Kingdom of the Blind - Louise Penny

Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny

First Paragraph(s):

Armand Gamache slowed his car to a crawl, then stopped on the snow-covered secondary road.
     This was it, he supposed.  Pulling in, he drove between the tall pine trees until he reached the clearing.
     There he parked the car and sat in the warm vehicle looking out at the cold day.  Snow flurries were hitting the windshield and dissolving.  They were coming down with more force now, slightly obscuring what he saw outside.  Turning away, he stared at the letter he'd received the day before, lying open on the passenger seat.
     Putting on his reading glasses, he rubbed his face.  And read it again.  It was an invitation of sorts, to this desolate place.

My Thoughts:

I never exactly know what to say when I've finished a book by Louise Penny.  I tend to want to hoard them and save my first reading for a 'just the right moment' situation.  Sometimes I can't wait.  Sometimes I do.  I always enjoy my reading and savor the story, the characters, the themes.  Honestly, I wasn't sure that we'd get a book from Louise this year and she herself has said she didn't intend to write one.  Here's a bit from her acknowledgments:

A funny thing happened on my way to not writing this book.
     I started writing.
     The truth is, I've known since I began writing Still Life that if Michael died, I couldn't continue with the series.  Not simply because he was the inspiration for Gamache, and it would be too painful, but because he's imbued every aspect of the books....

She tells that one day she sat at her computer and wrote two words - Armand Gamache.  The next day she wrote 5 more...and so on.  And she says that she realized that the books are more than her Michael and more than Gamache - they are about kindness, acceptance, gratitude, about life, and about consequences of the choices we make. 

I feel that Louise Penny has a rare gift of not only writing a compelling mystery series, but a recitation of important themes and behaviors to strive for.  She writes of the human condition and frailties of humanity and the strengths.  I feel these books are quite deep and very thought-provoking.  They may not strike everyone that way, but that's what I get from them.

As to this particular book, the reader gets to reconnect with many characters that we know and love.  Some of the stories from the previous book, Glass Houses, are continued or even wrapped up.  New bonds are formed.  Certain endings are hinted at.  I was happy to see that Myrna, the bookseller and former psychologist from Three Pines, has a very prominent part in the story.  And in the end, I was satisfied.  Some readers have wondered whether the series will go on in the future.  In her last newsletter, Louise said that it indeed will go on and she's working on the next book.  That makes me very happy and the wait begins again. 

Blurb:

When a peculiar letter arrives inviting Armand Gamache to an abandoned farmhouse, the former head of the Sûreté du Québec discovers that a complete stranger has named him one of the executors of her will. Still on suspension, and frankly curious, Gamache accepts and soon learns that the other two executors are Myrna Landers, the bookseller from Three Pines, and a young builder.

None of them had ever met the elderly woman.

The will is so odd and includes bequests that are so wildly unlikely that Gamache and the others suspect the woman must have been delusional. But what if, Gamache begins to ask himself, she was perfectly sane?

When a body is found, the terms of the bizarre will suddenly seem less peculiar and far more menacing.

But it isn’t the only menace Gamache is facing.

The investigation into what happened six months ago—the events that led to his suspension—has dragged on, into the dead of winter. And while most of the opioids he allowed to slip through his hands, in order to bring down the cartels, have been retrieved, there is one devastating exception.

Enough narcotic to kill thousands has disappeared into inner city Montreal. With the deadly drug about to hit the streets, Gamache races for answers.

As he uses increasingly audacious, even desperate, measures to retrieve the drug, Armand Gamache begins to see his own blind spots. And the terrible things hiding there.

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This book will qualify for the Canadian Book Challenge.