The GREY WOLF
Louise Penny
Synopsis
Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Though the tiny Québec village is impossible to find on any map, someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sûreté, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he finally answers, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning.
That’s only the first in a sequence of strange events that begin The Grey Wolf, the nineteenth novel in Louise Penny’s #1 New York Times bestselling series. A missing coat, an intruder alarm, a note for Gamache reading “This might interest you,” a puzzling scrap of paper with a mysterious list—and then a murder. All propel Chief Inspector Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization. Something much more sinister than any one murder or any one case is fast approaching.
Armand Gamache; Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his son-in-law and second-in-command; and Inspector Isabelle Lacoste can only trust each other, as old friends begin to act like enemies, and long-time enemies appear to be friends. Determined to track down the threat before it becomes a reality, their pursuit takes them across Québec and across borders. Their hunt grows increasingly desperate, even frantic, as the enormity of the creature they’re chasing becomes clear. If they fail, the devastating consequences would reach into the largest of cities and the smallest of villages.
Richard says
Louise Penny is the Donna Leon of Canada, Quebec to be exact. She writes mystery thrillers with a lead, Armand Gamache of the Quebec police, the Surete; same idea as Inspector Brunetti of Leon fame.
Penny also does local tourism scenes, Quebec townships the setting much like Leon does with Venice.
Penny’s plot deals with a believably plausible conspiracy to poison the water supply system of a large urban region. Her story takes many turns and twists as it charges along from monastery scenes to wilderness lakes in Quebec. Inspector Gamache leads his crew of detectives in the pursuit to uncover the plot after he suspects there is much more to the break and entry into his secondary home in Montreal where a jacket was stolen. When it is returned to him by parcel post, he discovers scrap pieces of paper with herb names in the jacket and his questioning all this opens the door to the large conspiracy.
Penny does a wonderful writing job making Gamache intriguing, professional as a detective and personable as a father, husband and pet owner in fictional township village of Three Pines. Penny takes readers on a roller coaster ride of suspense and intrigue as she develops and expands her story. It becomes an increasingly exciting read as Gamache slowly adds pieces of the plot puzzle together.
Once the climax is reached at the water treatment facility near Montreal, all the strings of the plot are pulled together to finish the story.
Penny’s book is first-rate for numerous reasons. Her characters are multidimensional with professional and personal facets to each making them come alive in the story. Her scenes are descriptively detailed right down to fireflies twinkling outside a study window. Her dialogues are a engaging mixture of French and English that brings life and colour to her characters. Her authenticity and details about monastic life with its isolation and asceticism give readers true insights into life in a monastery. Finally, her plot regarding the attack on a wide urban region is plausible and believable, made even more so by her polished writing incorporating details and facts based on reality.
If a criticism is warranted, Penny might be criticized for sometimes over doing things, too much detail, too much dialogue, too many names to remember. Minor quibbles such a good book really does not deserve.
An excellent book that will entertain readers more deeply than they expect.
