Two decades have passed since Armand Gamache joined the crime fiction legions. As the first novel, Still Life, celebrates its 20th anniversary he’s back in The Black Wolf. This is a book that shows author Louise Penny still has her finger firmly on the pulse after all these years.
The Black Wolf follows on from The Grey Wolf, which came out in 2024, and is the 20th novel author’s hugely popular Three Pines series. As it opens, Gamache and his team are still feeling the aftershocks of the domestic terror attack that occurred just weeks ago. For the Sûreté du Québec Chief Inspector, the most profound issue is that he’s lost his hearing and is plagued by tinnitus. Meanwhile, Gamache’s second-in-command and son-in-law, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and deputy Isabelle Lacoste, are also struggling to come to terms with what happened. Once more the members of this compact team must all support each other if they are to get to the truth.
The Grey Wolf finished on a cliffhanger, with Gamache convinced that although they arrested the culprit, they may not have caught the Black Wolf. Nor have they traced others undoubtedly involved in the campaign of terror – in politics, law enforcement, organised crime and big business. Lovers of this series who are content to follow the day-to-day life in a wee town in the Eastern Townships of Quebec will instead find a tale played out on a much bigger canvas – although Three Pines, and its eclectic mix of residents, will have their part too.
There is little cosy about The Black Wolf; instead it makes for at times bleak reading, covering as it does themes of misinformation, environmental disaster and political finagling of the highest order. Penny wrote this book before Donald Trump was elected for his second term as president, but prescient plotting puts shaky Canadian/American relations and threats of a 51st State at its very heart.It makes for scary reading. The fight for power is about to meander along some very strange back roads.
Gamache may be under par, health-wise, but that doesn’t stop him from some off the books investigating, aided by Beauvoir and Lacoste. He becomes certain that they’ve all been barking up the wrong tree – but who exactly is pulling the strings, back there in the shadows? Settle back and marvel at some masterful interplay from the pen of Louise Penny, whose love of exploring the machinations of human nature is given full rein. This is a book to keep you on your toes, with plenty of action, some neat twists and, as always, a demonstration of top-class characterisation.
There are some pivotal scenes played out in the Haskell Free Library and Opera House – a well chosen real-life setting that straddles the border between Canada and the USA and has a fascinating history. But, as ever, it is the scenes in Three Pines that will draw in faithful readers and hold them in thrall. Nevertheless, The Black Wolf has all the hallmarks of a political thriller and moves along at such a lick that at times it pays to take a break from reading and quietly process the ins and outs of what just happened. Let’s just say that some people are not to be trusted and leave it there.
It appears that, like fellow crime fiction legends Harry Bosch and John Rebus, Armand Gamache is starting to show his age; unlike the aforementioned duo, he has a solid personal life, courtesy of his wife Reine-Marie, a faithful team and the motley assortment of Three Pines villagers. If he should ever retire I can see him pottering around the place in a cardigan, specs on a chain around his neck, solving crimes in the style of Miss Marple and getting fat on pastries from the cafe. On this showing, however, it looks like there’s life in the old dog yet – and long may it continue!
The balance of power takes centre stage in Robert Harris’s political thriller, Precipice, reviewed here.
Hodder & Stoughton
Print/Kindle/iBook
£11.99
CFL Rating: 4 Stars
