It’s been a bit too long since I last read an Inspector Gamache series – I think I read the previous book in the series in 2021 and one of the earlier books in 2022. But this is a series that I’ve followed for so long that I immediately borrowed All The Devils Are Here when I saw it in the library and actually decided to write a book review after reading.

Set in Paris (not Three Pines or even Canada!), All the Devils Are Here is a family-focused mystery. Gamache, his wife, and his children and grandchildren are all in Paris. Not for a family holiday though; Gamache’s son Daniel moved to Paris years ago and his daughter Annie (and her husband, our favourite Jean-Guy) moved for work a short while back. Gamache and his wife are visiting their children, and also meeting up with Stephen, Gamache’s very wealthy godfather. But when Stephen is left in a coma after being deliberately hit by a truck, Gamache is drawn into a mystery that threatens to break his family as well.

The crack in the tea-cup opens

A lane to the land of the dead.

W.H. Auden

Although the heart of the mystery lies in family – Gamache and his godfather, as well as Gamache and his son – the stakes are high. Stephen has made a lot of enemies through his unveiling of corporate crime, and his suspected past as a Nazi collaborator is one that Gamache vehemently denies. Although there’s no proof until towards the end of the novel, from the start it’s easy to sense that something big is at stake.

But for Gamache, the biggest stakes are his relationship with his family. This is the novel where we really go into depth into his relationship with his son, Daniel. Daniel has always been overseas for the Gamache novels and hence mostly a minor character, but the fraught father-son relationship here reminds us that Gamache has made mistakes and sacrifices over his long career. I thought that the exploration of the tension and love between father and son was the emotional heart of the novel and showed a side of Gamache that I hadn’t really seen before.

As always, Louise Penny’s pacing is perfect here, drawing us in with an exciting finish. And then perhaps unexpectedly, she gives us a very happy ending. It’s been a while but I had the impression that in the previous books (especially the ones that had a multi-book subplot), the endings were a bit more bittersweet (or at least, not as Happily Ever After as we get here). My suspicion is that after so much in her personal life, Penny wanted to write a purely happy ending for Gamache after putting him through the emotional wringer in this book. As someone who’s grown fond of the inspector and how he represents the better side of humanity, this is something I’m happy to see.

Overall, this was a comforting return to the world of Armand Gamache. By now, I think the series functions as a comfort for readers; for us to know that despite all the bad that happens in this world, there are still good people like Gamache out there and they will be given due reward for their efforts. Thosoe who prefer more bittersweet endings might be disappointed in this, but I liked how hopeful the book was.