Status
August 10, 2020 – Finished Reading (Audible Audio Edition)

Review Gamache is back, not in Three Pines but this time in Paris. Traveling to the city of light with his wife for the imminent arrival of their fourth grandchild, Armand Gamache is thrust into an intrigue that involves a hit and run that fells his beloved godfather, an elderly billionaire with a clouded past. Son-in-law Jean Guy Beauvoir is also on the scene as an executive in an engineering firm where he finds himself a bit over his head in a job that relates to the accident. Unresolved tensions arise between Gamache and his son Daniel who works as a banker in Paris drawn into a mystery that becomes increasingly more complex. The loving but challenging relationships of the Gamache family are woven into a story that take the reader at breakneck speed around Paris from the Musee Rodin to the Hotel Georges Cinq, and round the Place de la Concorde all in pursuit of a killer. Particularly satisfying is a much stronger role for Reine Marie exhibiting her fabulous skills as a librarian able to plumb the depths of the National Archives. The audio edition of this book performed by Robert Bathurst is pitch perfect in its delivery.
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Two of my favorite things came together thanks to #NetGalley: audiobooks and the newest Louise Penny Gamache novel. Even after reading all the Guamache books, I can’t quite put a finger on why they are so good. But they are and #AlltheDevilsAreHere is no exception. Although It’s always a pleasure to catch up with Armand Gamache’s family, I did miss all the characters from Three Pines. Of course, Paris is no slouch of a location. The story line kept me guessing until the end and wrapped up nicely. Warning if you’re listening on audio - leave 3 to 5 hours open for the end of the book, because it’s really hard to stop listening . At least I got a lot of chores done! The only disappointment is how long I’ll have to wait until the next book!

Thanks to #NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC.

This is quite a departure for this series. The Gamache's have taken a holiday before (and coincidentally ended up spending most of it with Clara and Peter), but this time they're visiting Paris and their two children and their families. We learn a lot more about Daniel and Gamache's childhood and why he's so connected to Stephen. Some of it really seem to come out of the blue, but it's well developed enough I didn't think it was unbelievable.

The story was quite involved and complicated and kept me interested, but it wasn't so complicated I felt at a disadvantage listening to it on audio. But, I have read all of the previous books so I am fairly familiar with the characters. I have also listened to one other in the series in audio so I was accustomed to and liked the narrator.

My only quibbles are that the author can be a little heavy handed occasionally in the praise of the characters, there are elements of the big finale that are a little unbelievable, including the almost very ending, yet I was glad it ended as it did (but come on!!!). Then the absolute very ending was a bit cliffhangerish. I wanted to witness what was coming next. A half page would have done it, a paragraph even.

I was very happy to get one of my favorite series in audio from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. 4.5/5.0.

Some authors settle into a formulaic rhythm in a book series. The overall arc is identical, but the specific details are altered for each successive contribution. There can be a draw to that -- a comfortable expectation -- but it gives an author an easy way out from having to stretch themselves or their characters into innovative scenarios or altered structures. This predictability is not the case for the Inspector Gamache series, where new settings and challenges abound. I can trust Louise Penny to take me on a journey filled with nuanced characters and a thoughtful story.

In All the Devils Are Here, we find Gamache and his wife in Paris, awaiting the birth of a grandchild. His grown children now both live in Paris with their respective families. Through the lens of Gamache's relationship with his godfather, we are introduced to questions of who we are and how our past influences our present. The professional lives of his son and son-in-law come into play and intersect as they investigate the attempted murder of a loved one and how their employers may have had a hand in events.

We can trust Gamache to act nobly and navigate events thoughtfully, and his connections with friends and family are soothing to read. Penny has created a character we would all value as a trusted, valuable friend. He is not without fault, and we can relate to tension in relationships, but that humanity, coming from a place of seeking truth, makes him feel all the more real and unusual.

I look forward to each release in the series. It is clear that Penny's strengths are characterization and plot devices. I don't often find myself captivated by a specific line artfully written, but I am drawn into the overall story and invested in how it plays out.

