On May 15th, Central’s Brown Baggers discussed The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny. . The plot of this title takes place in the Canadian village of Three Pines (as most of her novels do) just after the global Covid pandemic has ended.  Chief Inspector Gamache and his crew are appointed to provide security for a somewhat controversial speaker, who is an advocate for “mercy killing” and assisted suicide as a strategy to use scarce funds and resources for the fittest.  As these things go in Three Pines, there is a murder and Gamache runs through a cast of possible suspects to a killer one of our readers said “makes it a cheat”. 

Some of our members are diehard Louise Penny fans (meaning they’ve read every book she’s written), while others haven’t ever read anything by her.  Avid Penny fans admitted that this is not her best.  Readers felt it was a clever marketing ploy by Penny, to set the book in the recent post-pandemic period.

As in all of her books, Penny mixes in French words and phrases.  Why? Does she intend for us to pick up some French?  Most of the French we could figure out based on the context.

Our readers felt there were too many “quirkly” characters (& animals) and a few unnecessary side plots.  Regardless, as usual we had a lively and fun discussion.

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