Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny

First sentence:

"Armand Gamache slowed his car to a crawl, then stopped on the snow-covered secondary road."

Description:

"When a peculiar letter arrived inviting Armand Gamache to an abandoned farmhouse, the former head of the Surete du Quebec discovers that a complete stranger has named him one of the executors of her will. Still one expression, and frankly curious, Gamache accepts and soon learns that the other two executors are Myrna Landers, the bookseller from Three Pines, and a young builder.

None of them had ever met the elderly woman.

The will is so odd and includes bequests that are so wildly unlikely that Gamache and the others suspect the woman must have been delusional. But what if, Gamache begins to ask himself, she was perfectly sane?

When a body is found, the terms of the bizarre will suddenly seem less peculiar and far more menacing.

But it isn't the only menace Gamache is facing.

The investigation into what happened six months ago--the events that led to his suspension--has dragged on, into the dead of winter. And while most of the opiods he allowed to slip through his hands, in order to bring down the cartels, have been retrieved, there is one devastating exception.

Enough narcotic to kill thousands has disappeared into inner-city Montreal. With the deadly drug about to hit the streets, Gamache races for answers.

As he uses increasingly audacious, even desperate, measures to retrieve the drug, Armanad Gamache begins to see his own blind spots. And the terrible things hiding there." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

While it has been a while since I read this book, I remember I liked the twists and turns as Gamache and his friends try to figure out what's going on. Someday, I will re-read not only this book but the others in this intriguing series.

Series: Inspector Gamache, #14
Genre: Mystery
Rating: 3*/5 = good

ISBN-10: 1250066204 
ISBN-13: 9781250066206
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Year: 2018
# of pages:386
Binding: Hardcover
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A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

 First sentences:

"Hi! My name is Naok and I am a time being."

Description:

"On a remote island in the Pacific Northwest, a Hello Kitty lunchbox washes up on the beach. Tucked inside is a collection of various items: an antique wristwatch, a pack of undecipherable letters, and the diary of a sixteen-year-old Japanese girl named Nao Yasutani. Ruth, who finds the lunchbox suspects that it is debris from Japan's devastating 2011 tsunami. Once Ruth starts to read the diary she quickly finds herself drawn into the mystery of the young girl's fate.

In a manga care in Tokyo's Electric Town, Nao has decided there's only one escape from te loneliness and pain of her life, as she's uprooted from her U.S. ome, bullied at school, and watching her parents spiral deeper into disaster. But before she ends it all, she wants to accomplish one thing: to recount the story of her great-grandmother, a 104-year-old Buddhist nun, in the pages of her secret diary. The diary, Nao's only solace, is her cry for elp to a reader whom she can only imagine." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

I found this to be a mesmerizing book about time, connections, family and self awareness. I liked how the characters interacted and how they learn more about themselves through their interactions with others.

Date read: 1/20/2024
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3*/5 = good

ISBN-13: 978067026630
Publisher: Viking
Year: 2013
# of pages: 403
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing page