A review by jenkepesh
The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny

The Gamache series has two main themes: Personal fault and forgiveness is one, and conspiracy theories that go right to the top is the other. Many address both. I am partial to the first, because the fall and redemption arc requires turning one's perspective (often multiple times) and focusing on community. Sigh: This is one of the Grand Conspiracy novels. It has less of the Three Pines community than I'd like, and less of the camaraderie of the core group of police officers than I'd like, though neither is completely shunted to the side. It also has a lot of shadowy evil behavior by people in authority, though there is very little explanation of it (we understand why one bad player is bad, but not the several others, who get their just desserts offstage). Many of the tantalizing clues that started the book are handled pretty clumsily, as if the idea but not the explanation came up in the writing process. It's no worse than lots of thrillers, and the writing style is still a strength of Penny's, but it's definitely not in my top group of Gamache books.