The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny

(10. - 1253.) The Grey Wolf by
Louise Penny - A lazy August Sunday morning in the Gamache backyard with Armand and Reine-Marie reading their respective sections of the newspaper is interrupted by repeated calls. Finally, Armand answers and, to the surprise of myself and Reine-Marie, for he is not a rude man, he says “Go to hell” and ends the call. 

The alarm in their pied-à-terre goes off in Montreal. It turns out an old jacket of Armand’s has been taken. It is then returned to the Sûreté Headquarters with two notes. One is a request to meet Gamache and the other a list of herbs and spices.

The meeting involves an apparently homeless man. The conversation is filled with his evasions. Gamache senses the man is brave.

It is a confusing and murky situation for the Gamaches and the reader.

The plot takes Gamache and his team into a huge conspiracy.

I love the Gamache series but not every book in the series.

The Grey Wolf includes all the elements I do not think work well in the series. 

I had to suspend disbelief for too much of the book. 

The return to the Gilbertine monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups was as unconvincing the second time as it was the first time in The Beautiful Mystery. 

Having the Abbot cryptically disappear from the monastery was not credible.

The Grey Wolf adds a second monastery, Grande Chartreuse in France, the motherhouse of the Carthusian Order. I did not find convincing how that monastery was entangled in the plot.

The book has an apocalyptic theme. Gamache and his team are struggling to prevent an attack upon the Montreal water system. The consequences are portrayed as devastating for world order. 

Earlier in the series in The Nature of the Beast there was a desperate search for the plans to build a supergun to prevent Armageddon.

I did not find a plot involving the fate of the world credible in either The Nature of the Beast or The Grey Wolf 

Even earlier in the series was a conspiracy involving senior members of the Sûreté . I found it a distraction. While the current conspiracy includes police officers which makes them directly relevant to the story their roles did not feel right to me.

It is hard to write a convincing conspiracy that threatens world stability. The conspiracy in The Grey Wolf was shrouded with such shadows that it was hard to assess the conspiracy. A more modest conspiracy in All the Devils Are Here was much more believable.

My image of Gamache is not as a super hero. I cannot see him as a larger than life personality on a desperate mission to save the world. From the short lived series Three Pines the actor, Alfred Molina, is my image of Gamache. He is a man of courage and conviction but not Superman.

I think the books where, as here, the characters who live in Three Pines play an insignificant role are at a disadvantage. I see a good reason why they are bit players in The Grey Wolf. The residents of Three Pines create a special atmosphere that is ill-suited to a plot saving the world from catastrophe.

I am always disappointed when the characters who live in Three Pines have little role. I acknowledge that several of the books set outside Three Pines are outstanding books.

In the nature of the story and the pacing The Grey Wolf is a thriller not a mystery. It has a Hollywood climax. A double digit body count confirms it is a thriller. If you like American thriller fiction Penny has written an excellent book. She drives the narrative skilfully.

Penny appears to have two sides to her writing. One side involves serious credible stories solved by intelligence. The other side has non-credible stories with great drama and significant violence. Mysteries v. thrillers.

I wish she would create a different series for her thriller plots with a new lead, an aggressive intensely physical man of action, rather than inserting Gamache into a role that is wrong for him.

I hesitated to write this review. I have not been this negative about a previous book in the series. I appear to be in a distinct minority lamenting The Grey Wolf. After reflection I decided my comments were more than just personal frustration.

It is with considerable trepidation that I approach The Black Wolf. Will it also cast Gamache as a super-hero?

****

Penny, Louise – (2005) - Still Life; (2006) - Dead Cold (Tied for 3^rd Best fiction of 2006); (2007) - The Cruelest Month; (2009) - The Murder Stone (Tied for 4th Best fiction of 2009); (2010) - The Brutal Telling; (2011) - Bury Your Dead (Best Fiction of 2011); (2011) - A Trick of the Light; (2012) - The Beautiful Mystery (Part I) and The Beautiful Mystery (Part II); (2013) - "P" is for Louise Penny - Movie Producer and Review of the Movie of Still Life; (2013) - How the Light Gets In; (2014) - The Long Way Home; (2014) - The Armand Gamache Series after 10 Mysteries - Part I and Part II; (2015) - The Nature of the Beast (Part I) and The Nature of the Beast (Part II); (2016) - A Great Reckoning - The Academy and Comparisons and The Map; (2016) - Louise Penny and Michael Whitehead Holding Hands; (2017) - Glass Houses - Happiness and Unhappiness and Getting the Law Wrong; (2019) - Kingdom of the Blind and Irreconcilable Dispositions; (2019) - A Better Man; (2020) - All the Devils are Here and Relationship Restaurants in Fiction and Real Life and Reading of the Marais Simultaneously; (2021) - The Madness of Crowds and Responding to Evil and Considering "People"; (2021) - Three Pines - The Amazon Prime Series; (2022) - Season One of Three Pines; (2023) - A World of Curiosities and Do You Believe in Goodness; (2023) - Surprise Cancellation of Three Pines Series; Hardcover

