A Great Reckoning

I have had this latest Louise Penny "Inspector Gamache" mystery (the 12th in the series and I have devoured them all) for several weeks, but was just kind of hoarding it. Once I started reading it, though, I was in til the finish. Down and done in one day--I love being retired. As always, the characters are richly developed and it's a treat to watch the relationships evolve. For example, Jean Guy is now married to Gamache's daughter, Annie, and they are expecting their first child. Gamache has decided he has been retired long enough and decides to accept one of many job offers he has received. He will take over the running of the Surete Academy and find the source of the corruption that is turning out such cruel and abusive graduates. He has already brought down many in the Surete itself for corruption and this promises to be an equally great challenge. He fires some faculty and brings in his own, but also keeps a few bad apples in house where he can continue to build cases against them. Little does he realize just how bad things have become. A seemingly separate mystery is unleashed when the women in Three Pines decide to help Olivier go through some papers that were found stuffed in the bistro's walls when they remodeled. Among the newspapers, and letters is an orienteering map that seems to show the way to Three Pines. And yet, the village is not on any of the official maps of Quebec. How did a whole village get disappeared? When a copy of the map shows up in the bedside table of a faculty member who is murdered, cadets and Commander come under investigation. It is just amazing to me that Penny comes up with such deliciously twisty plots and convinces even her long-time fans that, just maybe, Gamache could be the murderer.
As I checked Louise Penny's web site for a picture to include here, I found out that her husband had recently died. Her letter about his last days is here.