Tag Archives: Armand Gamache

All The Devils Are Here by Louise Penny

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All The Devils Are Here by Louise Penny was published in 2020. I was amazed recently when I realised that I was three books behind with this Three Pines series, I don’t know how that happened.

This was a good read despite it being set mainly in Paris and Three Pines only featuring very briefly at the end. There are quite a few mentions of delicious French pastries though, no calories involved!

With the Gamache adult children now settled in Paris Armand and his wife Reine-Marie have travelled to visit them and Armand’s godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz. The family reunion meal ends in disaster though as Stephen is knocked down and badly injured as they leave the restaurant.

Gamache is sure that it wasn’t an accident and when the personal effects that Reine-Marie had picked up from the road after the accident also include a mysterious key, his investigation leads to him wondering if his godfather is really who he purported to be. Was he in the Resistance in Paris during the war – or was he a collaborator?

It’s just about impossible to sort out the baddies from the goodies, but I can’t really say too much more without mentioning possible spoilers – so I’ll leave it at that – apart from saying that at the end Three Pines does make a brief appearance. I so want to visit the bistro!

The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny

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The Nature of the Beast cover

Well, I can hardly believe it but I’ve managed to catch up with Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache series. The Nature of the Beast is her latest and it’s set in Three Pines, that seemingly idyllic location which is actually quite dangerous to live in – given the murder count over recent years.

Armand Gamache and his wife Reine-Marie have retired and have chosen to settle in Three Pines. They are well known in the village and in turn they know the villagers well, so when a wee boy known for his wild imagination and tall tales rushes around shouting about a huge gun and a monster in the woodland surrounding Three Pines, nobody is particularly bothered, it’s just what he does.

So everybody ignores him, and that’s something that they live to regret. I really enjoyed this book although it is quite a bit darker and more unsettling in atmosphere than I usually go for.

In fact at one point I did think that the plot was maybe just a wee bit far-fetched, so I was completely flabbergasted to read in the author’s note at the end of the book that it was based on truth, with Gerald Bull being a real person, who was involved in weapons design and was happy to design and build weapons for anyone who would pay him. He designed Project Babylon for Saddam Hussein. I certainly didn’t hear anything about it in the news at the time. But if you’re interested you can read a New York Times article from 1990 about it here.

How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny

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How the Light Gets In cover

How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny was published in 2013. It’s the ninth book in a series featuring Chief Inspector Armande Gamache of the Surete of Quebec. When I got to the end of it I thought it might be the last in the series but thankfully another couple have been written since this one.

I can’t say too much about this book because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. The words ‘just brilliant’ are what come to mind – or ‘pure dead brilliant’ in Glaswegian. It isn’t a cosy comfort read in fact it’s quite stressful as just about everyone in the Surete seems to be against Gamache. Henri his German Shepherd dog is keeping him sane it seems.

I’ve been catching up with this series after getting to it late, it was Joan of Planet Joan who recommended the books to me as a great read – how right she was. In fact I think I will be reading the books again eventually, just to get my fix of the village and its weird but somehow very human inhabitants.

Louise Penny also chose to make her detective a decent chap who is very happily married, such a nice change from the usual cliche of a dysfunctional anti-social divorcee which so many other authors seem to prefer.

But it’s not just the characters and the setting which are so addictive, it’s also the twists and turns in the plot. What a page turner!