The Black Wolf by Louise Penny
Once again, bestselling author Louise Penny propels Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec on a hunt that threatens his life, his loved ones and his community in The Black Wolf, the sequel to her bestseller, The Grey Wolf.
The Wolves Within: A Battle Between Good and Evil
Gamache believes the battle between good and evil has yet to be fought in his homeland, and he explains, “It’s a Cree legend about a chief who has two wolves fighting inside him, tearing him apart. The grey wolf wanted the chief to be compassionate … The other, the black wolf, warned him he’d lose everything, would be slaughtered, if he did.” Gamache wonders which wolf will prevail this time.
After Gamache and his team had previously foiled a plot to poison Montreal’s drinking water, the experience left him battered and bruised, and partially deaf. Gamache is struggling to recuperate as millions of cicadas ring inside his head, clouding his ability to think straight.
Contrary to common sense, Gamache is convinced the poisoning plot was only a prelude to a more devastating incident. The clues hidden on a cryptic antique map of Quebec and the notebooks belonging to a young biologist, who gave his life to stop the initial catastrophe, point in that direction. But every clue is a muddled mess, leading Gamache’s team to dead ends and on wild goose chases across the Canadian provinces.
In the Labyrinth of Lies and Loyalty
With his dying breath, the young man had whispered to Gamache that time appeared to be of the essence, but can Gamache decipher the puzzle before it is too late? The question is, too late for what? No one seems to know or understand the catastrophe that the young biologist was predicting.
As they search deeper into the labyrinth for answers, Gamache and his two seconds-in-command, Isabel Lacoste and his son-in-law, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, do not know whom they can trust. Is a Sûreté colleague or a Canadian government official the elusive “Black Wolf,” the mastermind of the attack on the water treatment plant, and the present plot?
The public is convinced that Gamache’s nemesis and the former deputy prime minister, Marcus Lauzon, was the “Black Wolf” and that Gamache has already captured his man. However, Lauzon still proclaims his innocence although he has been found guilty of the crimes against his country.
The Man Who Cried Wolf Faces the Mob of Doubt
As the team digs deeper into the mystery, political conspiracy theories abound, leaving Gamache, the community of Three Pines, and his team shocked that public sentiment disbelieves him about the prior attack or the impending crisis. Thanks to social media and the dark web, they are convinced that the attack on the water treatment plant was a fallacy. Gamache is vilified as the man who cried wolf, but he has the scars to prove otherwise.
As the bodies of witnesses pile up, is it possible that Lauzon is telling the truth? If Lauzon is not the Black Wolf, then who is? Could the infamous Monetti crime family be involved? Or someone high in the American government, which is angry over the widespread pollution caused by the Canadian wildfires?
A Thriller Where Lies Bite Harder Than Wolves
The Black Wolf is an intriguing tale of misdirection, where adversaries lead their quarry in one direction, while the truth exists somewhere else. As Gamache and his team attempt to decipher the secrets hidden within maps, laptops, secret files and slanted social media posts in their race against time, they are fighting an invisible enemy: “Fake News.”
In Penny’s thought-provoking and entertaining political thriller/cozy mystery/police procedural, she attacks the weaponization of the “truth,” a state where reality no longer matters. She chides the public for being easily deluded by what they observe on social media, and for their inability to discern the truth even when it is staring them in the face. In The Black Wolf, Gamache could, but could you?
About Louise Penny:
Louise Penny is the multi-award winning author of the Chief Inspector Gamache novels, set in her home province of Québec, Canada. Her books, including State of Terror written with Hillary Rodham Clinton, have sold more than 18 million copies worldwide, topped international bestseller lists, including the New York Times, and been translated into 32 languages. The recipient of both the Order of Canada and l’Ordre national du Québec, her country’s highest civilian honours, her Three Pines Foundation reaches out to those in crisis and offers financial and emotional support, with a special focus on literacy as well as dementia care. Her husband, Michael, died of dementia in 2016. She lives with her Golden Retrievers Muggins and Charlie in a village south of Montréal.
