Once again, it’s time to take a trip. Usually this time of year, we head to Canada, to a small village outside of Quebec that has a surprisingly high crime rate. But this year is different. This year, instead of going to Three Pines, we will be heading to Paris. Armand Gamache, head of homicide for the Surete de Quebec, is taking some time for family in France. He and his wife are visiting their son Daniel and his family, their pregnant daughter Annie and her family, and Gamache’s godfather Stephen Horowitz.
After a family dinner at one of their favorite restaurants, they are walking back to their apartments when a van appears out of nowhere, hits Horowitz, and disappears into the Paris night. Gamache and his wife both saw it happen, and they are certain it was intentional. They go with Stephen to the hospital and report the attack to the police, but the local officers seem to think it was merely a hit and run, not a murder attempt. Gamache reaches out to his old friend, Claude Dussault, Paris’s Prefect of Police.
Dussault knows Horowitz, knows of his reputation for taking evil companies down, and he realizes the importance of the attack on his life. He takes the investigation seriously, putting his second-in-command on the case. But it’s not until they find a dead man at Stephen’s apartment that the case takes center stage at the Prefect. Eventually they identify the dead man as an engineer friend of Horowitz, but Gamache has no idea what his godfather had been working on.
Gamache wants to help his godfather, who survives the accident—but just barely—but can’t figure out what company he’d been investigating until he assembles a new team to help him in Paris. First, there is his former second-in-command, now his son-in-law, Jean-Guy Beauvoir. His wife, Reine-Marie and her friends, the top archivists in Paris. His son Daniel, a banker who has an understanding of business. And his old friend Dussault. Add a few more experts who are drawn to Gamache’s leadership, and slowly, you can see Gamache putting the pieces together. But he is clearly going up against those who have no qualms about killing those who get in their way. Will Gamache be able to figure it all out in time to keep his family safe, or will be mistakenly trust the wrong person, putting them all in mortal danger?
All the Devils Are Here is the 16th book in this series of novels about the man Chief Inspector Gamache and those who find themselves in his orbit. Having this book set in Paris allows us to see a different side of Gamache, to find out more of his origins, to see how he became the man he is. There is an exploration of France’s role in World War II, how the Nazis were in Paris for a while, along with those who sympathized with them and those who resisted. As always, the different strands of the story end up coming together with a dazzling brilliance, stemming from the fact that Gamache understands you can only see the whole picture if you ask and answer the right questions.
Starting All the Devils Are Here, I was a little apprehensive. I love the little village of Three Pines like another character, like a favorite vacation spot, and I wasn’t sure how much I could enjoy a Gamache novel that takes place on the other side of the world. As it turns out, I can enjoy it thoroughly, as I got to learn a lot more about the man and the father Gamache. And clearly, I wasn’t the only one feeling a little homesick, as the residents and warmth of Three Pines came up more than once from members of the Gamache family, particularly using words like Ruth, duck, and that iconic quack of Rosie.
I got to listen to the audio version of this, and narrator Robert Bathurst brought the story to life. Not only does he tell this story of good versus evil with pathos and dignity, but he also has a way of giving each character a distinctive voice. As I pictured these scenes in my head, I knew immediately which character was speaking based only on his inflections and timbre. I imagine that there are other narrators who do that, but that fact that I noticed it this time, that I thought it was so superbly done , must mean that Bathurst is a masterful storyteller. Clearly not someone happy with change, I was a huge fan of the late Ralph Cosham as a narrator for Gamache. I’ve read the last several books instead of listening, since I was reluctant to bring another narrator into my world. But I was wrong. Bathurst breathes life into All the Devils Are Here, and now I have the perfect excuse to go back and listen to all the Gamache novels he’s narrated, to enjoy them all over again.
I am a huge, consistent Louise Penny cheerleader, so it shouldn’t be a surprise when I saw that I loved this book! I devoured it in days, and I recommend it to anyone who is craving a mystery novel with depth, grace, greed, maliciousness, humor, an alcoholic poet, and a man who cannot rest until he does everything he can to confront the evil he comes across. Louise Penny writes with depth and wisdom, ingenuity and warmth, and her books are not to be missed!
A copy of the audio book for All the Devils Are Here was provided by Macmillan audio through NetGalley, with many thanks.
