As I have now finished the 17th Gamache novel, I think it is clear that I am a fan. I think there is 20 with a new one due out soon.
Here’s the blurb …
You’re a coward.
Time and again, as the New Year approaches, that charge is leveled against Armand Gamache.
It starts innocently enough.
While the residents of the Québec village of Three Pines take advantage of the deep snow to ski and toboggan, to drink hot chocolate in the bistro and share meals together, the Chief Inspector finds his holiday with his family interrupted by a simple request.
He’s asked to provide security for what promises to be a non-event. A visiting Professor of Statistics will be giving a lecture at the nearby university.
While he is perplexed as to why the head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec would be assigned this task, it sounds easy enough. That is until Gamache starts looking into Professor Abigail Robinson and discovers an agenda so repulsive he begs the university to cancel the lecture.
They refuse, citing academic freedom, and accuse Gamache of censorship and intellectual cowardice. Before long, Professor Robinson’s views start seeping into conversations. Spreading and infecting. So that truth and fact, reality and delusion are so confused it’s near impossible to tell them apart.
Discussions become debates, debates become arguments, which turn into fights. As sides are declared, a madness takes hold.
Abigail Robinson promises that, if they follow her, ça va bien aller. All will be well. But not, Gamache and his team know, for everyone.
When a murder is committed it falls to Armand Gamache, his second-in-command Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and their team to investigate the crime as well as this extraordinary popular delusion.
And the madness of crowds.
This one was set just after the pandemic, which is the first one I can pin down in time. It takes a while to get to the murder, although there is an attempted murder and an almost riot before that. Once again, the delightful community of Three Pines is involved (there is even a joke made about the number of murders in Three Pines!). Reine-Marie has a bigger role in this one, which I enjoyed and I hope to see again. Jean-Guy struggles with his feelings about being the parent of a disabled child – a major plot point is mercy killings – removing the elderly and inform to leave more resources for everyone else).
It’s winter and Penny does a fabulous job of describing the bitter coldness, but also the joys of hot chocolate.