Gamache series

What happens when the water runs out?

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By Ande Jacobson

“What happens when the water runs out” is a key question asked in The Black Wolf, the twentieth (and currently the latest) mystery novel in Louise Penny’s Gamache series. Penny wrote the book in 2024 and finished writing before the U.S. election that year though the book wasn’t released until October 2025. Surprisingly, the story mirrors the 2025 reality in startling and disturbing ways. It’s almost as though Penny was clairvoyant picking up immediately after the crisis solved in The Grey Wolf. Her cliffhanger stated outright that there was more to the crisis than they thought. What Armand Gamache didn’t know in leading his Sûreté du Québec Homicide division team was that they faced a crisis of international proportions borne of government corruption and environmental changes on a scale they couldn’t imagine. He’d kept that last case close to only himself and his seconds, Jean-Guy Beauvoir and Isabelle Lacoste, the only fully trusted members of his team. This time he continues this, but even with them, he holds back some key components he’s able to put together along the way. The previous book dealt with a plot to poison the Montréal metro area’s water supply. This one asks the question of what happens when the water runs out? Continue reading →

The hidden threat may be worse than the known threat

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By Ande Jacobson

The Grey Wolf is the nineteenth mystery novel in Louise Penny’s Gamache series. This one is a little different than some earlier in the series in that it’s really part one of a two-part story that completes in The Black Wolf. That’s not to say that the story isn’t a complete one on its own because it is, but the hook into the next book after the current case is resolved is more direct than Penny usually provides. Armand Gamache leads his Sûreté du Québec Homicide division team on a case that poses an immediate threat of monstrous proportions. The bigger problem for Armand is that he doesn’t know who he can trust, so he keeps the details tight only known to a very small, fully trusted cadre of himself, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and Isabelle Lacoste, i.e., he and his co-deputies. As often happens with Armand, he’s approached by someone with a secret that isn’t fully shared, but peaks his interest. Before the source, a young biologist with a history of drug use, can fully share, he’s killed by a car right in front of Armand almost taking Armand with him. The case then gets even more frustrating and urgent bringing back some contacts from the past including the Abbot from the remote monastery, Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups. There are also some unexpected relationships that are slowly revealed. Continue reading →

Is evil born or nurtured?

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By Ande Jacobson

A World of Curiosities is the eighteenth mystery novel in Louise Penny’s Gamache series. Armand Gamache, his wife Reine-Marie, their children, grandchildren, Armand’s godfather Stephen Horowitz, his second-in-command and son-in-law Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and the rest of the Three Pines regulars are back. Armand has his hands full this time with old and new murders sending his Sûreté du Québec Homicide division on the trail again. There is a good bit of history in this installment, both Canadian history as well as Armand and Jean-Guy’s personal history, specifically the case that first brought them together in this life. That history concerns not only their relationship but also bears heavily on the current cases at hand. An old nemesis also returns for a disturbing confrontation that strikes deeply and disrupts Armand’s internal fortitude. Forgiveness, human nature, and revenge all come into play as the plot thickens. Continue reading →

Should we have a right or a duty to die?

A Good Reed Review Book Review , , , ,

By Ande Jacobson

The Madness of Crowds is the seventeenth mystery novel in Louise Penny’s Gamache series. Armand Gamache, his wife Reine-Marie, and their children, grandchildren, and Armand’s godfather, Stephen Horowitz are all back in Three Pines. Armand is hard at work as the Chief Inspector of the Homicide division at the Sûreté du Québec, and his son-in-law, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, is his co-second as he readjusts to being back in the thick of things. This time, Penny tackles an extremely controversial subject coming out of the pandemic, the subject of euthanasia, but from an unexpected direction. At the end of the previous installment, Annie and Jean-Guy welcomed their second child into the world, a daughter they named Idola. Theirs was an informed choice to complete the pregnancy even though they found out early on that their child had Down Syndrome. They could have aborted the fetus, but instead chose to bring their daughter into the world, to love her, to care for her, and give her the best life they possibly could. Dark forces are amassing though, and their world is rocked by controversy. In the story, a famed statistics professor, Abigail Robinson, had recently released a report from the pandemic that suggested that resources were limited, and that it would be better for society if people who were old or infirm weren’t necessarily given life extending treatments and were instead allowed to die. More to the point, that for the good of society, she posited that they essentially had a duty to die. That of course hits very close to home for Armand and company, and especially for Jean-Guy and Annie. Continue reading →

