The 16th novel by #1 bestselling author Louise Penny finds Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Quebec investigating a sinister plot in the City of LightOn their first night in Paris, the Gamaches gather as a family for a bistro dinner with Armand’s godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz. Walking home together after the meal, they watch in horror as Stephen is knocked down and … knocked down and critically injured in what Gamache knows is no accident, but a deliberate attempt on the elderly man’s life.
When a strange key is found in Stephen’s possession it sends Armand, his wife Reine-Marie, and his former second-in-command at the Sûreté, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, from the top of the Tour d’Eiffel, to the bowels of the Paris Archives, from luxury hotels to odd, coded, works of art.
It sends them deep into the secrets Armand’s godfather has kept for decades.
A gruesome discovery in Stephen’s Paris apartment makes it clear the secrets are more rancid, the danger far greater and more imminent, than they realized.
Soon the whole family is caught up in a web of lies and deceit. In order to find the truth, Gamache will have to decide whether he can trust his friends, his colleagues, his instincts, his own past. His own family.
For even the City of Light casts long shadows. And in that darkness devils hide.
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Inspector Gamache plus Paris. What more could one ask for.
This was a book that I feel could be one of your must reads of the year. I was so glad l have had the opportunity to find my first experience of a Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. You feel you want to belong to this Gamache family straight away. Before the end Armand will come to know the heartbreaking choice of family or duty. You will particularly fall in love with Armand head of the Gamache family. The mystery starts when his godfather the billionaire Steven Horowitz is run down after a family night out in Paris. Armand realises immediately that this was deliberate and asks for help from his friend the head of the Paris police. Armand and members of his family will find that Steven has left them a trail of bread crumbs if only they could decipher it but will not find it easy to tell who are their real friends. You will be taken through the atmosphere of Paris’s many attractions the hidden courtyard gardens and the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. The Hotel Lutetia and its infamous past will play a big part in Armand questioning what he really knows about his godfathers youth in the resistance. The story gives you many heart stopping moments and really grips you till the very last page. I hope to revisit this series again soon. I was given an arc of this book by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I didn’t realize when I selected this book it was part of a long series (book 16 actually!!). With that said, the book can still be read as a stand alone. I didn’t feel like I was lost or anything like that regarding the characters or story line. It was however a slow burn read. I felt like the story line took too long to get anywhere. This was my first book by the author as well and I have mixed feelings whether I’d want to invest in such a long series if they are all written in this pace.
The narrator, Robert Bathurst, did well. His accent really helped me feel like I was in England sipping tea while I was listening.
Thanks to Netgalley and the Louise Penny/Minotaur Books for providing me an audio copy for an honest review.
Gamache is in Paris with his family, and after his Godfather is attacked, he doesn’t trust anyone, not even his son.
If you like a book you can fall into and live with for a few days, All the Devils are Here is a great choice. I’ve been a fan of Louise Penny’s mystery books for quite a while, and she’s outdone herself with this one. Love the Quebecois settings, but this one takes place in Paris. And our hero Armand is a man I could live with!
The sleight of hand plotting that Louise Penny has perfected in her Inspector Gamache books bowled me over in ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE. I believed this to be true. Wrong. I thought that to be true. Wrong again. Magnificent and engaging, the storyline is captivating through the very last page. I highly recommend it!
A fabulous slow burning plot. The tension ratchets up chapter by chapter.
Louise Penny’s ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE is a love story, in the truest sense, such a satisfying book, of love, loss, misunderstandings and resolution, and a twisty plot with terrible villains. Whom to trust? How to find proof? What really matters?
I couldn’t stop reading and finished quickly, but now I’m sorry it’s over. I might have to listen to the audio version in a month or so.
A bonus is the travel to and through Paris, a virtual trip full of new places even if one has been there before.
