The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny: Reading Room Review

 

I was glad to learn that the new Armand Gamache book would take place post pandemic, as I thought that the story might be gentler on me and less stressful than one set during the pandemic. However, as I started reading, I quickly realized that a new threat of contagion is featured in The Madness of Crowds. This would be a challenging read, one of good versus evil, humanity versus survival of the fittest, with the direst consequences. I wasn’t sure I was up to the read, the battle which Armand would surely have to wage, and, the book is 436 pages, so it would be a long battle. Was I too weary of world dooming struggles? Of course, the deciding factor was that this was a favorite series by one of the most amazingly talented authors I’ve read. In the end, I trusted Louise Penny, that she would not only give me a read I could handle, but one which I could embrace with heart and soul. Few authors touch readers’ emotions like Louise. Well, I couldn’t put this book down and read straight through the weekend. The writing is so damn good, the story is so compelling, and the characters are completely captivating.

The Madness of Crowds opens when the pandemic has been over for some months and people are gathering again. In our beloved Three Pines it is the week between Christmas and New Year’s, and all our favorite characters are convened, even Armand’s children and grandchildren. Myrna has her bookstore open, Gabri and Olivier are serving hot chocolate and scotch at the Bistro, Monsieur Beliveau’s General Store is providing necessities, and bakery goods once more tempt the villagers at Sarah’s boulangerie. The Christmas trees and lights are still up, and even the notable three pines in the square are festive with lights. 

But, Gamache must leave the holiday atmosphere when he receives a call from the Chief Superintendent of the Surete du Quebec who has assigned Gamache and his homicide department a security detail only three kilometers from Three Pines. It is for a lecture given by a statistician at what is now an old gym at the Universite de l’Estrie. Gamache is dumbfounded that the Chief of Homicide and his team are being asked to handle a security task. However, when Gamache reads up on Professor Abigail Robinson, the lecturing statistician, he realizes why the event requires the utmost concern. Abigail Robinson is using the pandemic deaths to instill a new fear and unthinkable agenda to the Canadian people and beyond. Robinson’s proposals are shocking, but there are many listening to her ideas and agreeing. 

Despite the wintry conditions, the old gymnasium fills to capacity. Although Armand and Jean-Guy have a personal reason to especially abhor the immoral message of Abigail Robinson, her life has been threatened, and they must honor their jobs to protect her. There is indeed an attempt made on Professor Robinson’s life at the lecture, but what terrifies Gamache is that the videos of Robinson pale in comparison to a live visual of her unnerving control over a crowd. 

Murder does soon find its way to the Abigail Robinson campaign of horror, and it lands smack dab in the middle of Three Pines at the Auberge’s New Year’s Eve party. Robinson is still visiting and attends the party as the guest of the university’s chancellor. With the distractions of fireworks and a New Year’s Eve countdown on the television, a life is taken, and someone doesn’t quite make it to the stroke of midnight. There are multiple suspects who turn out to have opportunity and motive, but it will require a pertinacious effort from Gamache and his two most trusted and tried agents before the why will out the who. 

One of the thrills of this series for me is how Armand and Jean-Guy and Isabelle dig so deep into the lives of those involved in the crime, caring very much about that why, as well as the who. They know that murder often has a long reach to the past, and this murder seems especially so inclined. The psychological analysis that goes with the investigation, of both victim and suspects, is fascinating. Gamache talks about pulling at different threads to uncover the secrets and clues that lie at their ends and putting the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together until the last piece makes sense of it all. As Gamache looks at all the different threads and pieces of an investigation and suspects, readers will find themselves examining their own reactions and thoughts. Penny cleverly gets the reader to dig down deep, too. 

Meanwhile, Reine-Marie has taken on a job of helping to sort through papers of a recently deceased elderly woman who lived nearby. The daughter of the deceased thought that Reine-Marie’s archival skills would help distinguish any important papers from those which could be discarded. Reine-Marie is bewildered at finding pictures of monkeys drawn on letters and documents, and monkey trinkets, too. It’s an inexplicable, unusual pattern, and there’s an interesting story of the 100 Monkey Theory that comes up, but the connection to the rest of the storyline doesn’t seem to be there, until it is. The horror revealed is based on a true story. 

