Penny said that even though she loves the characters and enjoys writing them, she tries to “find that balance between having characters grow and evolve, but keeping enough that is predictable and recognizable, and at the same time making sure it doesn’t fall into a rut.” The supporting characters aren’t just background: in previous books, one was convicted of murder and one was killed. I didn’t want to take him too far away, like volunteering for the UN.” “I did toy with the idea of keeping him retired,” she said, “but it just seemed then that it would be so much work to get him involved in every case, and it just didn’t seem appropriate. Penny said in a recent interview that she thinks the books work better with him employed. Gamache’s new position marks his return from (early) retirement after two books as an outsider to the Surete, and he hints that he may be returning to investigation. And of course there’s a murder, which brings back Isabelle Lacoste and the Surete inspectors. But it’s no easy task: the corruption runs deep in the academy, and Gamache left one of the worst perpetrators in place – on purpose, to keep him close – which may bring more trouble than Gamache had anticipated. Because they need a man of character and integrity to root out corruption, Gamache is the logical choice. Louise Penny’s latest Chief Inspector Gamache novel “A Great Reckoning” (Minotaur Books, 400 pages, $28.99), the 12th in the series, finds Armand Gamache taking charge of the Quebec police training academy.
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