A Better Man

Starred review from June 10, 2019
Bestseller Penny’s wrenching 15th novel featuring Chief Insp. Armand Gamache (after 2018’s Kingdom of the Blind) finds Gamache, former chief superintendent of the Sûreté du Québec, returning to work after a nine-month suspension and demotion, and reporting to his own his son-in-law and one-time protégé, Jean-Guy Beauvoir. When the body of Vivienne Godin, 25 and pregnant, is found in a river near Three Pines, trapped in the debris of a violent spring flood, Gamache and Beauvoir are sure that she was killed by her drunken, abusive, supremely unlikable husband, Carl Tracey. But knowing who did it and proving it are two different things. After an exhaustive investigation, the detectives build a convincing circumstantial case against Tracey. But a shocking twist forces Gamache to look at the evidence anew. With an uncompromising eye, Penny explores the depths of human emotion, both horrifying and sublime. Her love for her characters and for the mystical village of Three Pines is apparent on every page. Agent: Teresa Chris, Teresa Chris Literary.

Starred review from June 1, 2019
Agreeing to a demotion from chief superintendent of the S�ret� du Qu�bec, Armand Gamache has returned to his old job as head of homicide, but that's not enough for some of his critics, who launch a vicious Twitter attack against the former chief. Meanwhile, once-in-a-century flooding threatens both the city of Montreal and the entire province, and the new superintendent is loath to take Gamache's advice on how to proceed. There's trouble at home, too, in the idyllic village of Three Pines, where artist Clara's series of miniature paintings is being savaged by critics. And, yes, there is also a murder, this time of a pregnant woman who appears to have been thrown off a bridge by her abusive husband. When the husband is cleared of the crime on a technicality, Gamache and his son-in-law, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, both fathers of daughters, and their colleague Isabelle Lacoste must confront their own rage against the system and the abuser, who has slipped through their grasp. With a line from Moby-Dick reverberating in Gamache's mind?"All truth with malice in it"?the three investigators look beyond the surface to the "subtle demons of life and thought." The appeal of this series and especially of Gamache himself has always been Penny's ability to show her hero moving from the tangible, brutal facts of murder to the emotions within, the stories in the blood. There are multiple stories, often contradictory, to be found in the many-tentacled web of human tragedy and suffering that Gamache teases to the surface in this moving exploration of ties that both bind and destroy.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The buzz has begun months in advance for the book that will be on every mystery fan's late-summer must-read list.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2019

In Kingdom of the Blind, Chief Inspector Gamache's previous outing, Penny seemed to be pointing her top characters in new directions. No plot details yet, but I for one can't wait to see what happens here. From the CWA Dagger and six-time Agatha Award winner.

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