Book Report: The Road to Recovery

In A Great Reckoning, Gamache has recovered from his injuries (read the previous books for details) and sets out to clean up corruption in the academy. Recent graduates seem to be trained in excessive cruelty. As he settles in at his new job with Jean-Guy at his side, there is (of course) a murder of a professor who seems to be at the heart of the corruption. No fan of the victim, Gamache himself becomes a suspect.

I won’t spoil any of the tension and suspense, but I will give you a few quotes that illustrate the kind of man Inspector Gamache is and why this series keeps pulling me back.

“Anyone could be clever. Anyone could be smart. Anyone could be taught. But not everyone was kind.”

“It’s too easy to feed the anger. Too cowardly to stoke the hate. You must look inside yourself and decide who you are and who you want to be. Character is not created in times like these. It’s revealed. This is a trying time. A testing time. Be careful.”

“…the cadets need to understand that we all have burdens, don’t you agree, Commander? Some so weighty we carry them our whole lives. They can blight our very existence, or they can make us stronger. They can make us bitter or teach us compassion. They can drive us to do things we never thought ourselves capable of.”

“There is always a road back. If we have the courage to look for it, and take it. I’m sorry. I was wrong. I don’t know.” He paused again. “I need help. Those are the signposts. The cardinal directions.”

A few years back I started reading the series at random, but enjoyed the growth and evolution of the characters so much that I needed to go back to the beginning and meet them fresh. I wanted to see the before, during, and after. And yes, I will happily spend more nights staying up past my bedtime to read the next six in the series.

Here’s a link to a sample.