The Madness of Crowds (Chief Inspector Gamache Series #17)

by Louise Penny

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

If you are a fan of Louise Penny, THIS is your bumper crop year! In October, we’ll get State of Terror, co-written with Hillary Rodham Clinton. But BEFORE October, we’ll get the latest in Penny’s beloved Chief Inspector Gamache title The Madness of Crowds. We assure you, once you allow yourself to be seduced by the village of Three Pines and all its residents, including Gamache, you’ll never want to leave. Drama, mystery, paths that lead to a brilliant conclusion AND to your heart are Penny’s magic super powers.

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns to Three Pines in #1 New York Times bestseller Louise Penny's latest spellbinding novel

You’re a coward.

Time and again, as the New Year approaches, that charge is leveled against Armand Gamache.

It starts innocently enough.

While the residents of the Québec village of Three Pines take advantage of the deep snow to ski and toboggan, to drink hot chocolate in the bistro and share meals together, the Chief Inspector finds his holiday with his family interrupted by a simple request.

He’s asked to provide security for what promises to be a non-event. A visiting Professor of Statistics will be giving a lecture at the nearby university.

While he is perplexed as to why the head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec would be assigned this task, it sounds easy enough. That is until Gamache starts looking into Professor Abigail Robinson and discovers an agenda so repulsive he begs the university to cancel the lecture.

They refuse, citing academic freedom, and accuse Gamache of censorship and intellectual cowardice. Before long, Professor Robinson’s views start seeping into conversations. Spreading and infecting. So that truth and fact, reality and delusion are so confused it’s near impossible to tell them apart.

Discussions become debates, debates become arguments, which turn into fights. As sides are declared, a madness takes hold.

Abigail Robinson promises that, if they follow her, ça va bien aller. All will be well. But not, Gamache and his team know, for everyone.

When a murder is committed it falls to Armand Gamache, his second-in-command Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and their team to investigate the crime as well as this extraordinary popular delusion.

And the madness of crowds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250145260
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/24/2021
Series:	Chief Inspector Gamache Series , #17
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	2,217
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

LOUISE PENNY is the author of the #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Globe and Mail bestselling series of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novels. 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.

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/14/2021

Might a post-Covid Canada value individual lives less? That provocative question’s at the heart of bestseller Penny’s brilliant 17th whodunit featuring Sûreté du Québec Chief Insp. Armand Gamache (after 2020’s All the Devils Are Here). Gamache, who has been devastated to learn that nursing homes were abandoned during the pandemic, leaving the vulnerable residents to die alone, is discomfited to be asked to provide security for a lecture by a controversial figure, statistician Abigail Robinson. After analyzing the pandemic’s social and economic fallout for the Canadian government, Robinson concluded that the health care system and the economy would be in good shape, if only the elderly and infirm were euthanized so everyone else could have adequate resources. The government disclaimed her findings, but her views have proven disturbingly popular among a segment of the population. Gamache saves Robinson from an assassin’s bullet at the talk, but a related murder in his home village of Three Pines follows. Seamlessly integrating debates about scientific experimentation and morality into a fair-play puzzle, Penny excels at placing her characters in challenging ethical quandaries. This author just goes from strength to strength. Agent: David Gernert, Gernert Company. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for All the Devils Are Here

INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
PARADE MAGAZINE – ONE OF FALL'S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS
AARP'S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF FALL
CRIMEREADS – ONE OF THE BEST TRADITIONAL MYSTERIES OF THE YEAR
GLOBE AND MAIL - TOP 100 BOOKS OF THE YEAR
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - ONE OF THE BEST NOVELS OF THE YEAR
KIRKUS REVIEWS - ONE OF THE BEST MYSTERIES/THRILLERS OF THE YEAR
LIBRARY JOURNAL - ONE OF THE BEST CRIME FICTION BOOKS OF THE YEAR

“Although Penny touches on a wide range of subjects in this expansive story, her main concern is with the sacrifices we make for those we love. Here, even the loving relationship between Gamache and his son, Daniel, is challenged. If you think about it, the underlying theme of all of Penny’s books is Honor Thy Family — the one you were born with, the one you’ve acquired during your lifetime and the Family of Man.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Penny excels at capturing the inner life, whether it’s a criminal’s or a resentful child’s. Series novices and die-hard fans alike will be left breathless—and moved.”
—People Magazine (Book of the Week)

“Armand Gamache seems as much a spiritual warrior as a homicide detective… What stays with the reader are the tender passages, the human insights, the reminders of what makes life worth living.”
—Wall Street Journal

