The Madness of Crowds (Louise Penny)

  

I had to make a map of all the characters when I was reading this book.  There was a lot!! I learned, however, that if I had read some of the previous books it might have been less painful because some characters come up again and again. I'm almost tempted to go back and read some of her previous books - except that I need a little time to recover from this one. There was so much in this book - so many themes, so many characters....so many pages! LOL 

*add in jpeg of my list of characters

Apparently, the awful studies on people and animals that the story refers to really were something that happens in Canadian history.

While I was reading it, I would look up videos of Louise Penny now and then. I really like her. She is very down to earth and a really good speaker. It seems like her crowd is older folks. Maybe that's me now. I loved the fact that it's set in Canada and that she's a loved Canadian author.

I loved that this was set just after the pandemic. It made for some good discussions at book club - contagion, belief in false theories, the lemming effect. It takes 100 pages in before the murder that the book is centered around actually happens....and then at the end, there is 100 or so pages or circling around the suspect. 

Goodreads says: 

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.