First, a confession: I have been a rabid Louise Penny fan since I read A RULE AGAINST MURDER (4th in the series) when it came out in 2009. After reading it, I went back and started the series at the beginning. While all of the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache books can be read as standalones, they will definitely raise questions in readers’ minds about historical connections between the characters. ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE is unique in the Gamache universe. Not only can it be read as a standalone, it could easily both wrap up the entire series (heaven forbid!), or launch a newcomer into the continuation of the series with nary a look back. (I doubt this would actually happen, because I haven’t met a Gamache reader yet who hasn’t joyfully delved into Penny’s backlist.)
Armand Gamache and his wife, Reine-Marie, have traveled to Paris from Quebec for the birth of their daughter Annie’s baby girl. Annie’s husband, Jean-Guy Beauvoir (who long served at Gamache’s side in the Quebec Sûreté), is now an executive at a prestigious French engineering firm, and Annie is practicing law. On the Gamaches’ first night in Paris, all four are out to dinner with Daniel (Annie’s brother), his wife, and billionaire Stephen Horowitz, Gamache’s aged godfather. After leaving the restaurant, Stephen is nearly killed in a hit-and-run incident, and hospitalized with grave injuries. Gamache and the others agree it didn’t appear to have been an accident, and the mystery begins. This is Paris, of course, and Gamache has no real authority under the law, but he knows a great many influential people, and carries his own silent, dignified authority that lets him Get Things Done.
The Gamache books are equally about solving crime mysteries and exploring the mysteries of the human heart. The heart has a very long memory, and the crimes in ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE–some reaching back to the 1930s and World War II– illustrate that with brutal clarity .
Up to this 16th book in the series, several people close to Gamache have suffered intensely or even died. But this is the first time tragedy (that doesn’t involve Gamache directly) truly engulfs the entire family. It’s the first time, too, we get a really good look at the dynamics between Gamache, his son, Daniel, and Jean-Guy, Gamache’s son of the heart. It’s a very personal story in a series that is deeply character driven. Stephen has appeared in earlier books, but we learn far more about him with each discovery Gamache makes in Paris. Stephen is a complicated man–something that Gamache has always known–yet Gamache begins to wonder if Stephen is truly the principled person Gamache has always believed he was, or is a greedy criminal at heart.
Paris is a star. We get inside the legendary Hotel George V, and up into the Eiffel Tower. Penny has definitely done her on-site research. The food is to die for, and even the table wine is delectable. Penny’s faithful readers already know how important food is in the Gamache novels. Three Pines, the fictitious, beguiling Quebec village where most of the Gamache books are set, is full of delicious food.
Speaking of Three Pines…If you’re not familiar with the series, you might wonder what all the fuss is about the village. Penny readers who have a strong preference for English village-style murder stories get testy when Gamache has to solve crimes elsewhere. It’s that special. Three Pines isn’t on any official maps. It’s a kind of Canadian Shangri-la, whose inhabitants are mostly people who stumbled into it by accident, recently or decades ago. While it’s not exactly Miss Marple’s St. Mary Meade, it has far more than its share of murders in its immediate area. For the most part (no spoilers here!), Three Pines doesn’t make much of an appearance in ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE. Which, I suppose, is a good reason for anyone who reads it to circle around and start at the series’s beginning.
I did not miss Three Pines terribly as I read, because I found the Paris story all-consuming. Nearly every member of the family is somehow involved in solving the mystery. Jean-Guy also has to navigate his rather strange new job, and when suspicious connections to Stephen’s business dealings turn up, Jean-Guy is in the right place at the right time. It does seem awfully convenient that Gamache is a personal friend of the Paris Chief of Police, which makes his investigation less hassle.
I’ve listened to all of the previous Chief Inspector Gamache books on audio, as I did this one. Robert Bathurst has been the series’s narrator since Ralph Cosham, who originated the series, died. Bathurst has grown on me over the years, and he does a particularly good reading of this novel.
Second confession: I cried as it ended. Read it. Listen to it. Enjoy.
(I received a complimentary copy of ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE from NetGalley in return for an honest review.)
