A Great Reckoning: A Novel (Chief Inspector Gamache Novel Book 12)

This is a book that’s hard to put down. The characters are wonderful. The plot is interesting. The writing is at times exquisite, much better than most mystery novels. I thoroughly enjoyed it and dare I say, you will, too!

Louise Penny is such a wonderful writer! The community of characters with their various attributes and eccentricities is always a joy to read, despite the dark nature of some of the subject matter. As usual, the story is intricately plotted and the new characters bring a new and unique aspect to the mysteries to be unraveled in this book. I highly recommend all of Inspector Gamache novels.

Reading one of Louise Penny's Armand Gamache mysteries is like receiving a warm embrace from a much-loved old friend. It is comfort reading of the highest order. A Great Reckoning is the twelfth entry in the series. I've read them all - in order, of course. There are none of them that I haven't enjoyed, though some naturally are better than others, but this, in my opinion, is one of the best. Armand Gamache spent years as the head of homicide in the Sûreté du Québec, and during that time, he discovered that his agency was riddled with corruption. The venality of a powerful cadre within the Sûreté had created an atmosphere of cruelty and criminality that had cost it the trust and respect of the public. Gamache made it his crusade to clean up the agency and once again make it worthy of public trust. He accomplished his goal, but it almost cost him his life. He retired from the Sûreté and he and his wife went to live in the little village of Three Pines where he healed from his wounds and where he eventually became bored and began looking for something to do. He was offered several different jobs but the one that appealed to him was that of commandant of the Sûreté's academy. Realizing that his quest was not truly complete until the academy, too, was purged of bad actors and influences, he accepted the task, and in this book, we see him beginning that new role. His wife is happy that he will be working at the academy where she believes he will be safe. Little does she know! Gamache dismisses many of the academy's staff and hires new instructors, but, curiously, he leaves the most brutal and corrupt professor in place. He hopes to gather enough evidence on the man to finally put him away for good and, at the same time, identify the brains behind the operation, a person he believes is someone outside the Sûreté. But soon that corrupt professor is found dead in his room, a victim of a highly staged murder. Suspicion falls initially upon some of the cadets he had brutalized, but then comes to rest on Gamache himself. Meanwhile, back in Three Pines, the villagers, including Madame Gamache, are busy sorting through desiccated newspapers, catalogs, magazines, and other papers that were stuffed into the walls of what is now the bistro as insulation a century earlier. The papers were pulled out and saved during a renovation. How this endeavor somehow connects up with events at the academy is at the heart of this story of lost innocence - the innocence of the village's sons who marched off to war a century before and never came home and the betrayed innocence of academy cadets, some of whom seem at first glance not very innocent at all. As always with Penny's crime novels, this is very much a character-driven story. We get to know the characters with all their flaws and humanity and they engage our emotions so completely that we feel as though we could reach out and touch them. It is the complexities of the relationships that makes it all so real and that makes the reader eager to keep turning those pages to find out what will happen next. We are involved in the plot which Penny weaves together seamlessly. And at the center of all this is Armand Gamache, surely one of the most humane and human of policemen in all of crime fiction. He understands that kindness is not weakness and that love trumps hate. At the same time, he is implacable as he pursues the evil that pollutes his beloved Sûreté and that has infected the minds of some of the cadets who are the future of the agency. Then, of course, there are all the quirky Three Pines characters that we've come to know and love over the years: the cranky old poet, the bookstore owner, the gay couple who own and run the bistro, the acclaimed artist, and all the rest. Even the dogs. This is a story that is full of wisdom, forgiveness, kindness, and, yes, grief. It is an absorbing read and it is with regret that one turns that last page. The warm embrace ends and one must return to the cold reality of the world and all of its frustrations and irritations.

