[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]

THE GREY WOLF by Louise Penny Minotaur, October 2024 432 pages $21.00 ISBN: 1250328136

In Louise Penny's new thriller, THE GREY WOLF, Chief Inspector Armand Ganache is enjoying a quiet time at home with his wife in the idyllic Quebec village of Three Pines when his morning is interrupted by the repeated ringing of a phone. He is reluctant to pick up, as the call is from someone he does not wish to speak with.

It turns out that the call is only the beginning of a series of odd events that become increasingly more sinister. There has been an apparent break-in at Gamache's Montreal apartment, seemingly to steal only his jacket, but he then finds cryptic lists that have been left for him. His team, including his son-in-law Jean-Guy Beauvoir, must also deal with two apparently senseless murders in far-reaching Quebec locations.

Gamache has an uncomfortable meeting in a café with Charles Langlois, the young man who stole his coat. Then Charles is killed when an SUV purposely plows into him in the café, injuring other people and scattering furniture. Gamache chooses to save a little girl but cannot also save Charles. He listens to the man's last words, which he takes at face value. He later learns that the dead man was a marine biologist and also a member of an environmental group. He seemed to be testing the water in various locations. What did he discover? Was someone trying to silence him?

It begins to dawn on Gamache that a terrorist attack that could devastate cities across Quebec seems to be in the planning stage. If it goes off, people will die and the government itself may be in jeopardy. Since those in charge of various government agencies might be in on the attack to gain power, Gamache does not know whom he can trust.

Gamache's search for answers leads him to a monastery where Charles had been secretly working. He attempts to get information from the cloistered brothers, since he believes that some nefarious plan is in the works, and someone must know about it. In pursuit of this knowledge, Gamache's team goes to the Vatican and then to a famous monastery in France, searching for the people who may know what is going to happen. Along the way, another murder occurs. Is time running out?

Throughout the novel, we read about the now familiar Three Pines characters--the poet and her duck, the owners of the inn, and all of Gamache's family. Yet even surrounded by these loving people, Gamache is emotionally distraught at the book's end. Unlike many previous Louise Penny novels, THE GREY WOLF leaves us with the distinct impression that the situation may be ongoing, that the threat may not have been extinguished. Lately, the author has been dealing with more critical real-world issues in her books, and this is no exception, as she alerts her readers to the possibilities of power-hungry leaders and the escalating risk of cataclysmic terrorist events. We can only speculate about what the novelist has in store for Gamache and for us in her next book.

§ Anne Corey is a writer, poet, teacher and botanical artist in New York's Hudson Valley.

Reviewed by Anne Corey, October 2024

This book has more than one review. Click here to show all.

[ Top ]

QUICK SEARCH:

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)

[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]