The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny

Description:

from the publisher

INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The 19th mystery in the #1 New York Times-bestselling Armand Gamache series.

Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Though the tiny Québec village is impossible to find on any map, someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sûreté, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he finally answers, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning.

That’s only the first in a sequence of strange events that begin THE GREY WOLF, the nineteenth novel in Louise Penny’s #1 New York Times-bestselling series. A missing coat, an intruder alarm, a note for Gamache reading “this might interest you”, a puzzling scrap of paper with a mysterious list—and then a murder. All propel Chief Inspector Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization. Something much more sinister than any one murder or any one case is fast approaching.

Armand Gamache, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his son-in-law and second in command, and Inspector Isabelle Lacoste can only trust each other, as old friends begin to act like enemies, and long-time enemies appear to be friends. Determined to track down the threat before it becomes a reality, their pursuit takes them across Québec and across borders. Their hunt grows increasingly desperate, even frantic, as the enormity of the creature they’re chasing becomes clear. If they fail the devastating consequences would reach into the largest of cities and the smallest of villages.

Including Three Pines.

My thoughts:

I have been a loyal (and delighted) reader of Penny’s novels ever since Still Life was published. With The Grey Wolf we are at book 19. Next up is The Black Wolf which will pick up where this novel left off.

The beginning of the novel was just lovely. I enjoyed being back in Three Pines and feeling the love and community that exist in that space. However, unfortunately that peace is completely shattered when Gamache and his team become involved in unthinkable events.

There is a lot going on in this book. There are many characters, many places, and many references to events in earlier books. I found it a bit challenging to keep up. I finally stopped trying and just barreled ahead.

While I think that there is much to recommend The Grey Wolf, it is not my favorite Penny work. I very much liked the time in Three Pines (though there was less than in other titles) and the fun of seeing characters from earlier books reappear. However, I think I prefer my Penny smaller. This was a story about a potential catastrophic event and it is told on a big scale. For me, it was not as effective as some of the earlier books.

Have you read The Grey Wolf? What are your thoughts? I continue to puzzle mine out.

From the Publisher:

Kirkus Reviews says:

One of those rare triple-deckers that’s actually worth every page, every complication, every bead of sweat.