Louise Penny’s New Book 2024: The Grey Wolf

I am so excited about Louise Penny’s new book: The Grey Wolf. I have been eagerly waiting for it since her last book in 2022!

I am so excited to share everything I have learned from the book. I will give a summary, talk about the ending, and raise any discussion questions that I have. If you have not read Penny’s other books, I suggest you take a look at my other articles on this topic: Louise Penny Books in Order With Summaries and Louise Penny Characters

This is the nineteenth book in the Chief Inspector Gamache series. It is also the first book narrated by Jean Brassard, a French Canadian actor. I was initially shocked, and the accent is definitely a change from the previous audiobook narrator, Robert Bathurst. Louise Penny comments at the beginning of the book that she wanted a French Canadian actor to play the voice of Chief Inspector Gamache, who is also French Canadian.

It took a little while to get used to the voice and I had trouble with identifying the names of characters and places. I am also familiar with a French Canadian accent because I grew up in Canada. If you are unfamiliar, you may have to listen to parts of the book at a slower speed than usual. You may also have to get used to different pronunciations of names that you are familiar with. I will have to find a physical copy to make sure I spelled names correctly because I did listen.

Also, in case anyone was curious, the Afterword explains that much of Ruth’s poetry is actually Margaret Atwood who wholeheartedly supported her work appearing in Louise Penny’s new book!

Louise Penny’s New Book 2024: The Grey Wolf

Louise Penny’s new book takes her storytelling to a new level. This new book will be the first in a new storyline. I am not sure how many. This new Louise Penny book gave me the same feeling as A Brutal Telling ( Chief Inspector Gamache #5). It was the start of a story arc that ended in book #9, How the Light Gets In.

It is not a spoiler to say that when the book ends, the story is not over, although you will not be left on a cliffhanger. If you are planning on reading Louise Penny’s new book and have not read Beautiful Mystery and How the Light Gets In, I would recommend going back and reading these books before reading The Grey Wolf.

Beginning of The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny

The book starts with numerous phone calls to Chief Inspector Gamache’s cell phone. He is at home in Three Pines with Reine Marie and won’t answer it. The reader is not sure who is calling, but when Gamache finally picks up the phone, he tells the person on the other end of the line to go to hell and hangs up. When the phone continues to ring, he finally answers it and finds out that the alarm at the alarm for the front door of his pied a terre in Montreal is been triggered.

It appears as though nothing was taken however, Gamache’s coat arrives at the Sûreté the next day with a note in the pocket requesting to meet at Open the Night Cafe. This is a cafe near Gamache’s Pied a Terre and he decides to go to the meeting with backup. There, he encounters a man who calls himself Charles.

Gamache knows that Charles is afraid of something and wants help but makes up numerous stories about who is and why he stole Gamache’s jacket from his home. Gamache is left with more questions than answers as Charles refuses to give information about who he is working for. Gamache shows Charles the second note that had been placed in the pocket of the jacket- one that has a list of ingredients on one side with the word “Water” written on the other.

Gamache has no answers when they leave the cafe and watches in horror as Charles is hit purposely by a black SUV and killed. Gamache made the choice to save a little girl and her grandfather rather than Charles and the entire incident is caught on camera. The search for the driver of the car begins. The driver is later found dead and identified as Paolo Parisi.

Throughout the story, we find out more about Gamache’s relationship with his son Daniel. We had known that they went through a difficult period and that Daniel had a drug addiction in the past. In this book, we find out what happened and who the players are.

What happened to damage Gamache and Daniel’s relationship?

Jeanne Caron is an assistant to a Municipal Politician (MP) named Marcus Louzon. His daughter was drunk and driving without a license when she hit a biker. Instead of stopping, she drove away and the biker died. Caron wanted Gamache to make the charges go away and when he wouldn’t drop the charges, they retaliated by going after Daniel.

Even though the daughter was acquitted, When Daniel received a court order rehab after an arrest, the MP had the order reversed and he was charged with drug trafficking instead. He was sent to prison where he relapsed. Gamache was able to get the charges reversed and expunged, but the damage was lasting. Daniel eventually got clean after a suicide attempt.

