- this edition made available by my local library
- large print edition from Thorndike Press, published 2020
- ISBN- 13: 978-1-4328-8115-3
- 665 pages
- 16th novel in the Gamache series
- author website
Synopsis (publisher)
On their first night in Paris, the Gamaches gather as a family for a bistro dinner with Armand's godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz. Walking home together after the meal, they watch in horror as Stephen is knocked down and critically injured in what Gamache knows is no accident, but a deliberate attempt on the elderly man's life.
When a strange key is found in Stephen's possession it sends Armand, his wife Reine-Marie, and his former second-in-command at the Sûreté, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, from the top of the Tour Eiffel, to the bowels of the Paris Archives, from luxury hotels to odd, coded, works of art.
It sends them deep into the secrets Armand's godfather has kept for decades.
A gruesome discovery in Stephen's Paris apartment makes it clear the secrets are more rancid, the danger far greater and more imminent, than they realized.
Soon the whole family is caught up in a web of lies and deceit. In order to find the truth, Gamache will have to decide whether he can trust his friends, his colleagues, his instincts, his own past. His own family.
For even the City of Light casts long shadows. And in that darkness devils hide.
My Take
It is four years since I've caught up with reading Louise Penny and I'm chiding myself with being so tardy. You know how good it is to catch up with old friends, and I feel like that about the Gamache novels. Louise Penny's writing slips down like silk.
There is a lot going on in this novel. Armande's daughter Annie is about to have a baby, and we also catch up with his son Daniel.
The central plot point is the hit and run incident when Armande's godfather Stephen is run down by a passing van as they are crossing the road after a night out. This sparks an investigation into Stephen's life, looking for what someone may have against him.
The story just flows. There are challenges to the idea that Stephen is an honourable man, about how Armande's son in law Jean_Guy, Annie's husband, actually got his job, and why Daniel is so hostile to his father. Once the story gets you hooked you read as quickly as you can to solve the mysteries you are being set.
Delicious!
My rating: 5.0
I've also read
4.8, THE CRUELLEST MONTH
4.9, A RULE AGAINST MURDER
4.9, THE BRUTAL TELLING
5.0, BURY YOUR DEAD
5.0, A TRICK OF THE LIGHT
4.5, THE HANGMAN - a novella
4.9, THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY
5.0, HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN
4.9, THE LONG WAY HOME
4.9, THE NATURE OF THE BEAST
5.0, A GREAT RECKONING
4.9, GLASS HOUSES
5.0, KINGDOM OF THE BLIND - #14
4.9, A BETTER MAN - #15
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