“You don't need to have read the previous books to enjoy the mystery (whose apt title refers to a line from Shakespeare's The Tempest: ‘Hell is empty and all the devils are here’), but knowing a bit about the characters’ backgrounds helps you follow the subtle tensions between them."
—AARP The Magazine

“Penny excels at creating a sense of place, and she brings Paris to life with scenes small (a favorite garden at the Rodin museum) and big (the top of the Eiffel Tower). We walk — or, when necessary, run — through the streets of Paris, taste lemon tarts and mourn the fire damage to Notre Dame.”
—St. Louis Post Dispatch

“Penny’s books are always a cause for celebration, and this one is superb in every regard.”
—Booklist (Top Review)

“Penny's series has always been about the complexities and sustaining glories of family, and here she takes that theme even further, revealing fissures in the Gamache clan, but also showing the resilience and love at its root. Series devotees will revel in both Penny's evocation of Paris—every bit as sumptuous as her rendering of Three Pines—and in the increased role she allots to librarian Reine-Marie, whose research skills are crucial to untying the Gordian knot at the mystery's core.”
—Booklist (starred)

“Exceptional… Penny’s nuanced exploration of the human spirit continues to distinguish this brilliant series.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred)

“As always, Penny's mystery is meticulously constructed and reveals hard truths about the hidden workings of the world—as well as the workings of the Gamache family. But there's plenty of local color, too, with a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower to escape surveillance and a luxurious suite at the Hotel George V for good measure. If you're new to Penny's world, this would be a great place to jump in. Then go back and start the series from the beginning.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"The strengths of this latest procedural from the inimitable Penny will attract her longtime fans and also draw in new admirers. A deft touch with plotting, sensitive characterization, and the author’s warmth and humanity make this a must-have mystery, especially for collections owning the rest of series.”
—Library Journal (starred)

From the Publisher

★ 07/02/2021

Penny's 17th entry in the "Chief Inspector Gamache" series (after All the Devils Are Here) finds the Gamache family in the Québec village of Three Pines during the Christmas holidays. The threat of COVID-19 has subsided, and the villagers may gather again. Many of the village windows still display children's drawings with the words "Ça va bien aller" ("All will be well"). That phrase was used as comfort during the pandemic but now it has been co-opted by statistician Abigail Robinson, who uses data to prove that better times may come, but that there will be a price. Inspector Gamache must protect Professor Robinson during her lecture, which is attended by an unstable crowd. An incident at the lecture pulls Gamache into the world of this controversial academic. As the conflict moves to Three Pines, the tension escalates, resulting in crimes that seem impossible to untangle. VERDICT This book has layers within layers: good versus evil; our duty to the weak; the nature of power; the fact that good people are not always likable, and likable people are not always good. Penny's familiar characters are back, along with some intriguing visitors. The mystery will keep readers absorbed until the end and might make them realize how this unprecedented pandemic has changed the world. Highly recommended for public libraries.—Terry Lucas, Shelter Island P.L., NY

Library Journal

2021-11-02
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and the village of Three Pines, Québec, emerge from the pandemic to confront something in its way even more monstrous.

It’s not clear entirely how the invitation was extended, but Colette Roberge, Chancellor of the Université de l’Estrie, is hosting her old friend professor Abigail Robinson, of the University of Western Canada, for a talk on statistics. That sounds dry until Gamache realizes that the numbers Robinson is crunching concern the benefits that would accrue around the world if the powers that be launched a wholesale campaign of mercy killing that targeted the old, the sick, and the helpless. The subject is guaranteed to polarize audiences violently even as the endorsements Robinson is seeking from politicians and other influencers approach a tipping point at which her radical ideas might seem reasonable, even tenable. The capacity crowd crammed into an old gym to hear the talk is already rowdy when someone sets off a string of firecrackers and someone fires a gun, narrowly missing the speaker. The inevitable murder that follows on the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve strikes painful chords in everyone from young Sudanese activist Haniya Daoud, whose sufferings have left her filled with rage and disdain for the human race, to Gamache’s sidekick and son-in-law, Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir, who’s coping with his complicated feelings toward his baby daughter, Idola, who was born with Down sSyndrome, to thoracic surgeon Vincent Gilbert, the Asshole Saint hiding a dark secret that portends all the other secrets Gamache must toil to uncover and determine which of them is responsible for this post-pandemic nightmare.

No one balances tight plotting, compassion for her flawed characters, and a broader vision of humanity like Penny.

Kirkus Reviews