Book Review: Kingdom of the Blind

Set in the immediate aftermath of Glass Houses, Louise Penny's latest Agatha Christie'esque mystery Kingdom of the Blind finds Chief Superintendent Armand Gamache on suspension from the Sûreté for his controversial decision to let some lethally potent opioids to slip through the hands of the police. But of course, murder follows him like a shadow, and very soon he, along with his fellow Three Pines neighbour and bookstore owner Myrna Landers, are embroiled in a baffling case, entrusted as the executers of a stranger's will, with one of the key beneficiaries winding up dead not long after the terms of the will are made known. Unfolding amidst an eerily dark and snowy wintry season, Penny returns to the much-loved scene of the crime with a spellbinding suspenser that's a solid addition to the series, blurring the moral boundaries of what's considered right, while offering a sense of emotional depth that's so unique, so much so that it's as much as testing time for her characters as it's for her readers waiting for her next book to arrive.