A Great Reckoning (Chief Inspector Gamache, #12)

by Louise Penny

Former Chief Inspector Gamache has been hunting killers his entire career and as the new commander of the Sûreté Academy, he is given the chance to combat the corruption and brutality that has been rife throughout the force. But when a former colleague and professor of the Sûreté Academy is found murdered, with a mysterious map of Three Pines in his possession, Gamache has an even tougher task ahead of him.

When suspicion turns to Gamache himself, and his possible involvement in the crime, the frantic search for answers takes the investigation to the village of Three Pines, where a series of shattering secrets are poised to be revealed . . .

Ingenious, gripping, and powerful, A Great Reckoning is the new spellbinding novel from number one bestseller, Louise Penny. Evocative and atmospheric, this magnificent work of crime fiction will stay with you long after you turn the final page.

• ISBN10: 0751552658
• ISBN13: 9780751552652
• Publish Date: 30 August 2016
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 24 March 2017
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Sphere
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[Heather]

I had never heard of this detective series until BEA 2016 when Louise Penny was one of the speakers at the adult breakfast.  This is the twelfth book in the series.  Normally I would never start a series in the middle but I had a copy of the book so I decided to try it.

This seems like a good place for new readers to start.  From what I gathered from the text, the detective at the heart of the story had investigated police corruption.  After this investigation, a lot of high ranking people were arrested.  The detective retired from the police.  Now he is taking an interim job as the director of the police academy.  He knows that a lot of students are coming out of the school predisposed to brutal conduct.  He wants to change the culture of the training.

You don't need to know much about what happened before to enjoy this book.  What you need is explained in the text.  The detective lives in a small town that is not on any maps.  An old map of his town is found in a wall in a local shop.  It has a lot of strange pictures on it.  As an exercise, he gives a few cadets copies of the map and asks them to figure out the mystery behind it.  Then his major suspect for teaching police misconduct is murdered and a copy of the map is in his nightstand.  The detective thinks someone is trying to frame one of the students - a girl whom he admitted to the school after she was previously turned away.

There are several mysteries explored in this book. Who killed the professor? Why did the new director admit this girl to the school? Why isn't the town of Three Pines on any official maps?  Who made the one map it is on?

This book is set in Quebec City and the surrounding countryside.  I haven't read many books set in Quebec.  The author lives there and her love for the community and culture comes through.

I'd recommend this book for anyone who like police stories and mysteries.  It was interesting enough that I will pick up future books.  I probably won't go backwards because reading this one does tell you what happened in the previous books.

 This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story