Louise Penny’s 19th mystery in her Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, The Grey Wolf, found the head of the Sûreté du Québec, and his associates, Jean-Guy Beauvoir and Isabelle Lacoste, stopping a plot to poison Montreal’s drinking water. At the end of that mystery, Marcus Lauzon, Canada’s deputy prime minister, is in prison. Things might have settled down, except that Gamache has the nagging feeling that the water plot was just the prelude to an even more devastating plan. The Grey Wolf may have been stopped, but a more vicious enemy – The Black Wolf – is still out there.
Penny’s books are set in the bucolic Three Pines with a fascinating and quirky cast of characters, prime among them the elderly poet, Ruth Zardo, and her duck, Rosa, the duo often supplying humorous intervals. There’s less humor in The Black Wolf with the events being as dark and sinister as the title. “Ripped from the headlines” understates the seriousness of Penny’s theme. And even though it’s fiction, the scenario she lays out is only too real to anyone who has been following the Trump Administration’s moves that have transformed Canada from an ally into an enemy. No wonder the Canadians are taking those threats seriously.
Penny has received some pushback from readers who have posted reviews on Amazon. These fans long for the simpler plots when Gamache and his crew were investigating crimes closer to home. Penny, however, in her acknowledgments, notes that the plot in The Black Wolf “is hauntingly similar to real life.” Saying she wrote the book before Trump began talking about making Canada the 51st state, “I worried that my leaning on that plot point would be unbelievable, but it turns out is far too believable.” While noting that Three Pines “is a haven,” she adds, “sometimes we have to leave, so that the haven does not intentionally become a prison.”
As often happens in fiction, and in real life, the least likely person to uncover what’s happening often does. In this case that person is a young man named Charles Langlois, who was an intern tasked with assessing water quality. He documented his findings in two notebooks, but was mowed down by a car before he could warn Gamache about his findings. Gamache was holding the young man’s hand when he died. The last thing he said, “family,” haunts Gamache. Was it meant for his family? Or a clue? Joseph Moretti, is the head of a powerful mafia family in Canada. Was Charles saying that Moretti was behind the plot?
Chief Inspector Evelyn Tardiff heads up the Sûreté’s organized crime division and often meets with Moretti. Has she gone over to the dark side, now working with Moretti on whatever he is planning? Or is she working for the government and placing herself in danger by spying on Moretti? Whichever it is, Gamache knows he can’t trust Tardiff.
Gamache might have died if he had not been rescued by Jeanne Caron, Lauzon’s assistant. But Gamache can’t trust her, either. In fact those he can trust make up a small circle: his wife Reine-Marie, Beauvoir, who is also his son-in-law, and Lacoste. Going forward, Gamache must tread carefully, bringing into his confidence only those his instincts tell him still are on the side of the angels.
To give away any more of the plot will spoil the experience. And while it’s not necessary to read all 20 Gamache mysteries, before you tackle The Black Wolf, read The Grey Wolf. And then pray that we can somehow ward off what Penny outlines in her book before it’s too late.
The Black Wolf
Louise Penny
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