A Great Reckoning
By Louise Penny. (Minotaur Books, 389 pages, $28.99.)
In the 12th installment of this Canadian mystery series, we are reintroduced to Armand Gamache, a revered police inspector recovering from a near-mortal injury during a scandalous crime of betrayal.
The wounded inspector has retreated to off-the-map Three Pines, a colorful village where Penny's familiar characters continue to add depth and enjoyment to her storytelling.
Nearly mended, at least physically, Gamache has agreed to take a break from solving crimes and is assigned to command the elite Surete police academy, a school steeped in corruption where instructors are molding future cops to be greedy, sadistic and dirty.
Gamache is determined to change the course of the institution, but he chooses a risky approach by allowing the worst of the bad apples to continue in their roles at the academy, and even bringing in a startling new instructor. (The shrewd inspector has his reasons.)
And what's a detective series without a murder? We quickly receive a high-profile one, the nature of which will reveal much about the dark culture nurtured behind closed doors at the academy.
At the heart of the tale is a map, discovered quite by accident, of the sleepy Three Pines. The map's significance and origin are kept out of our reach until the final chapters, but its cryptic message drives the story.
This novel delivers answers to perplexing puzzles that have left readers hanging in previous installments — about Gamache, about Three Pines, and about the love-hate relationships in his life that conspire to both comfort and destroy him.
