Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, Book #12
The the main character of Louise Penny’s outstanding mystery series, Armand Gamache, returns to solve another mystery in A Great Reckoning. In this installment, he must solve a murder, uncover a complicated corruption scheme, and he must also face some painful truths about his own past — revealing secrets he has been keeping for most of his life — in order to solve the crimes.
When the previous book ended, Armand was faced with answering the question “what next?” What would be the next chapters in his personal and professional lives? That question is answered in the opening chapters when Penny reveals that Armand has come out of retirement to take over running the Sûreté du Québec Academy. Armand hopes to undo the damage that years of abusive leadership has wrought and to help lead the young cadets in becoming wise and respectful officers.
When Armand took over the Academy, he fired most of the old professors and hired new ones to lead the students without cruelty. However, he left in place the most corrupt, cruelest, and most abusive of the old professors — Serge Le Duke — in the hope that having the man on campus would help Armand uncover proof of his corruption and place him in prison.
A few months into his tenure, Armand feels that he is making progress with the students and feels that the safer, more accepting Academy culture is training a new generation of talented investigators. Armand is wrong.
Serge Le Duke is found murdered, execution style, in his private rooms and all of the evidence suggests that either a student or professor was responsible for the crime. Immediately, four students emerge as central to the case. Armand and the other investigators know that these students know more than they are telling, but are they covering up committing the crime? Or are they covering up information that would lead to the killer?
In a questionably legal decision, Armand moves the four cadets to his home village of Three Pines for the duration of the investigation. To keep the cadets busy, he tasks them with finding out the origins of a mysterious map that has been found in the village and — baffling, a copy of the same map was found in the murdered man’s rooms — to see if the students can find out how the map relates to the case.
Armand’s decisions regarding the new rules at the Academy; his choice of cadets he admitted to the school; his decision to move the four cadets to Three Pines; and his decision to leave a corrupt man in a power position are all cloaked in mystery. In order to catch the killer, Armand must answer these questions and many more about his shady actions in the recent months; his answers will not only expose his secrets to his family and colleagues, but also expose secrets that may harm the four cadets at the center of the mystery.
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