Community Library Notes
“All the Devils Are Here” by Louise Penny is the story of Armand Gamache, his family and Paris. Armand and his wife, Reine Marie, are in Paris, as are his daughter-in-law, Annie, who is about to have her second child and Jean-Guy Beauvoir, her husband, who is currently employed at an engineering firm although he is a detective. He is here to sniff out trouble.
The family goes to dinner with Stephen, Armand’s godfather and a billionaire. As they leave the restaurant, a van hits Stephen and leaves the scene. An ambulance is called and Stephen is taken to a hospital near Notre Dame. When the police arrive, Armand says it was deliberate, murder. Stephen is in a coma. Why was he a target?
Reine Marie finds a key on the street. It’s to a suite at the George V, a posh hotel. She and Armand go there. Why would Stephen have a key to a suite there when he has an apartment in Paris? When they go there, Stephen’s apartment is a total shambles, and a dead body is on the floor. Someone runs out the back door and Armand follows but loses him. Armand and Reine have noticed a scent — a man’s cologne. It smells like the one Claude Dussault, the chief of the Paris police force, wears.
Armand and Jean-Guy look at Stephen’s agenda book they have taken from his desk. Stephen had been in Paris ten days but nothing was written there for that time.
Jean-Guy has a power struggle with his number two in the company, Severine Arbour. The Luxembourg file is in question for a funicular, an outdoor elevator. The new design is ready to go in elevators around the world. Armand calls Stephen’s secretary of 50 years on the job. He asks about Alex Plessner, the dead man they had found. The dead man had a card on him from their grandmother, Zora. Only a few people have this card that gives them admittance anywhere.
Fontaine, the second in command at Paris Police, questions the family. Daniel, Armand’s son, who works in venture capital, can’t keep his mouth shut. Armand tries to silence him but Daniel boasts of the new expensive apartment and the exclusive school for their two children. Fontaine wonders if Daniel was motivated by Stephen’s millions to kill him. She also tries to trap Jean-Guy into admitting he was a commando in the Quebec Surete. Plessner was killed in a commando manner.
Fontaine tells Armand Stephen’s family were senior Gestapo officers who sent thousands to the camps. Armand is shocked by this lie. She shows Armand a photo of German officers with Himmler and Stephen’s hand on Himmler’s shoulder. The Hotel Lutetia is in the background, formerly the headquarters of the Nazi party during the occupation of Paris. Stephen is in a waiter’s uniform. Was he a spy for the Resistance there? Or a traitor?
At dinner at Armand’s and Reine Marie’s apartment, he and the police chief look at the GHS board report. No scientists or engineers on the board. The head of it is an older woman. Is this a façade? To overlook rather than look over the firm?
Armand and Reine Marie take the curator from the Louvre to Stephen’s apartment. He closely examines the valuable paintings on the walls. He tells Armand they are all fakes. The originals have been stolen and replaced. Stephen had sold the paintings. Why?
Severine Arbour thinks something is strange about Patagonia’s file at GHS, and with Luxembourg too. They go way down below the lowest level at the hotel, and talk openly. Arbour tells them Patagonia is a mine, supposedly closed now. But it contains rare minerals worth a fortune. Perhaps Stephen knew this and invested his billions in it.
Armand meets the police chief and learns they have his son Daniel in custody. He has only hours to find what Stephen knew about the element. A reporter who was working on a story about the mine was killed. Why? At the Place de la Concorde, Armand steps into the fountain and finds the two stuck-together nickels the police chief had thrown there. What is the meaning of this?
Does Armand go to the board meeting and reveal the evidence of the thousands who might die because of the magnetic element? Does Stephen come out of his coma? Does Armand get back in time to save his son Daniel?
Penny has won many awards for her well-loved series on Three Pines, Quebec. Find this story at your Mendocino Community Library. It will reopen for limited hours on the first of April. Call the library at 707-937-5773 for more information.