Blind spots can be challenging

By Ande Jacobson

Kingdom of the Blind is the fourteenth mystery novel in Louise Penny’s Gamache series and like its predecessor picks up where the previous story left off. Armand Gamache is on suspension after a tenuous but mostly successful gambit to address the drug problem plaguing Canada (and the U.S.). Because of the actions he took, there are serious consequences in the making, but they haven’t hit just yet, so Armand is officially in limbo. He made a lot of political enemies while he was Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté du Québec. While Isabelle Lacoste is also on leave still recovering from her almost fatal injuries from the last project, Armand’s son-in-law, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, is the acting head of Homicide. Superintendent Madeleine Toussaint has been promoted to acting Chief Superintendent. Despite all of that, Armand unofficially still has work to do. He’s determined to find the missing drugs that his team couldn’t recover over the course of events that ended with his suspension, and he uses some rather unorthodox methods to go about doing so. Much of his plan is only known to himself and one other person who is neither Isabelle nor Jean-Guy frustrating the two of them given their close relationships with Armand.

Penny brings readers to the seediest parts of Montreal, the place where people hit rock bottom as addicts, prostitutes, and worse. In the mix, readers reencounter Amelia Choquet, a former Sûreté Academy cadet who Armand has expelled, though there is more than meets the eye to that part of the story. Even in this desperate and dangerous environment, Armand’s humanity comes to light. He sees these damaged individuals as people and desperately wants to help them before it’s too late. His deeper quest is to recover a horrific new drug that is a much stronger version of Fentanyl before it blankets the streets and takes more victims. If he’s unsuccessful and that new drug is distributed, drug deaths would dramatically increase, and all of the work that his team had done would be for naught. He can’t let that happen, but all of this is secondary to the main story which of course surrounds a murder, a will, and some new characters. Armand and Myrna Landers are drawn in for reasons that are at first a complete mystery.

Armand and Myrna receive letters to attend the reading of a will of a recently deceased woman (Bertha Baumgartner) who called herself the Baroness. There’s quite a backstory that unfolds regarding her title. Neither Armand nor Myrna have any clue why they’d be summoned, and it gets even stranger from there. It turns out that they along with a young man named Benedict Pouliot whom neither they nor the family have ever met are all summoned. Armand, Myrna, and Benedict first meet with the notary at Bertha’s old farmhouse in the middle of a blizzard making it all the more treacherous. The farmhouse looks as though it should be condemned. The notary, Lucien Mercier, is the son of the Baroness’ notary who had taken over when his father died. So Armand, Myrna, Benedict, and even Lucien all seem out of place. Lucien informs them that they have been selected as liquidators. It’s quite the adventure to get to the reading of the will. Eventually they meet Anthony, Caroline, and Hugo Baumgartner, Bertha’s three very successful adult children who are dismayed that they aren’t the liquidators, but they eventually get past that.

That’s not the most interesting aspect though. Sometime later, Armand, Myrna, and Jean-Guy return to the farmhouse to find it partially collapsed, and after a harrowing encounter, they rescue Benedict from under the debris. They also discover that there’s another body there which turns out to be Anthony Baumgartner, the eldest sibling. So begins the murder mystery portion of the story. It gets very convoluted of course, and Armand, though investigating unofficially because of his suspension, is invaluable in solving the crime.

On top of all of this, Jean-Guy is torn between protecting Armand in the investigation into his activities, and saving himself. It’s clear that this is a political situation that makes Jean-Guy extremely uncomfortable.

And finally, back home in Three Pines, it’s time for the winter carnival that Olivier Bruhlé, Gabri Dubeau, and Clara Morrow run. That part of the story feels more like comic relief compared to the darker arcs, but it all blends together well. Readers would miss the villagers if they didn’t have a part to play, and as such, inner motivations and thoughts come to light as they always do. Benedict makes an impression on the villagers, and it’s clear there is more to the young man than what he appears to be.

Village regulars Ruth Zardo, her duck Rosa, and Armand’s wife Reine-Marie Gamache also chime in from time to time.

The resolution to all of the mysteries save one become clear as events grow to a stunning climax. It’s clear that Armand had made some powerful political enemies while he ran the Sûreté, and that’s going to haunt him for some time, though that’s not the unresolved piece of the story. That’s been his lot in life, bringing to mind the adage that you can’t please all of the people all of the time. Armand does what he knows is right, even if it comes at a cost sometimes. Those close to him appreciate his dedication, but the politically ambitious are more concerned with optics, something that Armand prefers to ignore, often to his peril. Even so, his thoughtfulness comes through all of the story arcs, further endearing him to those close to him. Armand always walks the walk, even when it’s uncomfortable. He truly lives by his humble guiding principles of leadership even when his leadership is unofficial. Those principles are encapsulated by statements that he always impresses upon his mentees:

“I don’t know,”
“I need help,”
“I’m sorry,”
“I was wrong.”

And at the end one character, Amelia Choquet, while battered, bruised, and almost fatally wounded during her quest will certainly return again. In what capacity remains a mystery for now, though we can suspect where she might land.