decided to stop there. Last, but certainly not least, Nick Davis gives us “Exposition,” a look at the zany and cruel ways writer’s block can manifest when a deadline looms (and passes). It’s a very real look at the subtle and not-so-subtle ways people are cruel to each other in relationships. Amanda Alamain’s “A Month Without That Dick” is next.

Next, you’ll read “Careful Wishing” by Victoria Durm, which takes the old maxim of “be careful what you wish for because you just might get it” and applies it to a pair of desperate children in an orphanage. Batting second is Nyckei Harris, with “Endless Summer,” a look at a gritty, parched, and (of course) cruel post-apocalyptic future. Ferguson, who investigates the violent murder of a young secretary at the behest of her older sister. The mystery story “Clerical Error” by Tom Fowler leads off the anthology. Thank you for looking and we hope you pick this novel up and enjoy the stories, and the cruelty within. The proceeds from this Creative Cafe Cabal Anthology novel - The Cruelest Month all go to benefit American Cancer Society.

The cruelest month book