Reply To: The Madness of Crowds: What did you think of it and why?
This is one of my favorites. Penny tackles a very uncomfortable theme post pandemic, who does humanity prioritize as saving? Who (the big picture who) determines Mercy Killing, and Genetic Cleansing, and the execution. Gamache is asked if he thinks Abigail’s movement will die with her arrest. He doesn’t believe so because she opened Pandora’s box and released a different epidemic. Hoever this is one I’ve reread several times because of the deeper themes of heroes (Gamache, Vincent, Haniya) and do our heroes ever have an awareness of their hubris.
My opinion is that Penny uses a rule of three in many of her books starting with Three Pines and the Three Graces. Often these are very subtle i.e., Clara, Ruth, and Myrna; Armand, Jean Guy, and Isabelle; Maria, Paul, and Idola, and the Saints/sinners Abigail, Vincent, and Haniya.