the madness of crowds
synopsis
You’re a coward.
Time and again, as the New Year approaches, that charge is leveled against Armand Gamache.
It starts innocently enough.
While the residents of the Québec village of Three Pines take advantage of the deep snow to ski and toboggan, to drink hot chocolate in the bistro and share meals together, the Chief Inspector finds his holiday with his family interrupted by a simple request.
He’s asked to provide security for what promises to be a non-event. A visiting Professor of Statistics will be giving a lecture at the nearby university.
While he is perplexed as to why the head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec would be assigned this task, it sounds easy enough. That is until Gamache starts looking into Professor Abigail Robinson and discovers an agenda so repulsive he begs the university to cancel the lecture.
They refuse, citing academic freedom, and accuse Gamache of censorship and intellectual cowardice. Before long, Professor Robinson’s views start seeping into conversations. Spreading and infecting. So that truth and fact, reality and delusion are so confused it’s near impossible to tell them apart.
Discussions become debates, debates become arguments, which turn into fights. As sides are declared, a madness takes hold.
Abigail Robinson promises that, if they follow her, ça va bien aller. All will be well. But not, Gamache and his team know, for everyone.
When a murder is committed it falls to Armand Gamache, his second-in-command Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and their team to investigate the crime as well as this extraordinary popular delusion.
" Brilliant...Seamlessly integrating debates about scientific experimentation and morality into a fair-play puzzle, Penny excels at placing her characters in challenging ethical quandaries. This author just goes from strength to strength."
"This book has layers within layers: good versus evil; our duty to the weak; the nature of power; the fact that good people are not always likable, and likable people are not always good. Penny’s familiar characters are back, along with some intriguing visitors. The mystery will keep readers absorbed until the end and might make them realize how this unprecedented pandemic has changed the world."
"Always a master plotter, Penny brilliantly combines…a profusion of subplots that bring together multiple interconnected themes, all raising thought-provoking questions about ethics and human relationships in a post-COVID world."
"…a tidy, elegant morality tale which places the intelligent and careful Armand Gamache at the helm of a dilemma….this conundrum makes this Murder mystery rise above the run of the mill…"
"The Madness of Crowds is Ms Penny’s 17th entry in her intelligent and emotionally powerful series….the author has produced a unique work twining moral issues and absorbing character studies into a challenging murder mystery."
“Penny is on peak form… "The Madness of Crowds is a grown-up, timely thriller that considers the nature of cowardice - "there's no peace without courage" - and how to find and defend "that spot between freedom and safety".
THE MADNESS OF CROWDS has been named Amazon.com’s top crime novel for August, and one of the Editor’s Picks for August.
Crimereads has listed THE MADNESS OF CROWDS as one of the 11 Novels You Should Read This August. “While the entire Gamache series is some of the finest mystery novels ever created, Louise Penny’s is a small masterpiece all on its own… timely and complex.”
"This series has always excelled... This new novel grapples successfully with the moral weight of its narrative….“All will be well” never sounded so menacing."
CNN.com has listed THE MADNESS OF CROWDS as one of the Best Books of August.
“This is a book of great ideas and wonderful characters"
THE MADNESS OF CROWDS is the #1 book on “library holds” across the US.
"The best mysteries and thrillers rise to the level of social novels, presenting readers opportunities to confront the difficult issues we face. Penny’s novels have always been driven by this (as well as the love of family and friends). 'The Madness of Crowds' may be one of Penny’s darkest works, but we can still find comfort in the natural beauty of Three Pines and the quirky residents we would love to have as our neighbors."
“Timely and thrilling…faithful readers know that one of Penny’s books is less a single-serving crime tale than a full spread of fiction. The mystery may be the main course, but the side dishes — the food for thought, and the food at the Bistro; the people and their lives and, yes, loves; and certainly the setting itself — combine to create a full banquet for readers, one liberally seasoned with dry humor. ‘The Madness of Crowds’ is one of the richest and most satisfying banquets yet.”
[Penny] is one of the first crime fiction authors to tackle the pandemic and its aftermath head-on and in doing so becomes almost a literary Oracle at Delphi, mapping out both the rewards and the pitfalls facing society after such an unprecedented and seismic pandemic. In the end, The Madness of Crowds stands as one of the best novels in Louise Penny’s excellent, and now iconic, series.”
THE MADNESS OF CROWDS has been added to their list of Best New Releases