I tend to be critical of narrators, as I admit when I'm listening to audiobooks, I'm often multitasking, so I need a highly effective reader to captivate me. However, Louise Penny titles are expertly narrated. The first ten were done so effectively by Ralph Cosham, and upon his passing, Robert Bathurst continues the tradition of top-rate narration. This series is one that I will pre-order the audiobook in advance, and they never disappoint.

(I received a digital ALC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.)

This one ended up being a DNF for me despite making it 68% through. I wanted to like it but kept finding that it lost my attention and I had to go back and listen again, I took a few breaks and read other things in between and then gave it another go but still couldn't finish it. I'm not really sure why-- the story description sounded interesting and the narrator was fine but for some reason I just couldn't finish it.

This may be my favorite book of the series. It fills in a lot of missing background. It is nice to see the entire Gamache family together. I do miss the characters from Three Pines. They always add a familiarity I enjoy in the series.

16th book of the CI Gamache series. Location is Paris France and daughter Annie and Jean-Guy's second baby is about to arrive. Three Pines is missed but I loved all the backstory information this book provided. We learned more about Daniel and his father's strained relationship. The main story centers around Gamache's godfather, Stephen Horowitz, who helped raise him as a child. It's a real family affair as we find answers to why Stephen was a victim of a hit and run. I loved that Reine-Marie, Gamache's wife, had a hand in helping to solve the mystery.

As always I enjoyed Penny's writing. I received a free audio from MacMillian Publishers and NetGalley for an honest review. I also enjoyed the narrator, Robert Bathurst, very much. He had a soothing voice and did an excellent job narrating the female characters too. In the end, the whole family returns to Three Pines and I now await the next book in order to see how their story continues. In order to get the best enjoyment from this series, it's best to start with book 1, Still Life, but book can be read as a standalone too. Highly recommended.

I hardly feel like this book needs an introduction; I’m on the record as a Penny devotee. This is the 16th book in Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache series; I recommend reading them in order. (Start with Still Life). In this new installment, the Gamaches travel to Paris to visit their son, welcome daughter Annie’s soon-to-be-born daughter, and visit with Armand’s godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz. The nonogenarian has made a career out of exposing corporate fraud, so when he is struck by a delivery van while walking home from family dinner, Armand knows it was no accident. But who would want Stephen dead, and why? Stephen was fond of quoting Shakespeare: “Hell is empty and all the devils are here,” and the Gamaches spend the rest of the novel running all over Paris tracking down those devils, trying to solve the crime, each new discovery drawing them deeper into the same web of deception that made Stephen a wanted man. I loved this on audio.

Great addition to Louise Penny's series! It was nice to have some long standing problem resolution and family interaction is always a treat.

Armand Gamache and his family are in Paris for a happy family event, the birth of his daughter Annie's baby when his world is torn apart. What seems like a tragic accident is revealed to be a brutal, deliberate act. Armand races against time to solve the mystery and save his family. The narrator is the voice of Armand Gamache for me, calm, warm, and strong.

All the Devils Are Here is Louise Penny’s sixteenth Inspector Armand Gamache mystery in a remarkable series that began in 2005 with Still Life. I’ve read all but four of the Gamache books now, but this is my first experience with a Gamache novel in the audiobook format. I have to confess that if I had gotten nothing else from the audiobook (and I certainly did get more) the experience would have been helpful anyway because I learned I have been mispronouncing “Gamache” in my head all these years – apparently the second “a” in the surname rhymes with the “a” in “cat.” Who knew?

Narrator Robert Bathurst is himself a veteran of the Gamache books as this appears to be at least the sixth Louise Penny novel for which he’s done the narration. Bathurst, an English actor who spent some of his formative years in Ireland, does a masterful job of assigning slightly different accents to Penny’s characters, including those who speak with a French accent. That kind of thing makes it easier for the reader/listener to distinguish between characters and even helps in creating a visual image of each. And, although, it is difficult for male readers to do female voices without sounding at least a little bit silly at times, Bathurst manages to pull off the trick.

