Kingdom of the Blind

 

Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny, 386 pgs. 

It starts with a storm. As a blizzard wages its war on Quebec, Armand Gamache and Myrna Landers, his friend and neighbor in Three Pines, are invited to act as liquidators to the last will and testament of Bertha Baumgartner--a woman neither Armand nor Myrna had ever met. Intrigued, the two--along with another stranger/liquidator and a prejudiced notary--discuss the woman's unusual last requests. The icy conditions are not the only danger on the streets, though. After the events that led to Gamache's suspension from his position as Chief Superintendent of the Surete, a huge batch of deadly new opioids is about to hit the streets of Montreal, unless he can stop it. A storm is surely brewing, and it is unclear if Gamache's team is ready for it. 

While this fourteenth book in the Three Pines series starts at a slower pace, it quickly picks up to be a thrilling read. Penny always does a good job managing multiple story lines, and this book is no exception. The plot surrounding the will is made really interesting by the quirky new characters introduced, and the plot involving the race to search for the drugs includes many already beloved characters (and extreme stakes!).