Winter of Discontent

A Great Reckoning

Book Name- A Great Reckoning
Author- Louise Penny
Publisher- Hachette
Pages- 467
Price- 399

As winter settles its snowy mantle around the tiny village of Three Pines, in Quebec, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, former head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is preparing for his new role as the commander of the Surete Academy, where future agents and officers are trained. Gamache’s academic idyll is shattered when a former detective and professor at the academy turns up murdered on his first day at the job. Worse still, a strange map of Three Pines is found on the victim’s person, dragging Gamache’s quiet pied la terre into an increasingly bizarre criminal investigation.

In the 12th novel featuring Gamache, celebrated Canadian crime novelist Lousie Penny slowly unravels her tale in between conversations and breakfasts of maple-cured bacon and scrambled eggs with Brie. It’s little wonder that Penny has won the Agatha Award five times in a row. Even though he’s no mountebank, Gamache’s little grey cells are no less developed than a certain Belgian detective. Perfect to curl up with this and a big mug of cocoa or something stronger.