All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny

On 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 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.

Enjoyed but was a little over the top!

My least favorite Gamache book thus far. I realize I said that last book, but I mean it this time.

The Gamaches are in Paris for the birth of a grandchild, but get sucked into a murder mystery when a close family friend is involved in a hit-and-run accident outside a restaurant. Not long after, a body is found within the family friend's residence, and the case starts quickly spiraling out from there. Soon, Gamache is chasing down leads involving corporate espionage and coverup murders, and it's not until the end that we finally learn who's side everyone is on.

Rather than feeling like a traditional Gamache twisty murder mystery, this felt more like Gamache-and-friends were dumped into a generic corporate espionage thriller plot. I know thrillers have their fans out there, but the incredibly fast paced action of this book didn't feel very....Gamache-like. All throughout Paris, I couldn't help but think about how much I missed Canada and Three Pines and the friends that have become mainstays in these books up until this point, and it really took me out of the current book's setting. I realize this was an attempt to keep the series fresh, but it just felt too far removed from what I loved about the other fifteen books.

All that said, I did like the role Reine-Marie played in this one, and I really hope she keeps it in the following books.

I just want to say this book was great but I had a dysfunctional moment with it. I couldn't get it to play on the kindle at all and then decided to spend some time on my phone and just listened. This is my first book by Louise Penny and this is book sixteen in the Chief Inspector Gamache series. I will say that this reads beautifully as a standalone. The Paris setting was amazing. I felt as if I were there, even though I never have been. I felt like I was walking the streets, seeing the statues and architecture, and eating the delicious-sounding food they were eating. Paris is definitely a major character in this book. Armand and his family are , of course, the main human characters. Some of the revelations are heart-breaking; and others, joyous.
The plot is labyrinthine with many twists and surprises and crosses and doubles crosses. It was an exciting ride.
It gave me Dan Brown Angels and Demons vibes and I loved the who done it aspect that the book inspires. I enjoyed the quiet and felt like things were wrapped up nice even though it left room for a book seventeen. I am for sure going to go backwards and read book one just to get a better love for the characters.