It’s always a pleasure to return to Three Pines and its familiar cast of characters. However, as the series progresses, Penny’s focus is necessarily on Gamache and his team and Three Pines with its quirky cast of characters sort of fade into the background. They’re still very much the fabric that support him and his family but they’re not really involved in the mystery as they were in the past. Not every book is set in Three Pines of course but I find myself drawn to the ones that are.

Gamache is now dealing with greed & corruption at the highest level in the Surete and the Canadian Government. Suspicions abound and the team must tread carefully in order to prevent a catastrophic event. Jean-Guy and Lacoste are as always at and on his side, but elsewhere among friends and colleagues, uncertainty and doubt prevails. Help comes from unexpected quarters as does betrayal. 

As usual, Penny’s atmospheric writing makes the mystery more appealing than it actually is. I found the plot overly and unnecessarily tortuous. Penny brings back characters from previous cases and while that was interesting, it was also ultimately rather unconvincing. A lot of the drama, especially the climax felt contrived. What I liked was the cliffhanger of an ending which promises a great reading experience in the next book. Perhaps then I’ll like this one better.