What’s so completely different about All the Devils Are Here is that it takes place in Paris rather then in or around the little Canadian village of Three Pines where the other fifteen novels are set. Regular readers of the series will recall that the previous novel in the series, A Better Man, ended with Gamache’s son-in-law, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, having quit the Montreal police force as Gamache’s second-in-command and accepting a job with a private Paris company. The Gamaches were saying goodbye to their daughter, son-in-law, and grandson as the novel ended. And because the unusually close relationship between Jean-Guy and Armand Gamache is such a key element of the novels, readers were left wondering what Louise Penny had up her sleeve for the next book.

Well, now we know.

Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache are in Paris for a family reunion of sorts. Annie, their daughter, is about to give birth to her second child, and the Gamaches are excited about seeing their son, also a Paris resident, and his family (including their two granddaughters) again. Gamache’s elderly godfather, Stephen, a man who practically raised the inspector, is also in Paris to celebrate the new addition to the Gamache family. But all of that happiness evaporates suddenly on the Gamache’s first evening in the city when, after a family dinner, Armand’s godfather is ruthlessly run down in the street by a delivery van. It is immediately obvious to Gamache and Reine-Marie that his godfather has been the victim of something much more serious than a hit-and-run. This was no accident.

Now it is up to Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir to figure out who wanted so badly to kill Gamache’s billionaire godfather – and why. What follows is so complex that I advise readers to pay particularly close attention to every aspect of the investigation as Gamache and Beauvoir try to figure out exactly whom they can trust. Is anyone really who they appear to be? Has the Paris police department been compromised? Is Stephen anything like the man Armand Gamache thought he knew?

New series readers will probably focus most on the plot - and it’s a good one - of All the Devils Are Here, but longtime series readers are likely to more appreciate all of the revelations about the Gamache family that Penny provides. In this one, we are finally getting answers to some of the questions we’ve been wondering about for a long time – especially about the strained relationship between Gamache and his son Daniel. Too, we learn much about Armand Gamache’s boyhood and past here, and that is greatly satisfying.

Bottom Line: Readers are going to miss Three Pines and all of its colorful characters, but this is a necessary chapter in the lives of Gamache and those closest to him. Now to see where Penny takes them next.

Thank to NetGalley and Macmillion Audio for an advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

The Gamaches are all in Paris waiting for the birth of Annie and Jean-Guy’s daughter. Armand’s billionaire godfather is the victim of a hit and run and the whole family gets involved in figuring out why Stephen was targeted.

This was my second least favorite Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novel. I love the relationship between Armand and Reine-Marie and enjoyed Reine-Marie having a larger role in the book. Daniel was insufferable and annoying, exactly like Peter Morrow in my least favorite book of the series, The Long Way Home. Part of the charm of the series are the wonderful Three Pines locals and they were missed. Barely any Ruth Zardo lowered the rating by a star.

The audiobook was well executed with an excellent narrator.

Fabulous narration and a very twisty turny installment of a great mystery series. Loved the modern crime solving as well as the personal backstory happening here.

When you're this deep into a beloved series, there is some trepidation about each new release. Will it live up to the rest? Will I judge it too harshly based on my love for the series as a whole? Well, the answer for this one was gratifying. I loved this book every bit as much as I hoped I would. Unlike the rest of the series, it is not set in Canada. The bulk of the action takes place in and around central Paris where the family has long had connections. Penny continues to balance the essentials of a a detective novel with building on the greater stories and themes she's already developed. And she continues to use Ruth Zardo's poetry as a thread to tie it all together. Some of her books end leaving you desperate for more, some are more of a question, some are the answers. This is one of the latter. I of course will read more and more and more, but the ending of this book was deeply satisfying.