Louise Penny writes about Chief Inspector Armand Gamache’s new job in “A GREAT RECKONING.” As Director of the Surete du Quebec’s cadet academy, Gamache finds the body of a professor who has been shot, four cadets with secrets, many people with motives, and an old map that doesn’t make sense but that becomes very involved in the story. Further investigation reveal his own partial fingerprints on the murder weapon, his manipulation of the faculty and curriculum, his odd behavior prior to and during the investigation, and his apparent closeness to a suspicious girl; actions that put him right at the top of the list of suspects. Penny, a master at creating mysterious plots takes the reader on a journey of puzzling activity. It doesn’t seem likely that Gamache, the beloved central character of her most successful mysteries would be involved in a murder but the story creates doubt in the reader’s mind and poses the question of how will he extricate himself from the suspicion. Many characters in the novel have long standing roles in the Gamache series, many others surface, and all are unique in their participation. The author is adept in developing her characterizations with their various eccentricities. It’s not likely they will become bosom buddies with the reader but they will be unforgettable. Their roles add depth to the exciting and perplexing story. Some are pompous, some are officious, some are eccentric, some are disrespectful, some are distasteful; but their oddities add surprise as the investigation unfolds. Penny has a great website that invites close regard by visitors. All the usual entries are there, arranged in a manner that strongly encourages one to poke around. There are no secrets, Penny is loquacious and open, and the information is intriguing. Extensive detailing of her books and an impressive listing of her awards attest to her writing skills. One could, and should, spend hours there reviewing her thoughts and the details of her many mystery novels. Particularly touching is her tribute to her late husband, the driving force behind her devotion and sensitive approach to life. I admire Louise Penny and her love of writing. I also consider her to be a thoughtful and caring person with an immaculate mind and knack for telling stories. Does Gamache wriggle out of his dilemma? You know the answer to that. What you don’t know is the inventive scheme developed by the author to make it all happen. Read the book. Schuyler T Wallace Author of TIN LIZARD TALES

Here we are again. Three books, in a row. I've never reviewed two books by an author, and now MS Penny has me down for four! Each one, actually since the first has been deeper, more complex, more involving to the reader than the one before: not just a police procedural nor a mystery within a procedural, but a time interval in the lives of Armand and Reine Marie and now extensive family and friends. Originally, our point of care and concern was Chief Inspecteur of the Sûreté, Armand Gamâche, and book by book our knowledge, respect, affection, and yes, love has extended ever outward to his children, his beloved assistants, Jean Guy and Isabelle, his new friends and neighbors in Trois Pins where we KNEW he would find Sanctuary and healing, as would we. His life is now part of ours. Personally, one of the very best aspects of reading this series is MS Penny has allowed Armand not to be perfect. She has allowed us and him to learn forgiveness. That is spectacular in a hero - to be broken and mended. Side note: of course Reine Marie is perfect, but then how else would Armand learn it is human and normal to make mistakes? No, seriously, a strong loving supportive partner makes forgiveness, reparation and return to conscious repair of one's life possible. All this boils down to: read this series! You are going to get so much more out of each and every book than you ever dreamed, they are really really good, deep and thoughtful and MS Louise Penny will be the best author and friend you never met. I promise. You know me (a little bit) and I don't make promises easily. I'm an old style Texan, the daughter of a son of a Baptist minister who couldn't say a bad word about anybody, and didn't, and kept every promise he ever made. Well, I CAN say bad words about everybody, but I DO keep my promises, I reckon. Be good to yourselves and learn something important from MS Penny. Her road goes somewhere not on any map, but worth finding. P.S. I just found out today after this was posted that Ms. Penny's husband Michael has passed away. I would like those for us who feel our lives have been so enriched by her to send some support and kindness back to her for all she has given us to stretch our minds and hearts. Ms. Louise, you are an extraordinary woman, I'm certain in part because of the love and life you shared with the fine man you described as your husband and your boys. You have given us some of that through your books, so we will give back to you any way you wish, but certainly by enjoyment and purchase and loyalty of your books. Take care as we care.

It’s been a hot humid summer here in North Carolina, the best time to read about a small Canadian village often covered in snow. But that isn’t the only escape this book provided. It made me hopeful that even in the totally corrupt mess of a time in history we are experiencing there is good, but we must be willing to look for the truth and diminish its opposite on the pathway to kindness.

