Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A thriller in Paris.

All the Devils Are Here (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #16) by Louise Penny

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This was a major improvement on the last few books. It feels like Penny is getting her groove back. This book featured an implausibly large conspiracy, and I didn’t even think to complain about it once! The whole book takes place in Paris. Gamache and Reine-Marie are in Paris because Annie and Beauvoir’s baby is coming, and they want to be there for the birth (they moved to Paris last book, if you recall). The Gamache’s other son Daniel, who I dislike, also lives in […]

Hopefully the last one of these I three-star for a while.

A Better Man (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #15) by Louise Penny

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Not too much to say about this one. Not one of my favorites of this series. Parts of it I really liked, and parts of it I really did not. It’s been over a month now, and I’ve read 1,000 books since then, so I’m really not remembering specifics here. I remember there was a missing woman, and that plotline was interesting. I wished I was more interested in the plotline where Gamache comes back to be the head of the homicide department, a move […]

The weakest one of these in a while.

Kingdom of the Blind (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #14) by Louise Penny

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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 […]

Everything bad will always happen in Three Pines.

Glass Houses (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #13) by Louise Penny

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Firstly, I’m glad I just gave in pretty early on and accepted that Three Pines is the improbable murder capital of the world, and now let’s also add on to that hub of weapons of mass destruction (from two books ago) and drug trafficking. If you suspend your disbelief, this series is a lot more fun. Which is really necessary for this book. You’ve just got to buy in at the beginning, otherwise it’s not going to work for you. Because in this one, Gamache […]

“There is always a road back. If we have the courage to look for it, and take it. I’m sorry. I was wrong. I don’t know. I need help. These are the signposts. The cardinal directions.”

A Great Reckoning (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #12) by Louise Penny

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This is one of my favorites in this series so far, right up there with #5 and #9. It gave me everything that I like about this series with very little of what I don’t. A lot of authors by book twelve are just turning the cogs, phoning it in, and things can get stale. Penny at the very least seems to know how to keep things feeling fresh and new, and yet still give you the comfort of returning to check in with the […]

“Knowledge wasn’t always power. Sometimes it was crippling.”

The Nature of the Beast (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #11) by Louise Penny

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This wasn’t what I was expecting, but I ended up having a pleasant enough time of it. The blurb makes it seem like it’s going to be all about a serial killer, but he’s really more of a tertiary concern throughout. Mostly, this book is about the murder of Laurent Lepage, nine years old, and what his death uncovers hiding in the woods behind Three Pines. Gamache and Reine-Marie have both retired to Three Pines, and Lacoste is now the acting head of homicide, with […]



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