Fans of this series know that the characters are second to none in their development and reader investment. Is there any character (or characters) more loved than the poet Ruth Zardo and her duck Rosa. The whole Three Pines community is an extended family, and we cheer them on with their accomplishments and mourn with them in their sorrows. In this book we get to see Jean-Guy as the amazing father he is becoming and Clara developing a sense of humor and ease with her artwork. Following Gamache and Jean-Guy and Isabelle in their thinking through the case is like watching another kind of art. With our Surete crew, we are privy to so much meaning behind actions and hidden connections. I become mesmerized by the intricacies of their investigations.

And, the new characters for each book are deeply layered, too. One of the intriguing characters added for this story is Haniya Daoud. Haniya is a young woman in her early twenties who suffered kidnapping, torture, and rape as a young girl in Africa’s Sudan. Escaping and freeing her fellow captives earned her the name Hero of the Sudan. She’s a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize. Why is she in Three Pines? What exactly should the demeanor of a “saint” be? Oh, Louise Penny does make a reader think. 

The time setting of after the pandemic for The Madness of Crowds proves an important one. With all the crack-pot theories and misinformation slung about during the pandemic and even before, it’s easy to hope that the end of the pandemic will reset the world to a better state. But, we see in this story that people are desperate for assurances that it can’t happen again, that they can be kept safe. They want someone to tell them how to avoid the dangers of another plague, where hospitals are overrun and have no beds left. So, someone, in this instance Abigail Robinson, comes along and offers people a plan to protect themselves. The cost is their humanity, but many are willing to pay that price. I can’t deny that I was distressed by the plan and its growing acceptance, as the disregard for others has been prevalent in the pandemic we’ve experienced in real life. Plausibility is all too close to the surface. 

The Madness of Crowds is the 17th Inspector Gamache book, and it’s clear that Louise Penny is not losing any steam in the writing of this series. I have enjoyed every book and found each one to have its own compelling personality. Louise Penny doesn’t shy away from the darkness or hard realities, but she reminds us that the broken places are where the light gets in. There are so many insightful quotations throughout Penny’s books, and I found them giving me hope with their counters to despair. The snippets of poetry from Ruth Zardo’s poems are pause points for me to feel a depth of connection to the world. The Madness of Crowds encapsulates all the best that is Louise Penny’s writing, and I enthusiastically recommend it. 

I’m grateful to Minotaur Publishing for an advanced copy of The Madness of Crowds, and I have given an honest review here of its reading.

The Pact by Sharon Bolton: Reading Room Review

 

Sharon Bolton writes some of the best psychological thrillers in the crime/mystery genre. I have read all her books since the beginning, with Sacrifice being the first, followed by two more stand-alones, then her Lacey Flint series, and starting in 2015, back to stand-alones. This author has rarely missed the mark for me. This year, The Pact is out, and I was once more excited to read a Sharon Bolton book. I consider myself a slow reader, but I really did do that “one more chapter” progression, and I was finished in no time. I was on the edge of my seat most of the time while reading it, as Bolton keeps the suspense ratcheted up high and steady. It’s impossible to determine where the danger is coming from next. With the use of third person, readers get to feel the fear and anguish of the different characters as the spotlight is shined on each. However, there is a lingering unknown, an unreliability of narration, that leaves doubt as to what is really going on. I found myself leaning one way and then another as to who was the evil-doer or doers in this tale. Of course, that’s how a good thriller should work, keeping you on your toes and on the edge of that seat.

The premise of The Pact is not a new one, but Bolton’s take on it intrigued me. There are six high school friends who are involved in a tragic death, and they are bound to a pact as to how to handle it. The only truly accurate description of their solution is that they choose a cluster-fuck of a plan. These are six young lives on the cusp of bright futures. They are waiting for their A-level results from All Souls School, an elite school in Oxford, and the night before the results sees them gathered at Talitha’s grand home, trying to get through the night before they learn their fates. Megan is the only scholarship student; the others have grown up with lives of privilege. But, they are all part of the senior prefect team, and Megan is the head girl. Expectations are great, but no one is sure of their grades until the official reveal. Doing well guarantees their acceptance into a prestigious university and the path to a successful future. 