I'd give this book 10 stars if I could. Louise Penny is a wonderful writer, and I think this is her masterpiece. It is rich in character and nuance and just mesmerizing. Her novels are my catnip. I don't so much read her books as submerge myself in them. I can't explain how she does this except to say that she chooses her words carefully, builds a hypnotic story, and creates in the village of Three Pines a mystic place, not on any map - almost a modern-day Brigadoon. Several reviewers have noted that this is a stand alone book, and it is in the sense that there is a contained story, but I would argue that reading this book without having read at least some of the previous books is a mistake. Without the background, the echoes of meaning in this book are lost and the reading experience has to suffer. Louise Penny spends almost no time giving background material in her novels - she assumes you know. I've found Penny's later books to have a strong undercurrent of sadness. In this book, where so much of the story is about memory and memories, the sadness is like a veil through which the whole narrative is seen. One of the lessons of the novel is that life hands us situations, many of which are painful but we decide how they impact our future. Much of the book explores how choices compel other choices, but also how each character has the opportunity to make a new choice, a better choice and change their lives, overcome failure and bitterness and find forgiveness. In the end this is a deeply hopeful book. Louise Penny is usually considered in the class of traditional mystery writers like P.D. James and Dorothy Sayers. This is only partly true. Her books began as traditional mysteries. Still Life, her first, is a good mystery novel with interesting characters. As time went on however and her power as a novelist grew her books changed. Though they remained in the mystery genre her books have really become studies of character in a crime setting. As a writer of character and mood there is no one to touch her in the mystery field today. It didn't happen overnight, but today she is a superb novelist who happens to write about a policeman, Armand Gamache. I've read many wonderful mysteries in my life, many fine novels, but I have never read anyone in contemporary fiction with the depth and power Louise Penny brings to her best stories. Her books are luminous. Read book one: Still Life, and then read all of her other books - she will take you on a wonderful journey.

Always intrigued by Penny’s description of homes, what people are eating adding normalcy to complicated and intriguing stories upon stories. The best and worst of human behavior.

... to be very careful to get all the twists and turns. Not only the places change, from the Sûreté Academy to Three Pines - the village that does not exist. And we will learn in this book the reason for the absence of this - mostly - peaceful place on earth. But also the times, they are a'changin' - from the present to a time long ago - through a hidden and forgotten map from around the Great War, which is by pure case found in the wall of an old house... Former Chief Inspector Gamache has been hunting killers - and ultimately a lot of corrupt police officers - in his career. Now, as the new Commander of the Sûreté Academy, he is given the chance to combat the corruption and brutality that has been planted right into the mind and souls of the most vulnerable - his cadets. Who shall later on become the pride of the Canadian force. To help him his old friend Michel - who had to leave the Sûreté because he was found the most corrupt officer of all - has to return. To help to eradicate the evil a certain professor has planted over the years, simply for his own pleasure and... simply because... he could! When this secret czar of the Sûreté Academy is found dead - and killed, Gamache has to make a secret pact with the devil himself. But suspicions will arise about his role in the murder, too. And his sudden flight away from the killing place. Because he has taken the recently found but old old map and the most promising four of his best cadets to the security of Three Pines. Where all the secrets lie deeply hidden, partially for more than a century. And he will find a way into the mind and hearts of his young cadets - everyone of them unique. But infused with thoughts future police officers should not harbor - not if Monsieur Gamache, Ex-Chef de Police can do something about that! There are different showdowns in several places, and lives are in danger - and one will be irrevocably lost. But grieve will make place for the joy the newest member will bring into the Gamache famliy. And a very old guilt will be forgiven, too. Finally! This has been a highly demanding book - so many different places, so many secrets, both new and old. And the corruption that once again is ready to rise its numerous and awful heads, like a hydra: cut one head and three new ones will come out. But there finally is that "great reckoning" that gives this very interesting and masterful written book its rightful title. The highly acclaimed author Louise Penny has once more delivered a great masterpiece. I am - as always - waiting for the next one! (Review first written for the kindle eBook edition, bought and verified on amazon.it)