Meanwhile, Gamache realizes that the strange visitor to Three Pines was Dom Philippe, the Abbot of St Gilbert Entre le Loup. This is the monastery that Beauvoir and Gamache visited in Book 8, Beautiful Mystery. He also left a not for Gamache with “some malady” written on one side and “water” written on the other with angelica stems. He realizes the notes he has are two halves and starts to put the pieces together. He also realizes that the ingredients are part of a recipe for Chartreuse. Dom Philippe left a bottle of the green liquor at the inn.

When Gamache realized that Charles was afraid of an attack on the Quebec water supply, he visits David Lavigne, an old friend who is on the GAC committee (Global Affairs Canada) and is the assistant commissioner of the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police).

Gamache believes that an attack from within is imminent. If this happened, the government would invoke the War Measures Act which would give complete control of the people to the government. Gamache cannot warn anyone. If he does, they might move up the date before he can figure out who is behind it or, they might go to ground where he would lose the trail completely. He knows that Charles had more information but he cannot find his notebooks.

Gamache knows he needs to head back to the Monastery to get answers.

The Grey Wolf: We Start to Get Answers

*from this point on, some of the information may contain spoilers. If you have not read Louise Penny’s new book, you may not want to read past this point

When they arrive at the monastery, Frère Simon, the acting Abbott, tells them that the Abbot did not return to the monastery. All his clothes are gone. They realized that he received a letter from the Vatican before he left. Gamache believes that an American in the Vatican found out about the plan to poison the drinking water and passed that information to Brother Sébastien. Sébastien then told the Abbot who worked hard to give the information to Gamache. Gamache wonders if the head of the Sûreté knows about this plan and if she can be trusted.

What is Chartreuse?

This is a liquor made in one place in France. Chartreux Fathers make Chartreuse in their Aiguenoire distillery in Entre-Deux-Guiers (Isère – France). Only two people know the recipe at any given time. When one dies, the recipe is given to another brother. It is believed to be an elixir of long life and contains 130 herbs and spices.

What is the significance of the underlined B in the letter?

The underlined letter b is a reference to the Beatles’ song “Let It Be.” They sound similar, and the joke is meant to be an inside joke between Brother Robert, Sister Irene, and Brother Sébastien who sang together in a bar before Sébastien was fired. Sébastien took the blame for them all and was the only one dismissed.

Now Lacoste, Beauvoir, and Gamache all follow different trails to find answers.

Lacoste Heads to Rome. She is looking for an American with information. She thinks she is looking for a man but realizes the nun she finds as her translator, Sister Irene, is actually the person she is looking for. Isabelle convinces sister Irene to come with her to France to find Frère Robert.

Lacoste is trying to determine how Irene, Robert, and Sébastien are part of the plot with the water. Robert heard what was going to happen when filling in for a local priest in a confessional. He was not bound to silence like a priest and was too scared to talk to the police so he sent for Irene.

When he wouldn’t tell her the details of what he heard, Irene sent for Brother Sébastien at St Gilbert Entre le Loup. Robert panics and leaves for Grande Chartreuse (a monetary in France). Irene and Sébastien follow Robert who still will not talk to them so they send for Dom Philippe. Robert spoke briefly with Dom Philippe who looked upset when he left.

Lacoste, Irene, and Claude Dussalt arrive at the monastery and are reluctantly allowed inside. Sébastien lets them know that Brother Robert did not trust the Abbot and did not tell him anything.

Brother Robert refuses to see Irene or Lacoste. The lay monk will not deliver a message. They are forced to issue a search warrant of the monastery before they are finally allowed in.

Gamache heads to a small town on the lower North Shore of Quebec, Blanc-Sablon. It is so small that it is only accessible by plane, a Ferry from Labrador, or a drive from Labrador. There are no roads from Quebec. This is the perfect place for Dom Philippe to go. This is where his family is. He is met by Valerie Michaud, a Sûreté officer who worked with Gamache as a Junior agent.

