Louise Penny's latest novel, The Black Wolf is a thriller. It is exciting. It's a spy story. Inspector Gamache frequently travels home to Three Pines, to recharge, and that's nice. But the story takes place between the governments of Canada and the US.
It's uncanny how prescient Louise Penny is. She wrote this novel before 2025, and the story line revolves around current problems. We just had a humongous fire in Canada that affected the US. Also, for years, there has been a water problem. Rivers are drying up and municipalities have been conserving water in the summer, for years.
The plot is to cause tragedy to strike, to cause panic, to use social media to affect people's minds to turn to blame the other country. Since the US needs water and Canada has an abundance, why not make it our 51st state? The Canadian fires are sending ash and other pollutants over the border--are they doing it on purpose?
My criticism is there are too many twists, and bad guys, and all too convenient Deus Machina. It's too, too much and too many. I found it hard to follow the bad guys. I also found it hard to believe how the characters were rescued--again and again, at the last moment.
But hey, it's a story, right? It's a good story.
