You have no idea how much I wanted Louise Penny's latest novel to be good. Her nineteenth mystery finally arrived. The Grey Wolf continued with the same Three Pines/Quebec/Canadian setting, the familiar characters, the tense suspense was there, the thrill, the fast pace, the heart stopping drama, but the clues, I found unbelievable.
I found myself saying, "Oh c'mon!", numerous times. How could scraps of paper mean anything? Traveling from one country to another so easily, happen?
Then I remembered that I always think that of Sherlock Holmes, yet I still enjoyed them. And I do enjoy Louise Penny's writing.
What sealed the improbability of the clues was the behavior of the monks. Since I'm Catholic, I know that monks take vows of stability. The Dominican friars don't, since they work outside their priory; but Gilbertines and Carthusians take a "vow of stability" to NEVER leave their monasteries. Maybe they could get special permission in extraordinary cases, but not as easily as the monks in The Grey Wolf, to hop from country to country.
The most egregious abnormality was the Confession. The priest who asked a non-ordained brother to hear Confessions for him is a ridiculous scenario. That would never happen, unless the priest was drunk, or on drugs, or had a gun to his head. A brother without the faculties to hear Confessions would never assent to do that, either, unless he was drunk, or on drugs, or had a gun to his head. Their souls would be in serious jeopardy. Besides, what was the sin? No sin was committed. The deed hadn't been done yet. There was nothing to absolve. Just thinking or planning bad things is just venial.
I think Louise Penny should have had the scenario of Spiritual Direction, instead of Confession. That's confidential, also. Brothers, sisters, and trained lay people, can give spiritual direction. Definitely, that's believable.
There's one other Catholic thing, Penny got wrong. Catholics should be buried in consecrated ground, not have their ashes spread on a rock. An abbot would certainly know that.
It may seem that I didn't enjoy the book. I did. Authors often get the Catholic stuff wrong. And Louise Penny is a wee-bit anti-Catholic, but it really doesn't bother me because I love Armand and all the other characters in Three Pines. I hope the series doesn't end with Armand dying. I want him to retire and continue to solve crimes. He could be chief inspector emeritus.
