Some readers loved, some disliked The Kingdom of the Blind. Those that liked it were in the majority. I finished reading this mystery two weeks ago, so needed to review some reviews. Set in Three Pines, Québec in winter, the very snowscape enhances the mystery. A farmhouse is where Gamache, Myrna and Benedict meet the lawyer Monsieur Mercier. That farmhouse eventually falls down.
In the main, I enjoyed this fourth novel, but not in order of publication dates. Each work stands on its own. Three Pines, the tiny village where Armand Gamache lives with his wife, Reine-Marie and their two dogs is a safe haven, but murder seems to follow him there! This time the murder took place in that falling down farmhouse, some distance from Three Pines. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Armand and his neighbour Myrna Landers had each received letters notifying them that they were Liquidators of the will of Bertha Baumgartner. (Liquidators of wills in Québec are the equivalent of a Power of Attorney in the rest of Canada.) Neither of them know this woman but will learn of her convoluted and possibly delusion family history. A third man has also been sent the same letter: Benedict Pouliot, according to his business card is a Builder. He doesn’t know this woman either. Their first task is to contact the lawyer Laurence Mercier to begin sorting out this first mystery. Mrs. Baumgartner, known to all as Baroness, is in fact a cleaning lady. But a cleaning lady whose title and family inheritance goes back over 150 years to Europe. Money, legalities and big business are knotted together.
A second mystery, leading from Glass Houses published in 2017, is still unwinding. Gamache has been suspended from the Suréte because of his decisions related to a large shipment of carfentanyl. Most of it had been apprehended, but a large portion had been diverted into Montréal. One of his young agents, Amelia Choquet had apparently gone rogue and had to be ejected from the Academy for possession of drugs. Previously actively addicted, she returned to the streets of Montréal and began a search for the loose carfentanyl. This did not help his position. In the meantime, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, Gamaches’ second in command and his son-in-law, had been elevated into the role of Acting Head of Homicide. Beauvoir is stuck between his superiors and his wife and children and his father-in-law while juggling these two cases.
Louise Penny artfully keeps this story line, while bringing the residents of Three Pines along with Gamache. The Bistro is the meeting place for much conversation and good food. Mysteries solved amid laughter and camaraderie. A place of ease for both the resident and the reader.
“The mess in the drawers was in contrast to the neat desktop.
Many people’s lives were like that. The neat room and
the messy closet, the well-ordered counters
and the chaos in the cabinets.”
~ Louise Penny, Kingdom of the Blind
Title: The Kingdom of the Blind
Author: Louise Penny
Copyright: 2018
Publisher: by Three Pines Creations
Type: Novel
Format: Mystery Fiction
ISBN - 978125002206 (hard cover)
ISBN - 9781250313522 (international, sold outside the U.S., subject to rights availability)
ISBN - 9781466873698 (ebook)
LCCN - 2010227731
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