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rach 's review for:
A Great Reckoning
by Louise Penny
Another mystery featuring Gamache, now the commander at the police academy and set on rooting out the corruption that has led to a new generation of officers full of cruelty. I always love Louise Penny’s lyrical writing, and this book features many beautiful lines about character, honesty, integrity, and kindness. These virtues shine especially bright when she contrasts them with truly evil actions and cruel people. There’s a few mysteries intertwining as well, from murder to conspiracy to digging into history to solve a puzzle. Some of these stories are interconnected, but it’s hard to figure out how at times, and which ones are completely incidental.
I had a hard time with this one because I deeply dislike when Gamache is being persecuted, especially unfairly, and the “unbiased” independent investigator Paul Gélinas was particularly annoying. I couldn’t figure out why he was so intent on aiming circumstantial evidence at Gamache and insisting he was the murderer, until the end. Hearing Jack constantly bad mouthing Gamache was also incredibly annoying, though I know he was just an abused, scared young man echoing the thoughts of the evil man who had manipulated him for years.
I can’t say I felt that connected to the other cadets, either, mostly because I didn’t know if they could be trusted! Even Amelia, who I was pretty sure hadn’t done anything, was off-putting most of the time. I guessed pretty early on who Amelia was to Gamache, and shame on Gamache’s friends for even *thinking* he could ever cheat on Reine-Marie. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
I don’t think this is one I would re-read, but it’s worth reading if you enjoy the series as a whole. I always enjoy seeing life in the village, with all our favorite neighbors, and it’s interesting to see things in Three Pines that have seemed like background props suddenly become relevant to the story.
Here are some of the lines I liked the most:
“Secrets don’t make you powerful, they make you weak.”
“Character is not created in times like these, it is revealed.”
“Don’t believe everything you think.”
“Kindness beats cruelty in the long run.”
“Being lost is so much worse than being on the wrong road. That’s why people stay on it so long.”
“We are all of us marred and scarred and imperfect. We make mistakes. We do things we deeply regret. We are tempted, and sometimes we give in to that temptation. Not because we are bad or weak, but because we’re human.“
“It’s our humanity that allows us to find criminals, but it also means we care, and get hurt in places that don’t bleed. Every day, when I see this scar in the mirror… it reminds me of the pain—mine, but mostly theirs. But also it reminds me every day of the healing, of the kindness that exists. We are introduced to goodness everyday, even in drawing rooms among a crowd of faults. It’s so easy to get mired in the all-too-obvious cruelty of the world. It’s natural. But to really heal, we need to recognize the goodness, too.”