I received this book as soon as it came out but decided to wait till I had time to read it slowly & carefully! On reading the first page I felt as though I had returned home & was back amongst good friends in the village of Three Pines. As with all Louise Penny's books I was hooked from the beginning. I managed to restrict myself to reading a few chapters at a time till about 2/3rds through then couldn't resist finishing it. I kept thinking I knew who had committed the murder then there would be a few twists & I would change my mind. Parts of the ending surprised me, some I had almost worked out. I loved the ending, for some reason it made me feel quite emotional. However, now I am sad that I have finished it & will have to wait for the next instalment in the lives of Commander Gamache & his family & friends & the village of Three Pines. I would highly recommend Louise Penny's series of books, though they can be read as a standalone, they are better read in order to gradually get to know the characters

If you love Gamache, you will love the Great Reckoning. If you don't you're lucky because there will be many Gamaches to read, and this one may be her best.

Que dire encore de Louise Penny? Que son Inspecteur Gamache est génial? Que la femme de l'Inspecteur et tous les habitants de Three Pines sont géniaux? Que les livres de Louise Penny me donnent envie de déménager au Canada pour m'installer à Three Pines? Je crois que tout cela a déjà été dit et donc, je ne fais que le répéter. Si vous ne connaissez pas, vous ratez quelque chose. A lire de toute urgence.

Teil 12 der kanadischen Chief Inspector Gamache Krimireihe – Die große Abrechnung in der Akademie. Inspector Gamaches hat nach einer kurzen Auszeit einen Neuanfang gewagt. Als Chef der Polizeiakademie will er noch den letzten Rest Korruption an den Wurzeln ausrotten und die neuen Kadetten der Akademie zu ehrlichen und aufrechten Polizisten erziehen. Doch die Rechnung hat er ohne Leduc gemacht. Sein Vorgänger, immer noch als Lehrkraft dort beschäftigt, zieht weiterhin seine dunklen Strippen. Gamache ist ihm natürlich schon längst auf die Spur gekommen und ganz simpel einfach dem Geld gefolgt. Doch das reicht nicht, um Leduc für immer hinter Gitter zu bringen. Als eines Abends ein Schuss fällt, hält Gamache den Atem an. Leduc liegt erschossen in seinem Zimmer, der Revolver direkt neben ihm. Isabelle Lacoste, jetzt endlich Chef der Kriminalpolizei wird an den Tatort gerufen. Ihr und auch ihrem Kollegen war klar, dass Gamache mit seiner Abrechnung noch nicht fertig war und ein Auge auf alte Kollegen und Feinde geworfen hatte, aber ist er auch zu einem Mord fähig? Gamache hingegen führt erstmals seine ganz eigenen Ermittlungen. Er bringt die seiner Meinung nach besonders gefährdeten Kadetten nach Three Pines und beschäftigt diese dort mit einer gefundenen Landkarte. Doch anstatt dem Rätsel der geheimnisvollen Landkarte nachzugehen, fangen die Vier an, sich erst mal selbst zu zerfleischen. Die Last der gemeinsamen Vergangenheit mit Leduc wiegt schwer auf den Schultern der Kadetten. Gamache bittet einen außenstehenden Mountie zur Überwachung des Falles an die Seite von Lacoste, was zu Ärgernissen führt und mehr Geheimnisse lüftet, als so manchem Verdächtigen lieb ist. Fazit: Der zwölfte Fall steigt tief in die Vergangenheit Gamaches hinab. Er öffnet die Türen für Bitterkeit, Sehnsucht und Rache. Gamache und sein ehemaliges Team haben Mühe, mit den Verwicklungen, den Heimlichkeiten und der Wahrheit klarzukommen. Zweifel werden geschürt und falsche Spuren gelegt. Obwohl es mein zwölfter Gamache war, blieb der Mörder mir bis fast zur letzten Seite ein wahres Rätsel! Ich habe mich hier für die kanadischen Titel im Original entschieden, da die deutsche Veröffentlichung sich leider nicht an die Erscheinungsreihe hält. Mit Louise Penny begibt man sich in dieses beschauliche kleine Nest, ins belebte Montreal und glaubt dort angekommen zu sein. Liebreiz umgibt einen aber hinter der Fassade scheint genau dies stets auch das Böse heraufzubeschwören.