At the Rousseau house, Raymond Rousseau initially points a gun at Gamache but eventually allows him inside. Raymond’s wife, Miriam, explains they have been too frightened to leave their home. The Abbot warned them that people would come looking for him, disguised as friends, to cause harm. He also borrowed Raymond’s credit card, and passport, and took some cash before leaving. With this information, they can now begin searching for him.

Jean-Guy is at the mission and realizes there is a connection between Charles Langlois with Jeanne Caron, Dom Philippe, and Paolo Parisi.

Spoiler

Dom Philippe & Jeanne Caron are related. She is his niece. They had a falling out when she asked him to return to Blan-Sablon for her mother’s funeral. She wanted him to officiate and he would not due to vows of silence. She did not forgive him. Years later, she became more upset when the Monastery became famous for the Gregorian chants and he did interviews.

Gamache flies back to Quebec where he meets with Jean-Guy. They wonder why Brother Robert did not trust the Abbot. Trying to determine everyone’s roles in the plot. They need to find Charles’s missing notebooks. At this point in the story, there are a lot of questions.

• Who is behind the plot?
• What is the Abbot’s involvement?
• Is Dom Philippe part of the plot to poison the drinking water?
• Is Dom Philippe pretending to be sympathetic to the cause to try and stop it?
• Is Dom Philippe trying to confuse Gamache?

The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny Almost at the End

The ending of Louise Penny’s new book is fast-paced and complex. It is filled with deception as well as twists and turns. If you do not want any spoilers to the Grey Wolf, stop reading now 🙂

Gamache decides it is finally time to speak with Caron. He heads in with Bouvoir’s gun and is helped by an RCMP officer named Gauthier. Allows Gamache to enter the parliament building with the gun. Caron is not in the office. Gamache needs to find her so he takes Caron’s assistant, Frederic Castonguay, with him so that he does not alert Caron that they are looking for her.

Bouvoir waiting to make a call to alert everyone about the upcoming terror attack. Gamache gave him a list of people to get on a conference call and tell them about the upcoming attack.

Lacoste finds out that Frère Robert is one of the two keepers of the Chartreuse recipe.

Spoiler

Lacoste finds Frère Robert dead. He has been pushed to his death.

Gamache leaves parliament with Gauthier and Caron’s assistant. Frédéric admits that Caron has been keeping strange hours and has been photocopying things from different departments late at night. They are trying to find Caron and the Abbot. He was not at the Mission. Is he at the Monastery or his childhood home? He realizes at the last minute that Three Pines is the sanctuary where the Abbot would go.

Gamache thinks all the photocopied documents are in Three Pines as well.

Gamache is investigating two execution-style murders that are seemingly unrelated throughout the book. Who are the two victims?

1. School teacher- From Magdalen Islands is one month from retirement, completely unrelated to anyone, but a warning to keep quiet
2. Postal Clerk- From Saguenay, Brother Robert’s Aunt
   Both had their mouths taped and shot execution style. A message to be quiet.

Louise Penny’s New Book 2024: Ending!

Caron is waiting for Gamache in the Chapel in Three Pines. Dom Philippe is with her. She claims that she contacted Gamache to help her and that she sent him information because she is on his side. Gamache does not believe her and holds a gun to her head demanding information. Dom Philippe says Robert told him what he heard in the confessional and didn’t want Irene or Sébastien involved.

Caron says she learned about the plan when her boss started having meetings with Joseph Moretti, the head of the 6th family (mob), and she was not invited. There are six treatment plants but she did not know which would be targeted so she sent Charles to work at the facilities. While working at the biggest one, he was murdered which gave them the answer of which facility was going to be the target.

Suddenly Shots are fired in the Chapell.

Spoiler

Dom Philippe is shot and killed, there is another woman on the floor dead and they realize it was the woman they had been searching for from “Open the Night”. Gamache holds a gun to Gaithier’s head and tells Jean-Guy to Zip tie him. He realized that the Mounty had been in on the plan the whole time. He let her in and shot her after she killed Dom Philippe.

