A Better Man

by Louise Penny

I was eagerly awaiting this new book by Louise Penny.  However, I have to say I was quite disappointed by the story.

As the story starts Armand Gamache has been investigated for a police investigation and gun battle in the last book.  He is being pilloried by his superiors and the Premiere.   They are trying to get him to resign by removing him from his position and offering him the demotion job of Head of Homicide (which he held years before).  This is is a big comedown from his position of Head of the Surete.  To their surprise and frustration he accepts.  He will take over from his son-in-law who is leaving for France for a non-police position.

A major rainfall and potential flooding event is about to fall on Quebec.  Gamache makes some suggestions about how to mitigate the flood by cutting channels in fields.  His superiors and government officials do not appreciate his input.

So this is the main reason why I did not enjoy this story, the whole pick on Gamache theme.  In addition do his dealings with his superiors and the provincial officials someone is posting on Facebook/Instagram that he is a failure and botched the previous job.  There is a lot of chatter against him as a result of this.

One of the police officers that Gamache had previously wooed to homicide announces that her goddaughter is missing and asks for her disappearance to be investigated.  Even though it is not homicide's role and she has only been gone for a short time Gamache and the officer start investigating.  The woman was married to a pottery and was the victim of domestic abuse.  They meet a policeman who had responded to calls to the property.  He seems more than casually interested in the woman.  The woman's husband is suspected as he is an abuser and an alcoholic with a quick temper but so far they cannot pin anything on him.  The young officer tries to get some information by posing as an art gallery interested in his work.  Her sleuthing turns up the fact that the husband and the woman who is doing his social media might be more than just work colleagues.

While they are investigating Quebec is flooding, including at 3 Pines.

While all this is going on there is a side story about the 3 Pines artist Clare.  She had received some substantial acclaim previously but recently produced some miniatures which have received a lot of criticism.  She is having trouble dealing with the criticism.  Then a young internet 'influencer" about art comes to 3 pines, meets her and sees her work. This person also pans her miniatures.  People who have bought her art now wish to get their money back.  She is devastated.
That is all there is to this story.  I don't know what point it had in the book other than to parallel Gamache's being trashed on the Internet.

While they are investigating the damage caused by the flooding the missing woman's body is discovered in the river near 3 pines.  Her car is found on a bridge nearby.

Things get worse for Gamache as footage of other firefights he was in are shown and the parts that are shown online are not complimentary to him (but they do not show the entire story).

It seems that the poet Ruth might have put up this footage to try to salvage his reputation but she denies doing it.  It eventually turns out it was one of Gamache's superiors who did it.  I am not clear as to why she did it, Gamache had helped her get her job.

In the end they find out that the police officer who originally brought up the missing woman actually was the one who killed her accidentally.  The officer was angry at the woman for taking advantage of her father, asking for money.  The officer is in love with the woman's father but he seems to have rebuffed her for his daughter.

I usually really enjoy the characters, the quirkiness, the not quite up to police procedure behaviour of Gamache but this time I found all the conspiracy stuff against him hard to take and hard to understand.  This was probably my least or second least favourite of all her books.

I will be interested in seeing how Gamache fares without his side-kick son-in-law.  As all of Gamache's children and their families are now in France it makes you wonder why he and his wife bother to stay in Quebec.  It seem he cannot let go of his passion to right wrongs.