Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller
AARP The Magazine - Recommended Summer Reading
CNN - A Most Anticipated Book of August
Bustle - A Most Anticipated Book of August

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns to Three Pines in #1 New York Times bestseller Louise Penny's latest spellbinding novel

You're a coward.

Time and again, as the New Year approaches, that charge is leveled against Armand Gamache.

It starts innocently enough.

While the residents of the Québec village of Three Pines take advantage of the deep snow to ski and toboggan, to drink hot chocolate in the bistro and share meals together, the Chief Inspector finds his holiday with his family interrupted by a simple request.

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The Madness of Crowds -- Louise Penny

Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller
AARP The Magazine - Recommended Summer Reading
CNN - A Most Anticipated Book of August
Bustle - A Most Anticipated Book of August

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns to Three Pines in #1 New York Times bestseller Louise Penny's latest spellbinding novel

You're a coward.

Time and again, as the New Year approaches, that charge is leveled against Armand Gamache.

It starts innocently enough.

While the residents of the Québec village of Three Pines take advantage of the deep snow to ski and toboggan, to drink hot chocolate in the bistro and share meals together, the Chief Inspector finds his holiday with his family interrupted by a simple request.

He's asked to provide security for what promises to be a non-event. A visiting Professor of Statistics will be giving a lecture at the nearby university.

While he is perplexed as to why the head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec would be assigned this task, it sounds easy enough. That is until Gamache starts looking into Professor Abigail Robinson and discovers an agenda so repulsive he begs the university to cancel the lecture.

They refuse, citing academic freedom, and accuse Gamache of censorship and intellectual cowardice. Before long, Professor Robinson's views start seeping into conversations. Spreading and infecting. So that truth and fact, reality and delusion are so confused it's near impossible to tell them apart.

Discussions become debates, debates become arguments, which turn into fights. As sides are declared, a madness takes hold.

Abigail Robinson promises that, if they follow her, ça va bien aller. All will be well. But not, Gamache and his team know, for everyone.

When a murder is committed it falls to Armand Gamache, his second-in-command Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and their team to investigate the crime as well as this extraordinary popular delusion.

And the madness of crowds.



Author: Louise Penny
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: 08/24/2021
Pages: 448
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.41lbs
Size: 9.13h x 6.54w x 1.57d
ISBN: 9781250145260
Award: Agatha Awards - Nominee

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 03/01/2021 pg. 63
Publishers Weekly 06/14/2021
Booklist 07/01/2021 pg. 29
Library Journal 07/02/2021 pg. 1
Shelf Awareness 08/27/2021
Kirkus Reviews 01/01/0001

About the Author
LOUISE PENNY is the author of the #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Globe and Mail bestselling series of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novels. She has won numerous awards, including a CWA Dagger and the Agatha Award (seven times), and was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Novel. In 2017, she received the Order of Canada for her contributions to Canadian culture. Louise lives in a small village south of Montréal.