Gamache makes a quick stop at home to Reine-Marie to update her and then he and Beauvoir cancel the conference call and rush to find Charles’s papers. Gamache realizes he left them with his parents who are estranged for safekeeping. He knew nobody would think to ask them because of the estrangement.

Langlois had discovered where, when, and how the water would be contaminated. The plan was to use Botulinine. They just do not know which pump and can deduce it is either pumps one or two, the biggest of the pumps at the station.

He also has a list of people involved in the scheme with question marks next to the names of the head of the Sûreté and others. Gamache is not surprised to find the name of his friend David Lavigne on the list.

Spoiler

Lacoste finds Frère Robert dead. He has been pushed to his death. She realizes that Sébastien killed Robert as part of the plot to poison the water. He was the one who made the confession to Robert. He followed Robert to the monastery to make sure he wouldn’t talk and then killed him when the pieces started coming together.

Gamache and Beauvoir find an engineer from the water plant and head over to try and stop the pumps. Gamache heads to the pump rooms to find the toxin or stop the perpetrators while the engineer and Bouvoir try and shut down the plant.

They managed to get pump one offline but the main engineer, who was in on the plot, sabotaged the second pump and it cannot be turned off. The engineer comes up with a plan to flood wastewater into the treatment room to shut down the entire plant. This is a bypass that not many people know about.

Gamache finds the poison in pump room 1 and puts the vial in his pocket to keep it safe. When he enters pump room two, Lavigne is there holding a gun to his head. Lavigne tells him he will spare Gamache’s family a horrible death if he tells him where the notebooks are. Lavigne and his cronies tie Gamache’s hands behind his back and beat him.

He refuses to talk and knows he is about to die when they find the vile in his pocket. They empty it into the water just before Gamache hears the sound of the pumps slowing. Lavigne steps up to shoot Gamache when there are gunshots. Armand is on the ground bleeding and he is going in and out of consciousness.

Major Spoiler

Gamache left the poison hidden in pump room one and switched it for an aspirin bottle he brought from Three Pines filled with water from the tap, not poison.

Major Spoiler

Gamache is not dead. Caron entered the plant and shot Lavigne before he could shoot Gamache. The bullet grazed Gamache’s ear. He hit his face falling, his eardrum was broken because of the proximity to his head, and he had a major concussion.

Louise Penny’s New Book: The Grey Wolf Conclusion

Spoiler

• Gamache is back in Three Pines. He is on sick leave due to his concussion and hearing loss
• He is having recurring nightmares in which he tells Lavigne where the notebooks are and Lavigne comes to hard his family anyway
• Gamache has a late-night epiphany while awake from his nightmare: Why would Lavigne care about notebooks? Why not the one notebook that detailed the information for the water poison plot?
• When he pulls up the information from the other notebooks, he realizes that the poisoned drinking water in Montreal was just the beginning and there is something deeper going on related to lake water as well.
• He immediately calls Isabel and Jean-Guy to his house.

At the end of The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny, we realize that this book is the first in a new plotline. Just as Chief Inspector Gamache books 5-9 all follow a larger plot, I believe this book is the beginning of a bigger plotline as well.

Who was involved in the attempted poisoning of Montreal’s drinking water?

• Marcus Lauzon was arrested and charged with murder and high treason
• Superintendent Toussaint cleared
• Evelyn Tardiff cleared
• Chief Inspector Goudreau charged- he allowed the botulinum toxin over the border
• Moreti, head of the crime family was not charged. Organized crime does not recognize that there is a 6th family.

Characters in the Grey Wolf by Louise Penny

Spoiler

Dom Philippe’s real name before becoming a monk was Eve Rousseau. The Mission referred to him at Big Stink

Frequently Asked Questions

Epilogue

Did you read The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny? What did you think of Louise Penny’s new book? Did it take you any time to adjust to listening to the new narrator? I would love to hear your thoughts.

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