Armand Gamache is back to work. After an enormous shakeup of almost the entire Surete, he is back to his old job as head of homicide. That is, once his protege and son-in-law Jean-Guy Beauvoir resigns to move to Paris with his wife and son. But for this last case, Beauvoir is still in charge.
Vivienne Godin has gone missing. Her father said that she was leaving her no-good husband, Tracey. Local Surete officers have been called to their place several times for domestic abuse, only to be told she wouldn’t press charges against her husband. But this day was different. She was leaving. With her unborn child.
Under normal circumstances, this would be a fairly routine missing person investigation. However, these circumstances are far from normal.
Due to heavy storms, the river that runs through the province of Quebec, The Saint Lawrence River, is higher than usual. The spring thaws are starting to break up the ice, but there is so much water that it’s threatening to flood its banks. Not only would that affect Quebec City, it would affect all the small towns that were built along its shores. Including the charming village of Three Pines.
While most of the Surete are called out to help prevent flooding, while Ruth Zardo and her pet duck Rosa oversee the filling and piling of sand bags at the edge of the river by Three Pines, while Chief Inspectors Gamache and Beauvoir try to find a missing woman, the forces that churn under the surface threaten to break through. The river churns with water and ice and debris and secrets. The investigators churn with questions and suspicions and frustration and a rising sense of dread.
Surely, this man who is so quick to hit his wife is the one who killer her, right? But the bigger question is can they prove it? Can they put together a case so airtight as to lock this man up forever? And will they be able to do that before Vivienne’s father’s rage breaks through all the barriers?
Louie Penny’s fifteenth book in her beloved Gamache mystery series is a torment of questions with no answers, of muddied morality and police procedures. It seems that with each book, Penny wants to push up deeper into the darkness in our souls, to take us on a journey through our own ethical dilemmas and force us to face all our doubts, shortcomings, secrets, and lies. A Better Man is no different. It floods us with emotions and reminds us that inside each of us is a better man, just waiting to see where our choices take us.
As always, I loved this book. Much of this book takes place away from Three Pines, near but not quite there, so the village’s comfort feels slightly removed as well. The slow buildup of the floodwaters, the use of social media trolls to build an undercurrent of negativity and misdirection, and the scars from previous battles all come together to create a genuine feeling of menace through most of this story. And the warmth of Myrna’s bookstore, the fires burning at the cafe, the quick offering of a sandwich or a drink all linger just off the page, just out of reach, for most of this story. But the journey is worth it. Finding out who you really are when it seems everyone is against you is important, and it’s just as powerful a trip for the reader as it is for the characters of this story.
I highly recommend A Better Man, just like I highly recommend all of Penny’s books. But know that the person you will be at the end of this book will not the be the same as the one who started it.
Galleys for A Better Man were provided by Minotaur Books through Edelweiss, with many thanks.