A Capital Mystery Anthology edited by Bernadette Cox and Mike Martin

(44. - 1287.) A Capital Mystery Anthology edited by Bernadette Cox and Mike Martin - The Crime Writers of Canada and the Capital Crime Writers have organized a volume of 21 short stories by Ottawa writers with all the stories set in Ottawa and area.

I have modest overall knowledge of Ottawa geography but familiarity with downtown and Parliament Hill.

Set in mid-winter, the Ottawa setting along the Rideau River has the dominant role in the opening story by Barbara Fradkin, Cold Shock.

The writing of “emerging author” A.E. Pittman is “influenced by his life experiences as a lawyer and a police officer”. He provides an interesting story on the break-in of a bookstore in The Sparks Street Sapper. Why would someone break into a bookstore? There were no rare valuable books in the store.

Café Amore by Adrienne Stevenson features two women, Deborah and Sophie, who have turned their “red-brick Victorian townhouse on Somerset” from an establishment where the customers could get extra services upstairs to a supper club. They hire a burly ex-cop from Vancouver as Head Waiter / Bouncer. Threatened by poison pen letters with exposure of their past the trio, in a clever marketing ploy, start naming their dishes with a sexy theme - “Sultry sausages … Flirtatious flaming figs … Ribald mushroom risotto … Lewd lamb chops … Cock-a-leekie”. In real life I have been in Mamma Teresa, an Italian restaurant on Somerset.

Brenda Chapman has an interesting story about a pregnant woman, her government lawyer husband and his brother just released from prison. There is a clever twist at the end I did not see coming.

I found The Roaring Lion by Gary Coffin the most intriguing story. It is set in the famed Chateau Laurier Hotel. Private detective Carver is examining the famed Churchill photo taken by Yousuf Karsh that was stolen from the hotel and recently recovered. Carver develops a fascinating story about the photo.

I found Ruby Urlocker’s story, Crazy About Him, moving, even haunting. Lucy, a young woman in the Schizophrenia Recovery Program at Ottawa’s Royal Hospital, is doing her best to cope with schizophrenia. The whole story is narrated by her sending the reader deep into her mind. Looking into her psyche is absorbing and deeply unsettling.  

In Not All Polar Bears are Created Equal by Elizabeth Hosang a clever criminal scheme involving mishapen animal figurines unravels through a late night alcohol fueled shopping excursion on the net and an alert dog from a police K9 unit. 

In classic Canadian crime fictional style guns play little role in the book and there are no double digit body counts.

As with most short story collections I found several very good and others average. Overall it is a strong collection of stories. 

I was impressed how each story is deeply connected to its physical setting in Ottawa.

The cover is brilliant and perfect for the book.

I was surprised that it was mainly the stories of the lesser known writers that appealed to me.

I would be glad to read another anthology from the Capital Crime Writers. I am sure there is much more creative mystery and mayhem to read about in Ottawa.

Letter to Gail Bowen on the Joanne Kilbourn series and Our Relationship

After reading The Solitary Friend I wrote to Gail Bowen. My letter is below. Last night she replied with a lovely note with the promise of a fuller response.

**** 

Gail

When I read that The Solitary Friend will be the second last book in the Joanne Kilbourn series my mind took me back over the 30 years I have been reading the series. (A copy of my review follows this letter.)

After reflection I decided to write to you about the series and our relationship before the final book. Most often a retrospective is after the end of a series but it is my blog and I am writing my summing up after the second last book.

The first, Deadly Appearances, had the greatest impact upon me. It was the first mystery I had read that was set in Saskatchewan. I was captured by how you depicted our province and our people. As with every other Saskatchewan reader of that era - it does set some perspective on series longevity that I think of the book as from a different era - I instantly recognized that Andy Boychuk was inspired by our former Premier, Roy Romanow. 

The second, Murder at the Mendel, provided the most graphic image of the whole series in the painting by Joanne’s friend, Sally Love, which featured in the words of my review “100 portrayals of genitalia from the lovers of her life”. That painting always reminds me that your characters are real with sexual experiences important within their lives.

