Kingdom of the Blind
Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
There is nothing I can say about Louise Penny that hasn’t already been said. So, to put it simply: this latest entry in the series shines bright and clear as an exemplar of her beautiful writing.
In Kingdom of the Blind, Penny has outdone herself.
We have a “domestic mystery” and political intrigue. Both are well plotted and satisfactorily tied up at the end.
Louise Penny can create atmosphere in one sentence. For example, in Kingdom of the Blind she makes a snowstorm seem so real that when I looked up from reading, I was surprised to see a clear and sunny day out my window.
Penny is not a “fair play” mystery writer, though. Within the first pages our main detective receives a phone call; we are not privy to what is said, only the flitting emotions passing across Armand’s face. But we don’t care, because the beauty of the prose is more than enough to keep us going.
There is a seamless transition in point of view, from character to character. Often, with poor writers, one can never distinguish voice, so a change in point of view is confusing. With Penny, one can follow the frequent changes because her characters are each so well developed. No matter how big or small the character’s role, we get a distinct voice and a fully realized person.
Penny can find the beauty in ugliness and the ugliness in beauty. From Wisdom, “She was, by just about any measure, ugly. No way around that….But she was smiling and had a look of near-permanent amusement about her. There was a gleam in her eyes too….The Baroness, despite all appearances, was far more attractive than her husband.”
She does humor well too. Too often, attempts at humor in mystery fiction read like, “insert joke here, have characters laugh.” But with Penny, the humor fits the characters like a glove and feels genuine as to who they are.
As with all Louise Penny books, this is a story about integrity and generosity, community, love and greed.
Lately I’ve been disappointment with installments in favorite authors’ series. Not this one. Kingdom of the Blind is one of Penny’s best.