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Title details for The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny - Available

The Madness of Crowds

#17 in series

by Louise Penny
Robert Bathurst
Audiobook
6 of 10 copies available
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6 of 10 copies available

"Robert Bathurst's narration is calm, collected, and earnest, reflecting the blend of emotion and professionalism that Gamache embodies as an investigator. It's perfect for listeners seeking both captivating intrigue and insightful reflection." - BookPage

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.
A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books

  • Creators

  • Series

    Chief Inspector Armand Gamache

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    August 24, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781250810687
      • File size: 427643 KB
      • Duration: 14:50:55

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from June 14, 2021
      Might a post-Covid Canada value individual lives less? That provocative question’s at the heart of bestseller Penny’s brilliant 17th whodunit featuring Sûreté du Québec Chief Insp. Armand Gamache (after 2020’s All the Devils Are Here). Gamache, who has been devastated to learn that nursing homes were abandoned during the pandemic, leaving the vulnerable residents to die alone, is discomfited to be asked to provide security for a lecture by a controversial figure, statistician Abigail Robinson. After analyzing the pandemic’s social and economic fallout for the Canadian government, Robinson concluded that the health care system and the economy would be in good shape, if only the elderly and infirm were euthanized so everyone else could have adequate resources. The government disclaimed her findings, but her views have proven disturbingly popular among a segment of the population. Gamache saves Robinson from an assassin’s bullet at the talk, but a related murder in his home village of Three Pines follows. Seamlessly integrating debates about scientific experimentation and morality into a fair-play puzzle, Penny excels at placing her characters in challenging ethical quandaries. This author just goes from strength to strength. Agent: David Gernert, Gernert Company.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Robert Bathurst returns listeners to the fictional Canadian village of Three Pines in the 17th addition to Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. Bathurst masterfully voices Gamache, his two assistants, and the many characters who inhabit this story. Bathurst's flawless pronunciation of French phrases contributes to creating the atmosphere of this tiny Quebec village, just coming out of the pandemic and celebrating the Christmas season. Gamache's holiday is interrupted by the appearance of a visiting statistics professor whose thesis promotes eugenics and threatens Gamache's sense of justice and his family. Listen to this audiobook not for the crime-solving or the mystery and tension, of which there is little, but for a timely and provocative exploration of the thin line between kindness and cruelty. E.Q. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      Starred review from December 1, 2021

      When Armand Gamache is asked to provide security for a local university event, he's baffled. Why would a lecture by a visiting statistician--in English, no less--need additional security? Then he looks into what Abigail Robinson will be discussing and discovers the dangerous, repugnant theories she espouses. And when someone shoots at her during the lecture and a friend of hers is murdered soon after, Gamache investigates, along with his second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Penny sets her latest series installment (following All the Devils Are Here) after the COVID pandemic, asking hard questions about the duty of care society owes its most vulnerable members. A seemingly random subplot--Reine-Marie Gamache taking on the task of sorting through the papers of a recently deceased elderly woman and trying to figure out why the woman compulsively drew monkeys--ends up providing an important connection. Robert Bathurst continues to provide exceptional narration, with strong characterizations for main and secondary characters alike, including vocalizations for poet Ruth Zardo's pet duck. VERDICT An essential purchase for libraries.--Stephanie Klose, Library Journal

      Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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