As the series went on I was caught up in the life of Joanne and her family. 

While I love Joanne my favourite character is Zack. After 50 years in the law how could I not most appreciate a distinguished Saskatchewan litigator. His enjoyment practising law is refreshing. I am weary of fictional lawyers unhappy in the profession.

I thought The Gifted was brilliant in exploring the immense artistic talent of Taylor at 14 while Joanne and Zack agonize over her relationship with the 19 year old Julian.

In Kaleidoscope I was introduced to the phrase “collateral good” referring to an unexpected good event from a bad situation.

Something has surprised me in every book. I would not have thought heritage poultry could be so interesting until I read What’s Left Behind.

Personally, Sharon and I often think of visiting you and Ted and sharing a meal at your home. The hospitality of the two of you was wonderful.

Because of your recommendation to Dave Carpenter I was asked to write a chapter in Volume Three of a Literary History of Saskatchewan on crime fiction in our province. I focused on five writers - yourself, Anthony Bidulka, Nelson Brunanski, Suzanne North and Alan Bradley.

In my analysis of Saskatchewan I noted several common characteristics. 

Of the different series all but Suzanne’s series make family an important part of the stories.

The sleuth of each series is an optimist.

Every sleuth respects the Rule of Law. There is not a vigilante among them.

Possibly most striking in the fictional crime world, none of the sleuths of the Saskatchewan five have ever killed anyone.

I will be sad when the last Joanne Kilbourn book is published. I have never felt the series was becoming stale or predictable. I had hopes that you would continue the series until you were 90 like P.D. James. I have enjoyed all of the books in the series.

This letter will be my 33rd post on my blog about your books and yourself. You join a few writers - Anthony Bidulka, Louise Penny, Michael Connelly, John Grisham and Jacqueline Winspear - with a comparable number of posts.

Maybe the best indicator of my regard for your books is that you have appeared 5 times on my annual Bill’s Best of Fiction which is more appearances than any other writer.

Anthony Bidulka came to the Melfort library last year. He responded to my introduction with his customary wit and deft comments, noting that some years before I had said he was Saskatchewan’s second best mystery writer after yourself. In my subsequent post to the evening at the library I said I was amending my assessment to say the two of you are Saskatchewan’s best crime fiction writers. I remain convinced that you and Anthony are the best.

As you are already crowned “The Queen of Canadian Crime Fiction” I have thought about a Saskatchewan title for you. Royals often have multiple honourary titles. “The Co-Greatest Writer of Saskatchewn Mysteries All Time” seemed too awkward. I thought “Saskatchewan’s Egalitarian Wordsmith” was pretentious. “Saskatchewan’s Most Honourable and Most Excellent Mystery Author” rolled on too long. “The Almighty Saskatchewan Crime Writer” struck me as blasphemous. “Saskatchewan’s Proletarian Mystery Master” was apt. I kind of liked “Saskatchewan’s Mistress of Mystery”. I thought “Saskatchewan’s Woman of Mystery” could work. “Her Eminence of Saskatchewan Crime” was interesting. I considered adapting the J.S. Wordsworth phrase for you - “Gail is committed to what we desire for ourselves, we wish for all”. None felt quite right. I decided upon a personal title - “Gail: A great writer and a great friend”.

Should you be able to respond to this letter I will post the reply.

All the best to you, Ted and your family.

Bill

****

Bowen, Gail – 2011 Questions and Answers with Gail; 2011 Suggestions for Gail on losing court cases; The author's website is http://www.gailbowen.com/ - (2011) Deadly Appearances; (2013) Murder at the Mendel; The Wandering Soul Murders (Not reviewed); A Colder Kind of Death (Not reviewed); A Killing Spring (Not reviewed); Verdict in Blood (Not reviewed); (2000) - Burying Ariel (Second best fiction of 2000); (2002) - The Glass Coffin; (2004) - The Last Good Day; (2007) – The Endless Knot (Second Best Fiction of 2007); (2008) - The Brutal Heart; (2010) - The Nesting Dolls; (2012) - "B" is for Gail Bowen; (2012) - Kaleidoscope and Q & A on Kaleidoscope; (2013) - The Gifted and Q & A and Comparing with How the Light Gets In; (2015) - 12 Rose Street; Q & A with Gail Bowen on Writing and the Joanne Kilbourn Series; (2016) - What's Left Behind and Heritage Poultry in Saskatchewan Crime Fiction; (2017) - The Winners' Circle; (2018) - Sleuth - Gail Bowen on Writing Mysteries / Gail the Grand Master - Part I and Part II; (2018) - A Darkness of the Heart and Email Exchange on ADOH; (2020) - The Unlocking Season; (2021) - An Image in the Lake and The Fourth "F" is Forgiveness; (2023) - What's Past is Prologue and  and Law Matters in What's Past is Prologue; (2023) - The Legacy; (2025) - The Solitary Friend; Hardcover

