WPLongform

Is evil born or nurtured?

A Good Reed Review Book Review , , , ,

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 →

Comfortable in our own skin

A Good Reed Review Commentary & Pubs , , ,

By Ande Jacobson

Everyone should be able to be comfortable in their own skin. They shouldn’t have to justify who they are. They should just be able to be. They should be free to live their life without fear because of who they are, or what they look like. As I’ve written many times before, humans, all of us, are a single species. We all have the same basic needs for clean air, safe food and water, shelter, clothing, companionship, and in the modern world, transportation, education, health care, and so much more. Today in the U.S., we have a federal government working hard to turn us against one another. It is working to make us hate one another for myriad superficial reasons. It is working to make us afraid to leave our homes, to express our views, and in far too many cases, to even exist. It is pulling at visceral emotions to make us fear one another when we should instead be supporting each other. Continue reading →

Confessions may sometimes mislead

A Good Reed Review Book Review , , , , ,

By Ande Jacobson

Confession is the third book in Michael Cordell’s Contempt series, and it’s a page-turner. Released at the beginning of August 2025, readers again join Thane Banning on a controversial case. Thane is a criminal attorney with a past. Having been framed and imprisoned for a murder he didn’t commit, he’s still struggling since his release to cope with what that did to him. He’s taken on some difficult cases in the past and won even when the odds were against him, although his methods weren’t always quite by the book. He’s trying desperately to change that though not just for himself, but for his wife Hannah, and their as yet unborn child. He wants to get back to being the man he was before his confinement. This time, Thane takes on a client who is accused of killing a popular football coach with a winning record at a notable local university. The biggest problem is that she confessed to the crime, so Thane and his team are starting from a huge disadvantage. Thane’s team includes:

  • Kristin Peterson – a new, young attorney who is learning the ropes and has an eye toward righting wrongs.
  • Gideon Spence – originally a friend from Thane’s time in prison who is now part enforcer, part private investigator, and all parts loyal friend.
  • Letitia – receptionist and office manager extraordinaire.

Continue reading →

The line between guests and residents can be a fractious one

A Good Reed Review Book Review , , , ,

By Ande Jacobson

The second book in Tess Gerritsen’s Martini Club series, The Summer Guests, again returns to Purity, Maine. Maggie Bird, Declan Rose, Ben Diamond, and Ingrid and Lloyd Slocum are again involved in solving not just one crime, but also an old one that took place decades ago in the secluded hamlet they now call home. The five members of the Martini Club are ex-CIA operatives who were just looking for a quiet retirement, but while spies can leave active duty, they can’t turn off their zest for solving the puzzles that come their way. This time, Maggie rounds up the club when her friend and neighbor, Luther Yount, is arrested for something he didn’t do. Continue reading →

Gerrymandering is cheating

A Good Reed Review Commentary & Pubs , , ,

By Ande Jacobson

Gerrymandering is a practice that has a long history in the U.S., and no matter who’s doing it, it’s cheating by taking away the voices of the electorate and predetermining an outcome based on partisanship. In practice, it’s done by drawing electoral district boundaries to serve the party doing the drawing by silencing the voices of any opposition through packing or cracking any voting blocks in the party’s favor. Packing entails grouping large blocks of opposition voters together even if they wouldn’t normally be in single district to limit how many districts they can control. Cracking entails breaking up opposition party blocks across districts and separating them further to dilute their votes. In short, gerrymandering is a method of voter suppression and election fraud that’s unfortunately legal but completely unethical. While electoral districts should be effectively a grid based on population density, instead, gerrymandered districts tend to resemble abstract art. Both major parties have engaged in various levels of the practice over the years, and it stems from serious corruption and an inability to compete fairly in an election. Continue reading →

Blind spots can be challenging

A Good Reed Review Book Review , , , ,

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. Continue reading →

Public education and common knowledge

A Good Reed Review Commentary & Pubs , ,

By Ande Jacobson

I was lucky. I grew up in a time when public education was thriving. There were still some differences depending upon where one lived. Still, everyone had access to public education for K-12, and public colleges and universities were affordable. At that time, the federal government covered about 80% of the public education costs while states, students, and other private funding covered the remaining 20%. Beyond the minimal costs, I lived in a state that had an excellent public education system at the time. There were general requirements that ensured that graduates had a core of knowledge that allowed them to be productive citizens. Beyond fundamental math, reading, and writing skills, high school graduates had a basic understanding of how our government was structured and functioned, and at least a passing familiarity with our nation’s history, the good and the bad. That gave them the basic skills necessary to pursue employment, to vote responsibly, and if desired, to pursue higher education. Continue reading →

We all have to be our kind

A Good Reed Review Commentary & Pubs , , ,

By Ande Jacobson

I was thinking back to a show years ago when I moved from the pit to the cast as an actor. I wrote about my experience of climbing out of the pit in a commentary piece a few months after the show closed as I prepared to jump back into the pit in another production. Being an actor rather than a musician for that production was memorable in so many ways. Overall it was a good experience to move to a new perspective and role. As I think back on that, one preshow conversation keeps coming to mind in a completely different light than it shed at the time. The theater company that put on the show had a long standing tradition of holding a company call before each performance. It happened after the house was open, the audience was milling about the lobby and the auditorium, and the performers had hopefully completed their final preparations to begin the performance. The entire company was invited to meet just outside of the stage left entrance. Announcements were made. Awards were sometimes given. Hugs were shared. Questions were answered. And it was a pleasant time for the company to come together as a whole before getting to places for curtain. Continue reading →

Making it appear that all is lost

A Good Reed Review Book Review , , , ,

By Ande Jacobson

Glass Houses, is the thirteenth mystery novel in Louise Penny’s Gamache series. As in the previous book, this one picks up where its predecessor left off, this time with Armand Gamache taking the position of Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté du Québec. Having cleaned out the service and the academy of the former deep-seated corruption, he now faces the reality that the service is fighting what seems an unwinnable battle against the drug trade. Canada had become the entry point for drugs flowing from Europe, Asia, and parts beyond so proficiently that there isn’t an obvious way to stop them. Those drugs then blanket both Canada and the U.S. causing death and destruction in their wake. Given this dire situation, Armand, with his second-in-command and son-in-law Jean-Guy Beauvoir, create a committee of the most trusted heads of Sûreté departments including Chief Inspector Isabelle Lacoste, the agent who rose to replace Armand when he retired earlier, and Superintendent Madeleine Toussaint among others to address this in a way that promises serious consequences whether or not they are successful. Armand also enlists the chief prosecutor for the province, Barry Zalmanowitz, in his complex plan. At the same time, Armand is a key prosecution witness in a contentious murder trial. The presiding judge, Judge Maureen Corriveau, suspects something is amiss in the trial early on, but it takes time for the depth of the scheme to fully come to light. Part of Armand’s plan necessitated him making it seem like the Sûreté was completely inept to give those they were pursuing a false sense of security. The danger of course puts many innocents in grave danger. At what point are sacrifices for the greater good too great? Continue reading →