Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny

In the previous book, Superintendent of the Surete Armande Gamache let a deadly new drug slip through their hands in order to catch all of the criminals behind the drug trade.  Chief Inspector Isabelle Lacoste was shot in the head and almost killed but is slowly recovering.  Cadet Amelia Choquet whom Armand had taken a special interest in entered the Acadamy with a strike against her coming from the streets a former addict but she proved herself.  Now she is caught with some of the new drugs in her room.  Enough to sell and so is kicked out of the Academy, but with Armand watching her see where she goes to see if she will lead him to the missing new drug that hasn't been released yet on the streets.  Jean-Guy Beauvoir is acting head of homicide and is getting pressure to side against the Chief who the Surete seem to be going after now over the missing drugs to fire and possibly bring charges against.

The book opens up with Armand Gamache, psychologist and bookstore owner Myrna Landers, and builder Benedict Pouliot who find themselves as liquidators, or executives to a will of an old woman named Bertha Baumgartner.  You can name anyone you like to be the liquidator of your will but they have to accept the job for it to be done.  All three decide to go ahead and be liquidators but agree to leave the farmhouse for the reading of the will because it is not safe and a snowstorm is coming.

It turns out that Bertha, a poor cleaning woman nicknamed "The Baroness", left behind millions to her three children and two houses in Europe.  The notary said she was of sound mind when she made the will.  The Baumgartners are related to the Kinderoths who are related to the Rothschilds who are one of the richest families in Europe.  There was indeed a title and a man who left his fortune to his twin sons who spent their lives fighting over who got it.  Then their descendants fought over who got it and it's still being fought over today with a decision as to who gets it the Kinderoths or the Baumgarers being handed down any day now.

Anthony, Caroline, and Hugo, Bertha's children claim to not know of any of this.  And then Anthony is found murdered in the old farmhouse that is then demolished with Benedict inside.  Benedict doesn't have a really good reason for being in the house but he also doesn't seem to have known that there was a dead body inside.  He says he couldn't wait any more to go back to his girlfriend but they find out that the two of them broke up months ago.  There's also something suspicious about this girlfriend, but what is it?  And why did he lie?  Why was he there?  Benedict is a sweet, affable, clueless, young man but is that a front?

It turns out that Anthony, an investment broker wasn't squeaky clean.  He had been caught stealing money before from his clients and blamed it on an assistant he was having an affair with which is when he came out as a homosexual to the firm.  They didn't fire him because he was so good at his job and because the blowback would cripple the firm.  So they allowed him to continue to work with clients and someone else would do the trading since his license was suspended.  But everyone at the firm thought highly of Anthony and it's possible that someone else was the thief and blamed Anthony for it and he confronted them and got killed for it.  It's also possible a client killed him for stealing their money for he stole hundreds of millions of dollars.

So was Anthony killed over the will or over his job?  And what is up with the will?  Why those three as liquadators?  Will Gamache get to the drugs in time?  Will he be able to keep his job and stay out of prison?  In the afterward Penny says that she had no intention of writing another Gamache book since her husband had died because he was her inspiration behind the series.  But she had found herself one day typing out words to a new book--this book.  Things change in this book and I wonder if she has it in her to write another one or if this is the last one.  It could honestly go either way.  Anyway, I've enjoyed the series very much and can live with any decision she makes regarding it.  This was a great book to go out on and I give it five out of five stars. 

Quote
One misstep and bad things happened. A tuned ankle. A wrist broken trying to break the fall. Or a fractured skull.  It was always what you couldn’t see that hurt you.

-Louise Penny (The Kingdom of the Blind p 20)

When a murder was committed more than one person died.

-Louise Penny (The Kingdom of the Blind p 78)

Things are strongest where they’re broken.

-Louise Penny (The Kingdom of the Blind p 80)

My mentor had this theory that our lives are like an aboriginal longhouse. Just one huge room…He said that if we thought we could compartmentalize things, we were deluding ourselves. Everyone we neet, every word we speak, every action taken or not taken lives in our longhouse. With us. Always. Never to be expelled or locked away….My mentor, my first chief inspector said to me, ‘Armond, if you don’t want your longhouse to smell like merde, you have to do two things…Be very, very careful who you let into your life. And learn to make peace with whatever happens. You can’t erase the past. It’s trapped in there with you. But you can make peace with it. If you don’t,” he said, “you’ll be at perpetual war.” …But just as I was leaving he said, “And the enemy you’ll be fighting is yourself.”

-Louise Penny (The Kingdom of the Blind p 80-81)

The Chief often said that everything could be solved by walking. For himself, Beauvoir was pretty sure everything could be solved in the kitchen with a piece of cake.

-Louise Penny (The Kingdom of the Blind p 119)

Armand Gamache knew that memories weren’t just precious, they were powerful. Charged with emotions both beautiful and treacherous.

-Louise Penny (The Kingdom of the Blind p 167)

Peace is for people with a bank account.

-Louise Penny (The Kingdom of the Blind p 338)     

Listed On Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Blind-Chief-Inspector-Gamache-ebook/dp/B079DVSPLR/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2ZHMYRZI1HSO2&keywords=kingdom+of+the+blind+louise+penny&qid=1561375543&s=gateway&sprefix=kingdom+of+the+%2Caps%2C179&sr=8-1