- This topic has 19 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 3 months, 2 weeks ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
What predictions do you have for The Black Wolf? Give us your best guesses for who we might see, where we might go, who might get revealed as a black or grey wolf?
-
More in Canada than other countries, except maybe the US. Definitely, the lake at St. Gilbert. Other than our normal cast of characters, add Jeanne Caron, Shona Dorion, Joseph Moretti, Madeleine Toussaint, Evelyn Tardiff, Action Quebec Bleu. I think there will be more black wolves than grey, even among law enforcement. I think it will definitely be as fast-paced and action filled as TGW.
-
I’m pretty sure we’ll find out what Shona Dorion finds in her investigation into selling resources to the U.S. I think we’ll see General Whitehead again and maybe some other characters from State of Terror. I also don’t think we’re done with the Parisi family and the Vatican. I picture Gamache heading to Italy to investigate further. I also think there may be a threat to Gamache’s family or possibly Reine-Marie given that the Black Wolf knows about Three Pines.
-
Hmm. Well — I really expect more Mob involvement, and I’ve been thinking about Anton from Glass Houses as maybe having some clout here; if not, definitely some connection with the Moretti organization.
I expect more government corruption. I expect that Shona is going to uncover a lot of corruption as she looks into the trade deals between Canada and the U.S.
I think it’s possible that there might be Russian involvement, because of the Russian mercenaries that had been hired for the water treatment plant plot, but that could have been a red herring.
I think that elements of the government and law enforcement are in league with the Mob, as they are in position to potentially control pretty much everything if they work in concert.
I believe there’s still corruption within the Surete and other law enforcement organizations. I feel that either Madeline Toussant or Evelyn Tardiff (if not both) are corrupt, and I expect that Armand is going to be cautious around both of them, and may purposely mislead them while he continues his own investigation.
I expect a great threat to the environment, whether just Canada’s or more globally. Charles was checking out water sources and I’m sure the areas he targeted are important, but I’m convinced that wildfires will be involved, after having seen the proposed cover of the new book; those look like flames and a forest on fire in the background to me. Perhaps he was noticing water sources that could be used to combat fires, among other things, though I expect I’ll learn something new about environmental threats in the book along the way. And I suspect that Three Pines is going to be threatened by the upcoming disaster, and we’ll see the villagers banding together to help one another.
I think that the main showdown is going to occur in Canada; there may be trips to the U.S. (I’d love to see more of Gen. Whitehead); I’m just not sure how wide this conspiracy is, and how far reaching it’s going to be. Maybe there will be more involvement with the countries visited in TGW, but maybe new connections might lead us to other places, too.
Black Wolf vs Grey Wolf? Whoever we’re dealing with in the Mob is a BW, for sure. We don’t have enough info on that informant to know what motivates him/her, so I can’t guess which way they’ll turn when the stakes are revealed, yet.
At least one person in the Surete is probably a BW; maybe Toussant or Tardiff; but maybe we’ll be introduced to someone new, too. I can also see Toussant and/or Tardiff playing their own game of subterfuge, navigating known corruption until the time is right to reveal it.
Armand and his team, of course, are pure Grey. Whitehead is Grey. Sister Irene, if we see her again, is Grey. I’m not sure where the PM will land — he put Lauzon in power for some reason; so that doesn’t look good. I think that if LP gets down to fictionally choosing to make the Canadian PM and the American President corrupt and in league, it would be too much (Whitehead said he expected a change of government, and to be out of a job so I don’t think the president who is current in this tale would be one of the BWs). I’m sure I’m going to have a bunch of delightful surprises along the way in TBW, and I can’t wait to discover them!-
Susan, I like your theory of Anton as a prime Black Wolf suspect! He too would make a good surprise return villain (as would Arnot, as Tara mentioned). Whoever is the bad guy it brings up a lot of questions as to who might be involved in the Surete. You mention Toussaint and Tardiff and I wonder. Tardiff did tell Gamache that she didn’t think the two executions were mob-related but Gamache did. It seems suspicious that someone with her experience would dismiss the deaths as not mob-related. But I’m curious if you picked up any clues as to why you think she and Toussaint might be corrupt.
-
I have mixed feelings about Toussaint and Tardiff. I actually will be surprised and disappointed if Toussaint turns out to be a Black Wolf, because I think she was drawn originally to be a good character who has fought heavy odds to get where she is. And she cared enough to ask Armand if he was OK after the hit and run on Charles, and I thought that might be telling of her true nature still; however, I also thought that in TBM, Frere Sebastian was drawn as a decent guy, and look what happened with him! So now I’m not trusting blindly anybody outside our core group. I think Toussaint wants to keep her position of power if she can; as Angie mentioned, her BW has shown at times in regards to her ambition. And while she was protecting Armand with her Tweets when he was being attacked over the faked videos in ABM, she also considered her payback done, and that she didn’t owe him anything else. So meanwhile, I think she must either suspect that some BWs do still exist because she’s smart enough to realize it and is playing a long game to expose them herself, or she’s ignoring it to keep her position, or is being corrupted herself. As for Tardiff (who I don’t know enough about to make any real guesses about her character) the things you mentioned about her had me wondering about her–she seemed to be trying to steer Armand away from considering those as mob hits; she’s not telling the whole truth, at the very least. Finally, though, I put both these characters on my suspect list simply because they are in positions that would well suit a BW, I don’t think either has been totally honest with Armand, and they were cleared of suspicion so conveniently quickly, without much seeming investigation in the end. I think that not all the people on Charles’ list who were cleared deserved to be. It’s just a feeling, and wild guesses on my part!
