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389 pages, Hardcover
First published November 27, 2018
The taxi let Armand off where it had picked him up. Outside the offices of Horowitz Investments. They were just down rue Sherbrooke from the Musée des Beaux-Arts and Holt Renfrew. On Montréal’s Golden Mile, where glass towers were fronted by old Greystone mansions.Never rains but pours. At least, in the cold Quebec winter it never was just minus something. It was deadly cold... and below the soil the bindweed was waiting...
A cab ride, and a lifetime, away from where he’d just been. What separated them, Gamache knew, wasn’t hard work but good fortune and blind luck. That picked some and not others. That introduced some to opioids and not others. Five years ago, two years, even a year ago, the futures of the ghastly figures on the street looked very different. And then someone introduced them to a painkiller. An opioid. And all the promise, all the good fortune of birth and affluence—of a loving family, of education—were no match for what came next.
My heart was light. Even as I wrote about some very dark themes, it was with gladness. With relief. That I get to keep doing this. Far from leaving Michael behind, he became even more infused in the books. All the things we had came together, in Three Pines. Love, companionship, friendship. His integrity. His courage. Laughter. I realized, too, that the books are far more than Michael. Far more than Gamache. They're the common yearning for community. For belonging. They're about kindness, acceptance. Gratitude. They're not so much about death, as life. And the consequences of the choices we make.And this, I realized, was why I wanted to rate this novel five stars. The Armand Gamache series is like no other I have ever read in this genre, except perhaps for Martin Walker's Bruno, Chief Of Police series playing out in rural France. Similar concept, similar winning recipe.