The Grey Wolf : The Three Pines community is under threat in this spectacular thriller, selected for The Queen's Reading Room book club 2026

'Electrifying drama ... Gamache is a fascinatingly complex protagonist' THE TIMES'Nobody does evil quite as scarily as Louise Penny' ANN CLEEVES'This is crime writing of the highest order' DAILY MAILRelentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in the small village of Three Pines in Quebec. Someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. When he finally answers the call, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning. That's only the first in a sequence of strange events that begin THE GREY WOLF. At first they seem small - a missing coat, a note for Gamache reading "this might interest you", a puzzling scrap of paper with a mysterious list - but then a murder. All propel Chief Inspector Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization. Something much more sinister than any one murder or any one case is fast approaching. A threat unlike anything they've seen before.PRAISE FOR LOUISE PENNY AND THE CHIEF INSPECTOR GAMACHE SERIES:'Penny delves into the nature of evil, sensitively exploring the impact of the dreadful events she describes while bringing a warmth and humanity to her disparate cast of characters that, unusually for a crime novel, leaves you feeling better about the world once you've finished' BOOK OF THE MONTH, OBSERVER'Louise Penny is one of the greatest crime writers of our times' DENISE MINA'No one does atmospheric quite like Louise Penny' ELLY GRIFFITHS