The Solitary Friend by Gail Bowen

(43. - 1286.) The Solitary Friend by Gail Bowen - Joanne Kilbourn Shreve is doing her best to aid family and friends. It is hard to keep perspective about your own problems.

The series, now 23 books in length with one to come, has had characters from almost every profession. I do not recall a previous book featuring a major character from the “oldest profession”. 

Calista Wallace has worked for seven years with The Right Woman “a discreet escort service that served two generations of our city’s wealthy and sexually needy men”. The agency charges $750 per hour with a 2 hour minimum.

Joanne’s husband, Zack Shreve, had been a client of the Right Woman before he met Joanne.

After a session with Noah Wainberg, the widowed spouse of Zack’s partner, Delia Wainberg, Calista ceases being a sex worker. Noah and Calista are immediately in love.

There are challenges for the couple as Calista periodically meets up with former clients in Regina, a city of 250,000. 

Former Saskatchewan premier, Howard Dowhanuik, who is a decades long friend of Joanne, is a frustrated 83 year old man who has become publicly strident, even offensive.

What struck me the most in the book was the involvement of a new trio of teenage girls. Early in the series there had been Joanne’s daughter, Mieka, and her friends. Later it was Taylor, Joanne and Zack’s adopted daughter, and Gracie and Isobel who were the daughters of Zack’s law office partners. Now there are Lena and Madeleine, Joanne’s granddaughters, and Adrienne who is the daughter of Nova Langenegger, a producer at MediaNation.

The teenagers are bright and enthusiastic. They keep Joanne and Zack young at heart. I struggle to think of another writer of crime fiction who would have teenage girls hosting a toga party in the home of their sleuth.

Just when I think I can predict what will happen in Joanne’s family I am blindsided. In this book it is Taylor. Her life is altered in a way I would never have predicted.

Not everyone is doing well. Roger Millard, a sound engineer at MediaNation, is naturally reserved but he is drifting into trances. Normally Joanne can get the depressed and the discouraged to confide in her. Roger refuses.

Joanne’s life has had great heartaches and great joys. She speaks of a favourite meal she had when she was 14. She spent her childhood and teen years boarding at Bishop Lambeth in Toronto. Unable to go on a school organized Christmas skiing trip because of a broken arm she was alone with staff at the school. (I thought of the movie The Holdovers.) For Christmas dinner:

“The food that students in residence were served was good enough, nutritious but plain. So I was expecting an ordinary dish like shepherd’s pie, when Mrs. Olerenshaw, the cook, brought me a plate filled with prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, and all the trimmings of a British Christmas dinner - I was dazzled. It was the best meal I’d ever had, and as I ate it, I read and watched the snow, and that’s when I said, ‘So this is what it’s like to be happy’”.

As with many of the books in the series the cottages at Lawyer’s Bay in the Qu’Appelle Valley play an important role. They are a refuge and a retreat. 

The Point Store at the lake is the community gathering place. It provides butter tarts and a spot for coffee and all the foods needed at a resort.

I find violence startling in Gail’s books because it happens infrequently and suddenly. There are not the multiplying body counts of many authors. Joanne is definitely not personally physically fighting anyone. I think the sparing use of violence reflects real life. Few people encounter violence regularly. 

The impact of the violence on Joanne is intense. She does not brush it aside. She grieves hard. At the same time she is a Christian and has hope in her life. She moves ahead for the sake of herself and those around her.

The Solitary Friend is a great book. I was enveloped in Joanne’s world yet again in a comfortable and compelling and challenging plot. I look forward to the final book in the series. 

