The Black Wolf

The Black Wolf  by Louise Penny (2025), 374 pgs.

"We have a problem."
A few months ago, Chief Inspector Gamache called together his closest confidants and uttered these harrowing words. For a moment, the trio of Inspectors--Gamache, Beauvoir, and Lacoste--had thought that they were safe. They had just foiled a massive plan which threatened Montreal, and yet danger still loomed over the city. Now, Gamache--still recovering from the injuries he sustained solving the previous step in this disastrous plot--must lean on those he can trust, while determining who he cannot. He needs to figure out who is the "black wolf" behind all this. The future and safety of Montreal, and Canada as a whole, could depend on what his team does, and there is no time for mistakes. 

This book is a roller coaster of loop-de-loops. It can be quite fun at times, but after a while, it gets a bit old. The Inspectors do a much better job in this iteration of making headway uncovering the conspiracy continued from The Grey Wolf, but sometimes it feels like each new piece of information they find leads them right back to a previous conclusion. Also, in a world where unprecedented, horrible things happen in politics all the time, the overall premise for this novel feels both too real and a little far-fetched. Despite the book's faults, though, there are some really exciting and interesting moments, and it is always nice to get inside Gamache's head.

After a full year, I am finally caught up on Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache series!! Thank you to all of you who supported me in this journey :) It's been a great ride. 

The Grey Wolf

The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny (2024), 414 pgs.

A few years ago, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache stood on the shore by Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups and watched his best friend ride away from him, possibly forever. The Abbot of the monastery then told him the story of the place's name--the story of the grey wolf, representing the good inside all of us, and the black wolf, representing the darkness. The Abbot left Gamache with the message that the wolf that wins within us is the one that we feed. 
Now, although Gamache has done his best to feed his grey wolf, to do good in his position in the Surete, there are those who have fed their own black wolves. After a series of peculiar events culminate in the death of a suspect, Gamache must figure out who he can trust as he solves the mystery of a case which seems to be much bigger than originally expected. 

The Grey Wolf, Louise Penny's nineteenth novel in the Three Pines series, includes one of her most ambitious plots yet. It is so big that it spans into the next one, The Black Wolf. Some of this big plot works well and creates for very exciting moments. For example, the final showdown is very interesting. Other aspects, however, feel a bit drawn out. At times, Penny relies too heavily on explicitly written phrases to manufacture tension, rather than letting the story do that on its own. Throughout the novel, chapters end in phrases like, "As it turned out, Chief Inspector Gamache was wrong. Very wrong." (213), but the payoff for those statements often does not come until the end of the book (or it comes and turns out to be not-so-shocking), so readers learn not to trust these mini-cliffhangers. For readers who have already come to know and love these characters, it is always a pleasure to follow Gamache as he untangles a messy mystery, but for those who are new to the series, there are better books with which to begin. 

Conspiracy

 Conspiracy: Why the rational Believe the Irrational, by Michael Shermer, 311 pages 

            If you've haven't had a difficult conversation with someone regarding the current political climate or state of affairs, kudos to you and the beautiful island you inhabit. It's hard these days not to think that somebody out there isn't out to get you. After all, there have been conspiracies in the past that have been found to be true--not just made up in someone's imagination. There are lots of non-fiction books that have been coming out as of late regarding the topic of conspiracies and the people who propagate them, but this one should be a textbook for just about anyone interested in the subject at large. Michael Shermer is the founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine and Executive Director of the Skeptics Society, which analyzes pseudoscientific and supernatural claims and breaks them down bit by bit. His previous books tackle similar topics, but this one is laid out very well. It breaks down conspiracy thinking, how people come to believe in false things, and offers some insight into how to break down conversation barriers with people and try to break through. But this is not a political book, believe it or not. Shermer doesn't spend any time talking negatively about conspiracists and what they believe. Instead, he offers genuine reflections and questions about conspiracy thinking as a whole--how it affects different members of our society regardless of class, race, or gender, how the three different types of conspiracies work to influence each other, and he offers conspiracy detection kit to help readers tell if a conspiracy theory is true or false. To illustrate some of his findings about modern conspiracism, Shermer offers informative chapters on some of America's most enduring conspiracy theories that just don't seem to die, such as the JFK assassination, 9/11 Truthers, and any number of conspiracies that involved former president Barack Obama. Especially fascinating is Shermer's chapter on the deadliest conspiracy theory in history: the events that triggered World War I. While the rogue Serbian terrorists were not acting in tandem with the Serbian government, the Austria-Hungary empire joined forces with Germany and claimed that the Serbian government was attacking them. As more and more nations joined the fray, eventually the European world found itself in the Great War, all based on a forced conspiracy theory that was verified false at the time. Shermer asks, pointedly, "Imagine how differently the twentieth century would have unfolded without the Great War, sparing the lives of tens of millions of people. moreover, no WWI would almost certainly mean no Hitler, no Nazis, No WWII, and no Holocaust. Just imagine." This is a great scientific read into a real problem that plagues mankind to no end. Well researched and a balanced, rational take. Highly recommended.  

Not Your Villain

 Not Your Villain by C.B. Lee, 307 pages.

Bells Broussard is a shapeshifter, and it's awesome. And not only because it means he doesn't have to worry about wearing a binder to school and can color his hair on a whim. He also loves being a superhero. Which is why it's particularly terrible for him when the government names him a supervillain after he gets involved in exposing the grand conspiracy of the last book. Luckily they can't tell him what to do, and Chameleon isn't done with his heroing yet.

It's unfortunate that this book is much worse than the last one, which was already only middling, but intriguing. The first third or so of this book covers the same time period as the first book, and instead of granting many unique insights to the events it mostly reads as a very long recap. There's also more things that feel like they happen to get the plot where it needs to go, instead of keeping to any internal consistency. Which is all extra a shame because Bells is a really cool character, and it would have been cool if his book gave him as much depth as Jess's gave to her. I think this series might have lost me at this point, because I'm pretty sure I know where we're going with this, but I may pick the last two books up at some point.