a better man
synopsis
The air is thick with excitement and anxiety as Sûreté du Québec agents gather in the conference room for the Monday morning meeting of the homicide department.
This will be Armand Gamache’s first day back since his demotion from head of the entire force, to head of homicide. Complicating matters, he’ll be sharing the duties with his former second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir.
Amid blistering social media attacks, Gamache sets out on his first assignment – to find a missing woman.
The search for Vivienne Godin is played out against a backdrop of catastrophic spring flooding. Three Pines itself is threatened, as the Rivière Bella Bella breaks its banks. A province-wide emergency is declared and desperate efforts are underway to save towns and cities, dams and bridges.
As Gamache leads the search for Vivienne, he develops a profound empathy for her distraught father. With a daughter of his own, he finds himself haunted by the question, how would you feel, if…
As the rivers rise, and the social media onslaught becomes crueler, a body is discovered. And the victim’s father contemplates a murder of his own.
And the question facing both Gamache and Beauvoir shifts.
What would you do, if… your child’s killer might walk free?
A World Of Curiosities won the Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel In the United States.
"A BETTER MAN maintains the brilliance of this deeply satisfying series. Office politics and family dynamics complicates a case that explores the difference between legal and natural justice."
"Over the past 14 years, Ms. Penny has written a saga in which both hero and author have grown in ability and assurance. 'A Better Man,' with its mix of meteorological suspense, psychological insight and criminal pursuit, is arguably the best book yet in an outstanding, original oeuvre. We look forward to additional encounters with the dignified, inspirational Armand Gamache."
" Enchanting…one of (Gamache’s) more ennobling missions."
"Gamache is an explorer of the human psyche, and the care he takes with the victims, their friends and family, as well as his own allows this series and his character continually to surprise, delight, and enthral.”
"With an uncompromising eye, Penny explores the depths of human emotion, both horrifying and sublime.”
"The appeal of this series and especially of Gamache himself has always been Penny's ability to show her hero moving from the tangible, brutal facts of murder to the emotions within, the stories in the blood. There are multiple stories, often contradictory, to be found in the many-tentacled web of human tragedy and suffering that Gamache teases to the surface in this moving exploration of ties that both bind and destroy."
"...Louise Penny’s latest offers suspense galore, well-drawn characters we’d like to know (even the crotchety poet Ruth and her “fowl-mouthed” duck), a return to the fictional village of Three Pines—where we would all like to live—and some of the finest prose to grace the suspense genre."
"A classic whodunit detective mystery in Penny’s impeccable style"
The Christian Science Monitor has named A BETTER MAN one of the Best Books of August
AudioFile has chosen A BETTER MAN one of the best audiobooks of the month.
A BETTER MAN is one of Publishers Weekly's "Books of the Week" for the week of August