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
Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache visit Paris to await the birth of their fourth grandchild. Intended as a joyful family affair in the romantic city of lights, it soon takes a sinister turn. A van hits Gamache’s wealthy godfather, Stephen, a financier known for exposing wrongdoers. Godson Armand insists this was not a random accident but an assassination…
The novel is a fascinating tour de force of Gamachean psychology and morality. It presents Gamache the paterfamilias. A man driven by emotions—by fear for the safety of his loved ones. Louise Penny uses her poetic license to surprise us until the very end.
I loved Ms. Penny’s use of words and descriptions. The fact that it was set in Paris added to my personal interest.
Read 11.8.2021
Love all her books about Twin Pines and the Inspector. Get them sent to me as soon as they come out. Have long loved these books about Three Pines and our beloved Detective. Never seem to tire of the community, even when the family travels to France.
Although I don’t always enjoy Louise Penny’s overuse of sentence fragments, her pacing and character development are unmatched.
Picking up a Inspector Gamache book is always a bit of a commitment but never a disappointment. In this case, the commitment was met with glee because of the setting: Paris! As usual, Penny left me with my mouth agape by the end at the way she tied this mystery together. Also, I loved the way so much of Paris was on display—felt like I was right there again. And going to Paris is never a bad idea. Recommend.
My favorite Gamache in Penny’s series yet. I found this intricate plot to be mind-blowing yet flawless in accuracy. Every single family character is present plus Stephen whom I have come to love from past novels. I could not put this gripping book down and I was so moved that tears filled my eyes as I read the concluding passages. I’m so looking forward to the coming Gamache release next month, always a welcome thrill.
Is there anything like diving into a new series? No, no there’s not thankyouverymuch. Always one to buck the linear path I decided to start the Louise Penny, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, series with the most recent. All the Devils are Here is the 16th in the series. I had the opportunity to listen to the audiobook narrated by Robert Bathurst and jumped for my headphones! This was a double edged sword, and I fell hard.
The 16th book in the series finds the Gamache family in Paris. After a family dinner while walking home Armands godfather, Stephen Horowitz, is critically injured. This draws Armand into a very personal investigation that uncovers years of secrets.
I am a huge audiophile. Audiobooks are my default this year. If you’re familiar with the series I stand by this. If you’re new to the series I’m going to recommend reading in print, and probably reading the first in the series before any of the others. Robert Bathurst is a phenomenal narrator and when he’s narrating the story I’m following, I’m immersed, I’m there for it. When he moves into a characters french accent I’m lost. I’m trying to follow a layered mystery plot, family connections which feature heavily in this book, and identify characters with accents and french words tossed in. In theory the differentiation of voices would help. It was one layer too complicated for this reader/listener to tease apart. I wanted to mentally peel it back and read. This surprised me as normally I love ensemble cast recordings, narrators with accents, etc.
The other edge of that sword, I’m hooked! I loved the story, the mystery, the family relationship dynamics, and immediately dove into the first book in the series, Still Life. I’m working my way through several in print and then will jump back into audio again. The talented Robert Bathurst narrates the series starting with book 11, The Nature of the Beast.
There’s a reason this is a best selling series, has a cult following, and Louise Penny has won numerous awards including being honored for her contributions to Canadian culture. Always mentioned with cozy mysteries I believe they far surpass this description. Characters are nuanced, and complex. The mystery layered and multifaceted. I recommend for lovers of mysteries, most specifically for those familiar with the series.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced listener copy. All opinions are my own.
Hooked on the series
This is the first book I’ve read by Louise Penny, but I promise you it won’t be the last. Her writing is astonishing. This story is intelligent, beautifully written and plotted, a complex blend of emotion and suspense, with characters so real you want to be their friend. Canadian Inspector Gamache is in Paris with his family and his Godfather. Yes, there is an attempted murder. But at its heart, this story is all about family as old tensions, secrets and pain rise to the surface, only to be calmed by memories, honesty, forgiveness and love .