Today I’m having a nice hot cup of Earl Gray and listening to The Madness of Crowds, by Louise Penny. I’m using the Cloud Library app from my local library.
Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series has been recommended to me a number of times. But I didn’t dive in until a friend of mine gave me one of the books for my birthday. I dutifully read it and now I’m hooked.
Armand Gamache lives in the small town (fictional?) of Three Pines, Canada. He is head of homicide for the Surete du Quebec. Along with his wife, son-in-law, and several colorful townspeople, mysteries are solved, murderers brought to justice, and delicious meals are shared at the local bistro.
The Madness of Crowds is #17 in the series and is set in the aftermath of the covid-19 lockdown. It deals with sensitive moral issues including population control and healthcare resources. A few spots are graphic and could be unpleasant for some readers. But then this is no cozy mystery.
As the story begins Inspector Gamache is called to provide security for a speaker at a local university. The subject involves euthanasia and selective abortion of disabled babies, which the speaker justifies by events from the recent pandemic. An assassination attempt fails at the gathering but later the speaker’s assistant is murdered. Was this a case of mistaken identity or was she the real target? Follow Inspector Gamache and his team as they track down leads and follow red herrings until they find the true killer.
Learn more at your favorite bookseller or library and decide if you want to jump into Inspector Gamache’s world.
Check out the short on YouTube.
And have yourself a cup of tea.
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