I don’t read a lot of detective mystery books. I used to read a lot of Mary Higgins Clark when I was in high school but eventually moved on. I liked the cover of this one so I gave it a shot. I throughly enjoyed it! It’s comfort food to read this type of mystery wrapped up in family drama. I guess it’s a little weird to say that a murder mystery is comforting. It’s like Murder She Wrote or Remington Steele when I was a kid watching TV with my grandmas. After I started I realized that it was a part of a series. In fact, it’s #16 in the series. I have seen Louise Penny books but just never picked one up. Of course, it’s written so that you can start at any point and not feel left behind. I think I’ll will get my mom one of these for her birthday next month.
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It takes place in Paris which is one of the best settings ever. The protagonist is a seasoned police detective from Quebec. His name is Armand Gamache. He and his wife are visiting family in Paris. One of the family is the victim of a crime. As the Gamache family begins to piece together what happened they realize they’ve stumbled upon a massive corporate corruption scheme.
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There are lots of twists and turns to keep you hooked the whole time. It was a fun read!

I am not sure what to make of this book. One minute I was bored, then entranced, then bored again, finally enjoying it. It seemed strangely old fashioned, but I wonder if that was due to the narrator. The narrator has a lovely, soothing voice but reads in an unusual style . I can’t quite put my finger on it; maybe like reading a bedtime story. All in all it made me feel like the book was an old book, perhaps like a Hercule Poirot, or the like.
The story itself didn’t have me hooked although there were elements I enjoyed. The tale is one of high business, deception and murder, and a man’s fight to ensure justice prevails. Whilst I wasn’t moved by the actual story, the characters were excellent, with some touching relationships amongst the protagonists.

Conspiracy, murder, and betrayal in the City of Light and solving the crime will be a family affair.

ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE, the 16th novel in the Chief Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny, takes place in Paris where Armand and Reine-Marie are visiting family and awaiting the birth of Annie and Jean-Guy's second child. While there, Armand's godfather is involved in a hit-and-run, and to find his attempted murderer the family continues to unravel the mystery that he was trying to solve.

My favorite part about this series is the relationships between the characters and how they grow and change in each novel. I also appreciate that I can never solve the crime before Inspector Gamache does.

Also, the narration by Robert Bathurst is excellent. In fact, I recommend listening to this entire series on audio.

Thank you Macmillian Audio and NetGalley for an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review!

The much anticipated next book of the adventures of Inspector Gamache delivered a story that kept you guessing who was the good guys and who was the bad guys (or should I say Angels or Devils!) all the way through. At first, I was distracted by the male narrator attempting to do female voices but as the book progressed that fell away with the intrigue of the story. The other thing I would say about the narrator is that one should listen to at least one book in the series just so you can pronounce everyone's name properly. Relationships forged between family & friends through all of these books make you feel as if you are sitting down to visit with old friends every time you read one. The twists and turns of All Devils Are Here keep you wondering and the end took me by surprise! If only I could go visit Three Pines and sit before the fire at the Inn with a latte and a good book with snow falling outside. Thank you for another great book, Louise Penny!

I'm an unapologetic Penny Pusher. I adore this series. Over 16 books, Three Pines and the characters who dwell there have started to feel like old friends. But heading into ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE I felt some trepidation since this installment is set in Paris, not our beloved Three Pines. But I should have known better. The change in scenery totally worked. It all just worked! ⁣
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There is so much to love. The writing is beautiful, and the story had me invested from the get-go. I loved the exploration of Gamache and his son Daniel's relationship. I loved how Reine-Marie played an active role in the investigation. I continue to love how Armand Gamache shows us his vulnerability and struggle in navigating being a husband, father, friend and Chief Inspector.⁣
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At the peak culminating moment my husband tapped me on my shoulder to see if I wanted to watch a show with him. I shouted, "Dude- it's kind of a big moment here. So & so is doing such & such. My heart is in my throat. I love you, but you've got to go!" ⁣
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As is par for the course, the last chapter found me in tears. Like the glutton I am- I listened to that chapter twice. This is easily one of my favorite installments.
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Louise Penny's newest book in the Armand Gamache series does not disappoint. I worried I would miss Three Pines and its usual cast of characters, but I absolutely loved the Paris setting and the stronger involvement of Gamache's family. This is the perfect book to read while "sipping on a glass of Pernod." The narrator was brilliant - Louise Penny is a master at her craft.