I recently read The Black Wolf by Louise Penny, the latest Inspector Gamache novel, in a series I now realise I’ve followed for more than 20-years! The books are set in Canada and could be described as police procedurals, but the consistent plot strand through them all is corruption in high places. And while the stories have always felt relevant, nothing could have prepared me for how topical or prescient The Black Wolf would be. In light of recent world events, it was almost shocking to read.
The Black Wolf was published in October 2025 and is the follow-up to 2024’s The Grey Wolf, which left the reader on a bit of a cliff-edge, knowing there was more to come, despite that novel’s satisfactory conclusion. This, then, is the “more” – and it’s some tale!
The story picks up where the previous book left off, after Gamache and his team had averted a major ecological and human disaster in Canada, by thwarting an attempt to poison Montreal’s drinking water. Gamache is on sick leave, recovering from injuries and gunshot-induced deafness that is as profound as it is debilitating. And although most of the perpetrators of the water plot have been rounded-up and jailed, Gamache and his deputies believe that conspiracy had been just the opening salvo in something far bigger and more sinister. Unfortunately, they have no idea what the next threat might be, or even where it might be coming from.
Carefully, then, they must reconsider what they know from the last case to find what they’ve missed. It still seems likely that water is at the heart of it all, but how and why? And what will happen next? All they have to go on is a map of Quebec that has mysterious numbers on it, and a couple of notebooks that make little sense. Worse still, they have no way of knowing who they can trust, because whoever the Black Wolf is, he has powerful allies.
My verdict
What I enjoy about this series is the way Louise Penny peels her plots back. The pace is measured. Where there’s a need for speed and action, you get it. But otherwise, the books are almost restful to read as the mysteries are untangled. The stories are layered and even though, at times, it can be tricky working out where all the characters fit it (let alone whether they are good or bad), you can’t stop turning the pages.
After all this time I feel I know the protagonists well, and the trio of Chief Inspector Gamache, Jean-Guy Beauvoir and Isabelle Lacoste anchor the stories and hold things together. Over the years, as Gamache has worked his way up the Sûreté du Québec, the corruption and conspiracies have always involved senior figures; and now he himself is so senior in the police, inevitably the villains are too. Generally, they are almost invisible until the end of the story, but in The Grey Wolf, Gamache and his team arrested the Deputy Prime Minister, so where does that leave us? Well, it turns into a bit of a smoke-and-mirrors mystery, where it’s hard for the reader to work out who exactly might be behind it all.
Gamache can be a tricky customer too. An astute judge of character, he has agents playing double games in the various departments of the Sûreté du Québec, feeding him information from the inside. But again, the reader is never quite sure whether these people are actually loyal to Gamache, or not. The novel is full of supple twists and turns, which keep you on your toes.
I thought this was a great follow-up to The Grey Wolf and I wasn’t surprised that the book has been so well-received. (Spookily, for me, real-world events came banging at the door, because as I was reading The Black Wolf, President Donald Trump attacked Venezuela. That certainly added extra spice to the plot!)
Both these books are available to borrow from Oundle Library and if you think you might like to give them a try, do read them in the correct order, because everything will make so much more sense if you do. Early last year I gave The Grey Wolf 4 Stars, and The Black Wolf earns the same.
Review by: Cornish Eskimo
At Oundle Crime 4 Stars = A good book with an interesting, layered story that we’re sure we’ll still remember after a month.
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