• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2019 June #1
  *Starred Review* Agreeing to a demotion from chief superintendent of the Sûreté du Québec, Armand Gamache has returned to his old job as head of homicide, but that's not enough for some of his critics, who launch a vicious Twitter attack against the former chief. Meanwhile, once-in-a-century flooding threatens both the city of Montreal and the entire province, and the new superintendent is loath to take Gamache's advice on how to proceed. There's trouble at home, too, in the idyllic village of Three Pines, where artist Clara's series of miniature paintings is being savaged by critics. And, yes, there is also a murder, this time of a pregnant woman who appears to have been thrown off a bridge by her abusive husband. When the husband is cleared of the crime on a technicality, Gamache and his son-in-law, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, both fathers of daughters, and their colleague Isabelle Lacoste must confront their own rage against the system and the abuser, who has slipped through their grasp. With a line from Moby-Dick reverberating in Gamache's mind—All truth with malice in it—the three investigators look beyond the surface to the subtle demons of life and thought. The appeal of this series and especially of Gamache himself has always been Penny's ability to show her hero moving from the tangible, brutal facts of murder to the emotions within, the stories in the blood. There are multiple stories, often contradictory, to be found in the many-tentacled web of human tragedy and suffering that Gamache teases to the surface in this moving exploration of ties that both bind and destroy.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The buzz has begun months in advance for the book that will be on every mystery fan's late-summer must-read list. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.

LOUISE PENNY is the author of the #1 New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling series of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novels (Still Life, A Fatal Grace, and The Cruelest Month). She has won numerous awards, including a CWA Dagger and the Agatha Award (seven times), and was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Novel. In 2017, she received the Order of Canada for her contributions to Canadian culture. Louise lives in a small village south of Montréal.