When the residents realized which house and attic the letter was referring to they unanimously decided to take down the brick wall. It is now on display, with the strombus shell in an enamelled mount, as part of the Norwich Castle Museum Collection. In the following years Gamache and his wife Reine-Marie take Fiona under their wings, and make her feel like part of their family in Three Pines.

Penny had told her publishers that, after releasing two books in 2021, she would not release one in 2022.

He charges into the fray, in this book going hand to hand with a whole family of terrifying villains. But the “world of curiosities” that’s found sealed inside that hidden room next to Myrna’s loft is more menacing than what’s entombed in Poe’s infamous wine cellar. As Gamache’s worries increase, he attempts to keep his family safe and narrows down a pool of men who could be Fleming in disguise.

The murder of Clothilde Arsenault is the tragic case that first brings together Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir, leaving both marked by the evil horrors of the house where the victim's young children, Fiona and Sam, have been left so severely damaged and traumatised that it is unlikely they will ever be able recover.The misogyny that fueled that real-life massacre is also a factor in some of the more supernatural elements in “A World of Curiosities. I love reading novels where a specific painting, either real or invented, features – especially when we’re given a detailed description of it. These two were children when their mother was brutally murdered, which was only the tip of the iceberg.