With my completion of Louise Penny's 16th Gamache novel All the Devils are Here ©2020, I have finished reading all the books thus far published in the author’s Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, copyrighted one per year 2005 through 2020. I recently caught up on all my blog posts about them. Each of my reviews for the first twelve books, cites my familiarity with the family of characters, most from Three Pines, the quaint village in Quebec near the Vermont USA border. This sixteenth novel is set in Paris where Armand and his wife Reine-Marie travel for the birth of their fourth grandchild. They join up with Gamache’s former second in command Jean-Guy Beauvoir and his family. The Gamaches' son Daniel, his wife, and two granddaughters already live there as does Armand’s godfather, billionaire Stephen Horowitz. Stephen played an important role in Armand’s life following the death of Armand’s parents in a car crash when he was a young boy. The trip is to be a joyful reunion. Since character portrayal is a strong suit of Louise Penny, and my familiarity with those characters is a comforting constant, pulling them all together in this novel was a treat.
In addition to becoming better acquainted with other members of Inspector Armand Gamache’s family, I rode along on a tour of Paris seeing sights such as the Eiffel Tower (also on the book cover), the Paris Archives, gardens outside the Louvre, plus famous luxurious hotels and stores, to name a few. Although I have never been to Paris, I suspect that those who have, would also appreciate the street and bridge names, zones of Paris, and paths taken throughout the city.
A description of the famous department store Le Bon Marché made me think of visiting historic Macy's on State Street in Chicago with its tiffany ceiling (post dated 10/28/17). Per Chapter 12 of All the Devils Are Here
Le Bon Marché was the oldest, the first, store of its kind in Paris. Practically in the world. Opened in 1852, it pre-dated Selfridges in London by more than half a century. In fact, the Hotel Lutetia was built by the owner of the Bon Marche, primarily to give his customers someplace to stay while spending money in his remarkable store. He was a visionary. What he saw was wealth. What he could not have envisioned were the other uses his magnificent hotel would be put to. As children, Daniel and Annie had love nothing better than to ride up and down the famous white tiled escalators, looking out over the wares, the people, gawking at the huge installations that were as much art as marketing.
When Reine-Marie is trying to find the name of a cologne she detected lingering at the site of a murder, she describes it to a clerk of the perfume department of Le Bon Marché as "not fruity... citrusy... maybe a little woody... with a kind of chemically smell. The clerk responded
“It seems we’re looking for a lemon tree made out of plastic. It’s a good thing you’re not trying to sell fragrances, madame.”
Some overnight stays and a good deal of the action takes place at the exorbitantly expensive adjacent Hôtel Lutetia. Reine-Marie quips that tea service for their party will cost her a kidney. Per Wikipedia
The Lutetia was built in 1910 in the Art Nouveau style to designs by architects Louis-Charles Boileau and Henri Tauzin. It was founded by the Bon Marché department store, which sits opposite it facing Square Boucicaut. ... The hotel is named for an early pre-Roman town that existed where Paris is now located. Famous guests over the years have included Pablo Picasso, Charles de Gaulle... Peggy Guggenheim .... James Joyce wrote part of Ulysses at the hotel.
Some of the parks and gardens throughout Paris and in particular outside the Louvre give other glimpses at the Paris setting. Watching his son and granddaughters romping about, Armand muses this interesting tidbit of wisdom.
Armand watched his son be a father, and smiled. Yes, it was far more important he be a great father than a good son.Oh, yes. Besides the images of the characters and the scenes of Paris, which permeate my mind, there is indeed a great plot. Early on, shortly after everyones arrival in Paris reunion, Armand's 93 year old godfather, billionaire Stephen Horowitz, is struck by a vehicle – intentionally it appears – and is in critical condition in the hospital. Who and why has done this leads to a quite convoluted plot, which centers around venture capitalists. Armand's son Daniel is in that business and there are indications that he may be involved in some underhanded financing and trades. There is also some over arching inexplicable friction between Armand and his son Daniel. A trip ensues to the Paris Archives to discover proof of underhanded dealings or a forged document .
At one point Daniel is taken hostage by sinister financiers and Armand is tasked at gunpoint with fetching a certain item, whereabouts unknown, and delivering it to save his son's life. This time critical action takes place concurrent with the stressful labor and delivery sequence of Armand's daughter Annie. For a facts-only synopsis of the action, see https://the-bibliofile.com/all-the-devils-are-here-synposis-summary/ . This site helps me remember what happened, but for the emotion-infused and character-inter-relational version of how it happened, I much prefer the real book. For those who have not read Louise Penny's previous Gamache novels, I believe some of the warmth of the character relations cannot be fully appreciated; those come-lately readers may opine this is a four star book (Really good; maybe only one weak aspect or limited audience). I maintain that the reduction of one star does not reflect the merit of the book, but rather is symbolic of the limited capacity of the readers who can only benefit from four of the five stars the book has to offer. Because of its well-developed and familiar characters, engaging educational settings, sprinkling of bit of tongue-in-cheek humor, and page turning plot, I rate All the Devils Are Here five stars.
★★★★★ Great! Read it!
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