Kingdom of the Blind

 

Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny (2018), 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!).

Friends in High Places

Friends in High Places (Commissario Brunetti #9) by Donna Leon  326 pp.

Brunetti is having a quiet afternoon at home when the arrival of a young bureaucrat from the housing department comes to the door questioning Brunetti about the construction of the apartment. Apparently there are no records of the stories added to the centuries old building which, according to the department, don't exist. Soon Brunetti's red tape conundrum becomes a murder investigation when the same man is discovered dead, having been pushed off the scaffolding outside a building under renovation. While this is happening, Brunetti's boss, Vice-Questore Patta has drawn Brunetti into the arrest of Patta's son for selling drugs. Soon the investigation leads Brunetti to drug abuse and distribution, loan sharking, and danger. I have to admit I'm hooked on this series.

Glass Houses

Glass Houses by Louise Penny (2017) 391 pages

Armand Gamache is now the Chief Superintendent over the entire Sȗreté du Québec. This story opens at a murder trial at which Gamache is a witness. The murder occurred in Three Pines, a tiny
village in which Gamache and his wife now live. A masked, black-robed figure had appeared in the village during a Halloween costume party at the bistro, and the silent figure continues to haunt the village green, disappearing at night and reappearing each morning. The villagers are quite spooked. The story alternates between this time in November and the trial the following summer. It's not even clear who was murdered or who is on trial. The acerbic prosecutor treats Gamache as if Gamache were the one on trial--why didn't Gamache take action to remove this robed person before the situation became a murder? Gamache's response that the robed person was not breaking the law didn't seem to suffice.

Meanwhile, we learn that in the year since Gamache had taken charge of the Sȗreté du Québec, the drug trafficking situation had gotten even worse than it had been already. The drug cartels were becoming quite bold. There was much criticism that Gamache, although he had a stellar career in routing out corruption in the Sȗreté itself, had gotten older and in over his head.

This novel, 13th in the series, unrolls tantalizingly, another fine example of the writing that keeps me coming back for more.

The Neon Rain

The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke  248 pp.

This is the first of the New Orleans Detective Dave Robicheaux series. Robicheaux has not had a stellar life. He has flashbacks of his traumatic time in Vietnam, he fights with his police superiors, his wife left him, and he is a recovering alcoholic. When an investigation of a dead prostitute leads him into the murky land of organized crime, drug and arms dealing things get gritty. He is assaulted, framed for murder, and force fed enough alcohol to knock him off the wagon. Yet in the midst of it all, he finds love with a woman who stays with him in spite of his troubles and threats to both their lives. I wasn't expecting the level of violence contained in this story but I kept reading and in spite of it all, I'm going to read more of the series. Even with the nastiness in the story, it made me long for another trip to New Orleans.

The Fallen

The Fallen by David Baldacci  420 pp.

FBI Special Agent Amos Decker returns in this fourth book in the series. He and his partner, Alex Jamison, are on a much needed vacation visiting Jamison's sister in the small town of Baronville, PA. Baronville is a town where most of the industry is gone - industry owned by the once powerful Baron family. On their first evening there, Decker is relaxing on the back porch when he notices flickering lights in the house behind Jamison's sister's home. He soon realizes something is suspicious there and goes to investigate. He finds two bodies, one in a police uniform. From there the duo get involved in an investigation involving murders, drugs, overdoses, and insurance fraud. An assault and head wound leaves Decker questioning whether his photographic memory has been damaged as well as the seeming loss of the synesthesia which causes him to see blue in the presence of death. So much for a peaceful vacation.

The Lonely Hearts Hotel

The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill, 389 pages

Orphans Pierrot and Rose are brought together as children by their odd dispositions and innate talents for performing, dreaming of one day creating a traveling show of their own. But as things for orphans in the 1920s often go, they are torn apart, with little chance of meeting again. By the time they do, more than a decade later, Pierrot has gone from living in the lap of luxury to being a heroin addict, while Rose went from being the mistress of a mafia boss to performing in pornographic films.

O'Neill tells the story in such a romantic, melancholy way that it comes across less like a novel and more like an antique music box that's been bewitched to create a seedy story of crime. It's haunting and sad and somehow beautiful, all at once. While it was perhaps a bit more risque than I was anticipating — particularly for a book that features so many forlorn clowns and an invisible bear — I loved it.