How the Light Gets In

How the Light Gets In – Louise Penny

It is winter in Quebec, and Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec is facing the darkest time of his career. His once-celebrated homicide department has been gutted, its best agents transferred and replaced by people loyal to his enemies. His former second-in-command and close friend, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, has turned against him and is struggling with addiction. Gamache suspects a dangerous conspiracy reaching into the highest levels of the police.

How the Light Gets In, the ninth novel in Louise Penny’s acclaimed Chief Inspector Gamache series, combines this personal and professional crisis with a new mystery. Myrna Landers, the bookstore owner in the village of Three Pines, asks Gamache for help when a friend who was supposed to visit for Christmas fails to arrive. The missing woman turns out to have been one of the famous Ouellet quintuplets, whose births during the Depression made them celebrities and the subject of intense public attention. When she is found dead in her Montreal home, Gamache must uncover the secrets of the quintuplets’ past.

As Gamache investigates, he takes refuge in Three Pines, the hidden village where he finds friendship and safety among its eccentric residents, including the poet Ruth Zardo and her duck. Meanwhile, the conspiracy he has been pursuing threatens to explode with devastating consequences.

Penny writes with warmth, intelligence and suspense, exploring loyalty, betrayal, courage and hope.

How the Light Gets In is a gripping and moving installment, best enjoyed after reading the earlier books in the series. It contains violence and themes of addiction.