Armand is always an investigator

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By Ande Jacobson

All the Devils Are Here is the sixteenth mystery novel in Louise Penny’s Gamache series. It starts out serving as a break from the usual Three Pines/Québec storylines moving instead to Paris, France. Armand Gamache and his wife Reine-Marie are taking a short vacation from his heading the Homicide division at the Sûreté du Québec visiting their children and grandchildren. Their daughter, Annie, and son-in-law, Jean-Guy Beauvoir are soon expecting the birth of their second child. Jean-Guy has recently started his job in the private sector after leaving the Sûreté. Unfortunately for Armand and Reine-Marie, Jean-Guy’s new job is in Paris, so both of their children and all of their grandchildren are across the pond. At least it gives them a nice place to visit for important occasions. Continue reading →

What would Armand Gamache do?

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By Ande Jacobson

A Better Man is the fifteenth mystery novel in Louise Penny’s Gamache series. This time Armand Gamache is back at the Sûreté du Québec in his old job as the Chief Inspector of the Homicide division, a job he temporarily shares with his former second-in-command (and son-in-law) Jean-Guy Beauvoir. He’s made a lot of enemies both in the Sûreté leadership and in the government, although he also has a few well-placed friends. He’s being attacked by the press, by social media, and while it would be far easier for him to just retire after all of the turmoil he’s endured, his sense of duty and honor will not let him do that. To make matters worse, the province is facing a spring catastrophe that brings with it both bad press and life-threatening danger. In all of this, Armand is pulled into a search that quickly becomes a murder investigation that tugs at him personally. It’s not that he’s well-acquainted with the victim, but he is emotionally torn by those surrounding her including her distraught father, an abusive husband, and circumstances that are murky at best. Continue reading →

What happened to Peter Morrow?

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By Ande Jacobson

After How the Light Gets In, the tenth mystery novel in Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Armand Gamache (of the Sûreté du Québec) series, The Long Way Home, is truly a palate cleanser as a literary friend recently noted. First released in 2014, this book picks up where the previous book left off and resolves the remaining story arc surrounding Clara and Peter Morrow’s marriage that had been in limbo. Clara had sent Peter away with the understanding that he would return in a year for them to reevaluate whether they could save their marriage or go their separate ways. Clara remained in Three Pines, and Peter went to parts unknown. A bit over a year later, he still hasn’t returned, and Clara is concerned. Now that Armand Gamache is happily retired and starting to delve into the ghosts of his own past while living peacefully in Three Pines, Clara approaches him with her concerns, and the new mystery begins to unfold. Continue reading →

Facts vs. Faith

A Good Reed Review Book Review , , ,

By Ande Jacobson

The Beautiful Mystery is the eighth full-length mystery novel in Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Armand Gamache (of the Sûreté du Québec) series, and was first released in 2012. This book is different than most of those before it in the series in that the story doesn’t take place in Three Pines. Evidently the murder capital of Québec took a break, and Armand and his second in command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, head to the wilderness to a remote monastery forgotten by the church and by society until recently. The Gilbertine order, named for Gilbert of Sempringham, was thought to be extinguished or disbanded during the Inquisition, but instead they merely fled Europe for a remote part of Canada where they built the last remaining monastery to continue their brotherhood. The monastery, named Saint-Gilbert-Entre-Les-Loups, garners Armand’s attention when a monk is found dead, presumably murdered, in the abbot’s garden one morning after Lauds. So begins the adventure. Continue reading →

History, mystery, and beyond

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By Ande Jacobson

Bury Your Dead is the sixth book in Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Armand Gamache (of the Sûreté du Québec) series, first released in 2010. This time, there are three separate, yet strangely related cases at hand. One is a case that happened between books and has caused Armand’s team serious harm. The details in the aftermath seep out throughout the book, bringing to light more of Armand’s and Jean-Guy’s inner fears and strengths. One is the case from the previous book, The Brutal Telling. Armand, never satisfied with the outcome of their last Three Pines murder asks Jean-Guy to return to Three Pines to re-investigate quietly to see what they might have missed. The third and primary case is a new mystery that brings into question aspects of Canadian history. Penny did a great deal of research for the main story this time delving much deeper into her nation’s history and various assumptions about the clashes between the Francophones and Anglophones who live side-by-side in Québec. Continue reading →