With anxiety running high, the friends are looking for distractions. Megan, Talitha, Xav, Daniel, Amber, and Felix were already drinking, but that isn’t doing the job. Felix, whose looming physical presence seems to command attention suggests a dangerous game that everyone in the group but Daniel has had a turn at. It doesn’t take long until the group has loaded into Felix’s mother’s car, with Daniel at the wheel. The game consists of driving the wrong way down a major roadway from one junction to the next, about two miles. The only two who think this is a good idea that night are Felix and Xav. The driver Daniel is terrified, but the others all did it and remained unscathed, so it begins. This time does not end up back at Talitha’s house laughing and drinking more. When headlights appear coming toward the group’s car, Daniel panics and drives toward the lights instead of away. A last-minute grab of the wheel by Felix saves the cars from colliding, but tragedy isn’t avoided. The other car crashes, and all its occupants are killed. 

The night that was supposed to be their last hurrah turns into a night of shattered souls. With ruined lives hanging over all their heads, Megan does the unbelievable. She offers to take the sole blame for what happened and to go to prison for it. But, she makes them all sign a paper that each of them will owe her a favor when she gets out, a favor they can’t refuse. Taking a photo with the group holding the paper ensures its authenticity, and she hides the proof before turning herself into the police. 

The prison term is longer than anticipated, but Megan is out in twenty years, and she assures her “friends” that she still has the proof and expects her favors. From the way Megan resurfaces to the different five to the favors she finally asks will turn everyone’s successfully established lives upside down. 

Bolton’s characters are always interesting and always well developed, and that continues in The Pact. However, the characters in this story are not very likeable. The five who let Megan take the blame all have moments where the reader will think they might be redeemable, but they quickly revert to their unsavory plotting. Megan is the character I most wanted to like, and she is the most likeable, but even she shows a cruel side in this double-dealing game of cat and mouse. Bolton cleverly engages the reader in the game of who can be trusted and who deserves sympathy, pitting her characters against one another and her readers following suit.

I enthusiastically recommend The Pact, but I would be remiss in my reviewing if I didn’t include that I was bothered by the ending a bit. It’s not that I disagreed with the ending, but I felt like it lacked a certain amount of plausibility due to the clues not clearly adding up. It was a dearth of development in the “why” and the “who” for me. However, it was an ending I could live with, and it doesn’t alter the fact that the book was a great read.

Golden Age of Mystery Author Bio, Patricia Wentworth: Guest Post by Aubrey Hamilton

Today on the Reading Room blog we have guest blogger Aubrey Hamilton sharing her Golden Age mystery knowledge about one of that period's authors, Patricia Wentworth.  I am starting to explore this period more myself, so I'm delighted that Aubrey agreed to write a piece on one of the authors about whom I'm curious.  Pay close attention to the books Aubrey suggests in the Miss Silver mysteries, as she has warned me repeatedly not to start with the first one in it, and she knows of what she speaks.  The Case of William Smith is just $1.99 on Kindle.

 

 

  Dora Amy Elles (1877^---1961), who wrote as Patricia Wentworth, was born in India during the British Raj and was educated in England. She began publishing in 1910 and steadily produced novels, mysteries, and poems, more than 60 volumes, until the end of her life. See more biographical detail and a bibliography here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Wentworth

She’s mostly known for 32 Miss Silver mysteries. Miss Maud Silver is a former governess turned private investigator. I have not discovered exactly how that transformation took place. She consults with the upper class of English society. Each happy client refers friends and relatives to her and she has no need to advertise. She is often compared to Miss Marple, with good reason. However, Miss Silver always knew she would have to earn a living, unlike Miss Marple, and she is well aware of her value. She is accepted and consulted by Scotland Yard, most notably Frank Abbott, who rises through the ranks during the series, one of the few changes over the course of the stories. His relationship with Miss Silver mirrors Miss Marple’s relationship with Dermot Craddock of Scotland Yard.