****

Bowen, Gail – 2011 Questions and Answers with Gail; 2011 Suggestions for Gail on losing court cases; The author's website is http://www.gailbowen.com/ - (2011) Deadly Appearances; (2013) Murder at the Mendel; The Wandering Soul Murders (Not reviewed); A Colder Kind of Death (Not reviewed); A Killing Spring (Not reviewed); Verdict in Blood (Not reviewed); (2000) - Burying Ariel (Second best fiction of 2000); (2002) - The Glass Coffin; (2004) - The Last Good Day; (2007) – The Endless Knot (Second Best Fiction of 2007); (2008) - The Brutal Heart; (2010) - The Nesting Dolls; (2012) - "B" is for Gail Bowen; (2012) - Kaleidoscope and Q & A on Kaleidoscope; (2013) - The Gifted and Q & A and Comparing with How the Light Gets In; (2015) - 12 Rose Street; Q & A with Gail Bowen on Writing and the Joanne Kilbourn Series; (2016) - What's Left Behind and Heritage Poultry in Saskatchewan Crime Fiction; (2017) - The Winners' Circle; (2018) - Sleuth - Gail Bowen on Writing Mysteries / Gail the Grand Master - Part I and Part II; (2018) - A Darkness of the Heart and Email Exchange on ADOH; (2020) - The Unlocking Season; (2021) - An Image in the Lake and The Fourth "F" is Forgiveness; (2023) - What's Past is Prologue and  and Law Matters in What's Past is Prologue; (2023) - The Legacy; Hardcover

Her Majesty The Queen Investigates - A Three Dog Problem by S.J. Bennett

(42. - 1285.) Her Majesty The Queen Investigates - A Three Dog Problem by S.J. Bennett - Sir Simon Holcroft, the Queen’s Private Secretary, finds a Palace housekeeper, Mrs. Cynthia Harris, dead beside the pool in Buckingham Palace.

The staff at Buckingham Palace are trained, more accurately drilled, not to bother “the Boss”, Queen Elizabeth, with issues related to the staff. When a “spate of poison pen stuff” is directed to women working at the Palace she is not advised. As Sir Simon formally advises Captain Rosemary Oshodi, informally known as “Rozie”, who is the Queen’s Assistant Private Secretary, “our job is to come up with solutions”. The “poison pen stuff” is “undermining the ‘happy ship’ “ that is the Palace and its staff.

An exception on bothering the Boss is made for the death of Mrs. Harris.

When the normally unshakeable Sir Simon is rattled the Queen orders him home:

“… You’ll be useless to me here.” She said it sharply, not to be unkind but because she knew he wouldn’t leave unless she made him, and he was in no fit state to work.

Rozie is a wonderful character. She served in the British Army in Afghanistan. She is tall, strong and intelligent. Her mother, Grace, is unhappy Rozie is single.

Detective Chief Inspector, David Strong, is assigned to investigate the posion pen letters. The working hypothesis on Mrs. Harris is that she died by accident.

Master Mike Green of Buckingham Palace is dismayed by the police being involved. 

The Queen has a keen mind. She is thinking constantly about matters great and small. She makes suggestions and requests. It is best to carry them out forthwith. 

At the same time, Queen Elizabeth has a wry sense of humour. While sitting for a sculptor working on a bronze bust of her there is a crew filming the sitting:

There really should be someone recording the filming, the Queen mused, just to round the whole thing off. Or someone to write about the recording of the filming of the sketching … ad infinitum. She was used to being watched and used, by now, to being such a source of fascination that her watchers were watched too.

The Queen, keenly attuned to the Palace, senses all is not well with the ‘happy ship” for more reasons than the wicked communications. 

The investigation sets the Queen to thinking:

For years, it had been the Queen’s habit to take a few dogs for a walk in the grounds if she had a big problem to consider.

The death of Mrs. Harris and the poisoned pen communications are a three dog (Willow, Candy and Vulcan) problem.

If the death of Mrs. Harris was not accidental, what could be the motive? That she was nosy and sharp to other staff seems an inadequate reason.

Inspector Armstrong is derisively given the nickname “Bogroll” (.... loo paper ‘soft, strong and very long’) by the staff.

The Queen directs the investigation with suggestions and remarks. Staff know her “if you would be so kind” requests are direct orders. Like Nero Wolfe she is unlikely to directly interview anyone.

Rozie, always eager to go above and beyond, goes beyond the Queen’s directions. Initiative can be dangerous.

Information comes in slowly. Who is feared more than H.M.?

I had not thought about Remembrance Day from the Queen’s perspective. In addition to laying the most important wreath in the realm she has grieved with the survivors of the fallen for 64 years at the time of the book. She is also a veteran of WW II.

I found myself absorbed in life at the Palace and the mystery plot. Bennett has skilfully conceived a book which very plausibly features a mystery set at Buckingham Palace involving the Royal Family. The mystery was intricate and subtle but never obscure. Queen Elizabeth is presented as a bright astute woman. I am going to have to read more in the series.