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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
A murder; the violence of institutional corruption as a background threat
Language
Barely any
Mild language in a Canadian procedural register
Sexual Content
None
No romantic or sexual content
Substance Use
Barely any
Social drinking in the bistro setting
Emotional Intensity
Some
The weight of having authority over an institution you know to be corrupt; the slow revelation of who the real villain is
What this book is about
An old map — strange and inexplicable — is found in the walls of the bistro in Three Pines during renovations. When Professor Serge Leduc is found dead at the Sûreté Police Academy, Armand Gamache — now in charge of the academy after his retirement from homicide — finds himself investigating a murder inside an institution rotten from within. Louise Penny's twelfth Inspector Gamache novel is a meditation on power, corruption, and the question of what it costs to make a police force worth trusting. Rich with character and her signature warmth alongside genuine darkness.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
best read after earlier Gamache novels
institutional corruption as a major theme
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