The first book in the series Grey Mask (1928) is considered by most of her fans to be the worst. Ten years later Wentworth brought Miss Silver to life again in The Case Is Closed (1937) and thereafter she made nearly annual appearances for another 25 years. The bulk of the series, 26 books, was produced between 1940 and 1955 and consequently deals with the war and its impact on everyday life. Not surprisingly, people who are thought to be dead but come back home after all are a recurring theme in Wentworth’s plots. It crops up more than once in the Miss Silver stories, although not as often as amnesia does. I count at least five Miss Silver books in which amnesia is a central plot point. Two of those books include a main character thought to be dead but is found living with amnesia, an occurrence not unheard in the aftermath of the bombings in England.

A romance is an essential element of each story. Like Ellis Peters and the Brother Cadfael mysteries, Wentworth couldn’t seem to write a book without a young couple whose romance depends on the discovery of the culprit. These characters in her early books often crop up in the later ones, as they send their friends to Miss Silver for assistance.

Miss Silver did not marry but she has nieces that serve in lieu of daughters. She is much taken up with their lives, not the least of which is her knitting for them. She is always knitting something. Baby blankets, sweaters, socks, it never stops. In a recent discussion on the Facebook Golden Age Detection page, someone mentioned her plan to create a table of Miss Silver titles and add the item being constructed by Miss Silver during the investigation as well as its color and its prospective owner.

Unlike contemporary mystery series, there is no character development in the Miss Silver books. Miss Silver looks and acts pretty much the same throughout all 26 books. This means the books can largely be treated as stand-alone and series order is irrelevant. Good titles for new readers to start with include The Chinese Shawl (1943), The Case of William Smith (1948), and Poison in the Pen (1955). I think that perhaps Miss Silver Deals with Death (1943) may be my favorite. See my reviews here for more information on other titles for consideration.

 

Aubrey Hamilton's Review of Out of the Past by Patricia Wentworth

Aubrey Hamilton's Review of She Came Back by Patricia Wentworth

Aubrey Hamilton's Review of The Clock Strikes Twelve by Patricia Wentworth

Aubrey Hamilton's Review of Through the Wall by Patricia Wentworth

Hard copies can be difficult or expensive to locate. Electronic versions for Kindle are often on sale for $1.99 on Amazon.

 

 

 Don't forget to visit Aubrey's blog, "Happiness is a Book," where she regularly reviews Golden Age mysteries and provides fascinating information about that period and its authors.  https://happinessisabook.com/  

Last Seen Wearing by Hillary Waugh: Reading Room Review

 

“That’s what the police business is all about.  A lot of leg work, a lot of disappointments, and a lot of waiting.”

During the last year I’ve become interested in classic mystery/crime books, including the Golden Age of Mystery and other classics into the 50s and 60s.  And, I’m not alone in this interest, as the last decade has seen a huge increase or renewal in reading and discussing classic crime books.  There are some great publishing  sources for reading the best of American and British classics.  For America authors there is The Library of Congress Crime Classics, bringing back to print works from the 1860s to the 1960s, and  Penzler Publishing's American Mystery Classics.  For British classic authors, there is British Library Crime Classics, which include many short story collections (and many of those are edited by my friend and classics expert Martin Edwards).  I’m making a bit of a research project in approaching what I want to read in these revived stories, looking for books and authors associated with impacting the world of crime fiction in ways that intrigue me.  Of course, my love of mystery/crime reading has its roots in the Golden Age's Queen of Mystery, Dame Agatha Christie, and I have been lately adding more and more of the British Library Crime Classics short story collections and the reissued LOC classics and Penzler classics.  And, let me add that the covers for all of the reissued publications are why I buy the print copies.  I have started my renewed reading in earnest with an American author and book entitled Last Seen Wearing by Hillary Waugh, a novel credited with being the first critically acclaimed and successful in the sub-genre of police procedurals. 

