Lots of mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, I really liked the main conceit of the plot, that this old woman makes Gamache, Myrna, and a strange young man named Benedict the liquidators of her will, despite that none of them knew her. The woman, who called herself the Baroness, had a strange and interesting past, and as often happens in these books, a murder occurs. The B-plot of the book follows Cadet Amelia Choquet after she is expelled from the academy for being in possession of and possibly trafficking in narcotics. Gamache expels her himself, putting her back on the streets. This also ties in to the plot for Gamache and co. to find the drugs that were released into the wild last book before they begin to kill. The second plot was much weaker.
Also weaker was Penny’s writing here. The metaphors creaked and groaned, and the obvious tie-ins to the title were too much for me. While I was all about the inheritance and will drama, and getting to Beauvoir take charge in an investigation for once, the second plot just dind’t work for me. It was painful to see Amelia relapse and lose all her hard work of the past two years. It was painful to see Gamache act so out of character. SPOILERS That it was all a ploy and turned out to be a plan by Gamache and Amelia to find the drugs didn’t make it better END SPOILERS.
I find it interesting that this is a book Penny didn’t intend to write. As she notes in her afterword, Gamache as a character was so tied up with his inspiration, Penny’s recently passed away husband Michael, she didn’t think she could write about him after the loss. But it turns out she could, and he seems to have comforted her, as the series is still going strong three books later.
Worth noting, Penny uses a slur for transgendered people (and women in particular) here many times, and not just from characters who are supposed to be coded as bad, but from good characters as well. Do better, famous author.
[3.5 stars]