So I jumped right into another really good mystery tale by Louise Penny.  Three years ago? Well, I wasn’t exactly a fan of Louise Penny. Now?  I’m still not her biggest fan, but I have a fondness for Armand Gamache and the semi-mystical place of Three Pines. This might be the best of the Three Pines series so far (to book 18). 

A Better Man 
 by Louise Penny 
2018 / 
Read by Robert Bathurst  
Rating – A+ / mystery-crime-thriller 
(#15 Three Pines/Gamache series)

*Fwiw – there is no real literal translation for Sûreté du Québec, Quebec Provincial Police is as close as it gets. 

The thing about a good series is that the characters can be very nicely developed, that is beyond the usual having problems with the ex-wife, or getting involved with someone at work, or meeting the neighbors and having parties, etc. If the series  goes on long enough you end up in divorce court having babies, in-laws dying, or troubles with kids and after a lot of that you feel like you’ve kind of gotten to know the characters.  That’s what happened to me in a couple of series now and the Three Pines series by Louise Penny is in the group.  

There’s Armand Gamache, the Chief Inspector of the Sûreté du Québec, and his wife Reine-Marie, who live in Three Pines, Quebec  their daughter Annie and her husband Jean-Guy Beauvoir live not too far away now with their baby son. There are about 7 regular characters who live in the village having coffee at the Bistro and buying books at Myrna’s bookstore.  

Armand Gamache is a true hero with a few warts. He really tries to be the best possible but ideals and the real world don’t always make for a comfy match.  He does his best and usually wins but … 

In A Better Man it’s springtime and the river is rising faster than anyone has seen in their lifetime – it’s dangerous out there. But it’s Armand’s problem because he’s back on the job as Chief Inspector of the Sûreté du Québec with Jean-Guy temporarily sharing the duties.

And in the middle of that the pregnant Vivienne Godin goes missing under suspicious circumstances. If she’s dead her partner Terry is certainly a suspect, so Vivienne’s widower father wants to go after him. But there are other suspects and other things going on. Where were you during that fierce storm?  And who is distributing that new drug?  And why is the media full of nasty things about 

Annie is pregnant which puts Jean-Guy, the father, and Armand, Annie’s father, in an awkward position as they try to contain a man whose own daughter has just been murdered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Inspector_Armand_Gamache

but Armand Garmache is Chief Inspector for his 14th book.