What the reader gets is just that, a murder case which is step by step what the police are doing to solve it. The focus is the police work.  The police themselves, including the police chief in charge, are only developed as characters as far as what their police work shows about them. They aren’t portrayed as especially brilliant or intuitive, just as regular people doing their best in an often difficult job. Chief Frank Ford is gruff and not emotional, but he’s indefatigable in his pursuit of the guilty. Detective Sergeant Burton Cameron has a college education and an extended vocabulary, which he likes to use to annoy the Chief. Home life and life outside that of police work is left unexplored. The reader only learns that Chief Ford’s wife is most considerate of his being on a case and has food waiting for him when he arrives home, and the chief has a teenage daughter. Those relationships are not examined. The only character sketches being developed are pictures of who the victim was and who fits the profile of the murderer.

The story is straight forward, no complex layers of past history and subterfuge. Of course, there are secrets uncovered about the victim and the murderer, as those come with unraveling how two people come together, and one ends up dead. Hillary Waugh was influenced by the radio show Dragnet in which the focus is on “just the facts.” Chief Ford and his men (again, it’s 1950, explaining the absence of women) doggedly pursue the evidence to assure justice.  The social mores of the time period are ever present in the uncovering of evidence. 

The narrative opens on March 3rd,1950, and Lowell Mitchell is a freshman student at Parker College for Women in Bristol, Massachusetts. By nighttime, her roommate and friends realize that the last time anyone has seen her was at noon on that day. The housemother of the dorm complex and the warden of the school are  notified in the wee hours of the morning on the 4^th, and it’s determined that Lowell didn’t check out to leave the campus.  Wanting to avoid any scandal or publicity, Ms. Kendall, the warden, waits until the afternoon to notify the police.   

Chief Frank Ford is called in to find the girl, who appears to have vanished into thin air. But, with the first interview of those who were in Lowell's dorm on the night she goes missing, the story becomes one of what Chief Ford does to conduct first a missing person’s investigation and then, a murder investigation. The amount of legwork to find a missing person when that person’s destination is unknown is enormous, and being the time setting is 1950, this is police work at its most basic, including written records and reports, chasing down leads in person, interviewing countless people on campus and some off-campus, and searching for evidence to find this young woman. No cell phones, no computers, no tracking devices to help. The reader is not privy to any side bars of information from characters or flashbacks. What the reader learns is what Chief Ford learns, and it's learned when he learns it.  It's an interesting process to watch unfold, and I won't spoil it by recounting it here.

One of the challenges for me in reading this early police procedural or many of the classics is the lack of character development. I’m usually a reader and reviewer who is passionate about characters, their many layers and continuing development, especially when in a series. However, the early police procedural isn’t about character development.  It’s about the story, the resolution of the crime.  I’ve already mentioned that Chief Ford is a blank where his past is concerned, or his present is probed. No psychological study or explanations offered here for a character’s behavior, other than what the victim’s thinking behind her actions and what motivated the murderer. So, it’s with great surprise that I found myself thoroughly engaged in this book, avidly following the investigation along with the police. There were never any tricks or smoke and mirrors to divert the reader’s attention from the facts. I must admit that I felt I knew who the guilty party was early on, but that didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of watching the investigation unfold. I wanted the guilty caught, and I was cheering the police on to uncover the evidence leading to resolution.

One of the great assets to this book being a part of the Library of Congress Crime Classics series is that it contains an introduction by a contemporary writer or scholar. Last Seen Wearing is indeed fortunate to have Leslie Klinger as the author/scholar setting the stage for this book and author. Please don’t skip the introduction. It’s brilliant. And, another fascinating addition are the footnotes throughout the book defining a word, identifying a location, or clarifying allusions. There aren't so many footnotes as to be distracting, just enough to be helpful, and the convenience of having them at the bottom of the page was well thought out.

I enthusiastically recommend Last Seen Wearing. It is Hillary Waugh’s only novel featuring Chief Ford, but it’s only the beginning of his police procedurals. I will be reading more of those. Just when I think I've got my reading tastes all figured out, something comes along to surprise me, and I wouldn't have it any other way.