-
-
-
I believe Mei Lan mentioned in a previous thread that Vivienne LaPierre (the Gamaches’ friend) is a marine biologist, as was Charles. This seems like too much of a coincidence to me, so I’m guessing that we might see LaPierres again. I know they were planning a cruise through the Arctic so maybe it’s unlikely, but I could see Vivienne helping Gamache in some way as I think the lakes that Charles was investigating and water, again, will play some part in the sequel. I’m not sure if we’re going to be suspecting Touissaint and Tardiff and their motivations. And perhaps be going back to Ottawa and Canadian parliament to route out who helped the Deputy PM with the selling resources deal. The flame red of the Black Wolf cover makes me worry about a disaster like fire threatening Three Pines (like Susan mentioned) just as floods did in Better Man. And Anton (Glass House) and the mafia and revenge might just be the cards (credit to Susan again.)
-
If we connect some dots among scientists and science teachers: Vivienne La Pierre, the young guy in the Winnipeg lab, Charles himself, Brother Robert… and the unknown mob victim northern Quebec. I believe he taught science as well, and we never heard why he was a target.
-
You’re right, Angie– there ARE a lot of scientists in this one, come to think of it!
-
-
-
Who is the big Black Wolf? I continue to love reading everyone’s thoughts on The Grey Wolf and the wonderful observations everyone has shared over the course of our discussions. There are some very interesting questions and speculations about what might happen in The Black Wolf. And the biggest question is who is the Black Wolf? Gamache tells Jean-Guy “There’s a huge black wolf out there…Has been for a while. Feeding on rage, on the need for power. Spreading fear and hatred. Infecting the frightened and vulnerable. Convincing them to do the unthinkable.”
So here is my theory. In our very first discussion question on The Grey Wolf several members mentioned Francoeur. This got me thinking about him, and then I had a big, terrible, crazy thought of who the Black Wolf could be. Francoeur appears in A Beautiful Mystery so he knew about the Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups monastery and he was behind the domestic terrorist plot in How the Light Gets In. In that book, Gamache initially assumes Francoeur was working with Pierre Arnot, who was supposed to be in prison. But remember when Gamache goes to the prison – he finds that there’s been a switch and an imposter has taken Arnot’s place. Gamache assumes Arnot was taken away and killed. But what if he wasn’t? What if Arnot is actually still alive and hiding within the mob? What if he (or someone close to him) is the informant high up in the Montreal mafia? Gamache does say that the informant high up in the Montreal mafia, who Tardiff knows the identity of, would “One day, when it suited them, this person would lead them into a trap.”
Also, Gamache mentions in The Grey Wolf that he suspects there are still untrustworthy elements within the Surete “Old ones, planted years ago. Who bided their time.” But planted by who? Who would the untrustworthy Surete members follow? Who have they followed in the past? And who would want to lead the Surete into a trap? Arnot checks all those boxes. It would be a big shocker to reveal Arnot alive.
-
Oh, Tara, I love your theory! I could definitely see that as a possibility. I do believe in the mystery world that one should never fully trust a death unless there’s a visible body. And while it had been mentioned, I think, that Francoeur’s second-in-command had executed Arnot, I’m sure there’s wiggle room where he might not have actually done it. This is a great storyline to ponder! Brava!
-
Wow!! I need to go back and reread the books. With The Black Wolf being #20 and LP hinting at a surprise coming, I’m looking forward to whatever might be revealed this year.
-
Tara, I love this about Arnot. I may be wrong, but I thought that Francour was dead.
-
Francoeur is indeed dead! I think he was mentioned in relation to how he was behind the terrorist plot in HTLGI and its parallel to events in GW. My theory is that Gamache was right and Francoeur and Arnot were working together.
-
-
-
oooh, so much fun.
Arnot as the informant in the mafia makes sense to me. The mafia will play a role in the Black Wolf but somehow this “problem” seems to be too big to be a mafia issue.
We had ecoterrorism, but again, I have a hunch that this is bigger. At a government level.
Wild guess: the new president (fictional, yeah…) having a plan to divert water from the Arctic to south of the border, with aqueducts running through Three Pines?
Or something about buying up lakes in northern Quebec to get access to minerals? Who is buying? International corporations?
One little clue that hasn’t been solved yet and may be nothing: Armand wonders about how a federal issue would involve a small provincial organization or the provincial government. Canadian federalism is a bit messy, and I feel that LP would not want to bore her broader readership with a plot that revolves around that, but why was it mentioned?
We need Shona Dorion!
And no, I don’t think Madelaine Toussaint, although her background is in Cybercrimes and Anti-Terror. Her ambitions may have brought out the black wolf in her but it seems out of character. -
Question about Parisi, the guy who killed Charles: why was he the one delivering the parcel that contained Armand’s coat and Charles’s note? And why did Jeanne ask Armand how Parisi knew Charles would be meeting Armand at Open Da Night, if she was the one who arranged the whole break-in ruse?
There’s something I am missing, help me out.-
I don’t think you’re missing anything, Angie –i definitely think that we haven’t been told the whole story behind that break-in, and I think the question of Parisi’s involvement hasn’t really been answered fully yet!
-
-
Well, there are some interesting and original ideas here!!! I love the possibility that past villains may come back into play for The Black Wolf. What other evil characters didn’t die? Please forgive my poor memory if this is ridiculous…Did Sam Arsenault from WOC die? He’s not a connected individual, but there is darkness there that would be terrifying to revisit.
-
No, Sam didn’t die, and I really, really hope that LP doesn’t decide one day to let him escape into the world again. Having Fleming re-emerge was rough enough on my blood pressure!
-
That cover for TBW looks like pure evil is coming though… I’m a little scared, but also very excited. Can’t wait to see how LP brings everything together!
-
-
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.