Glass Houses is the 13th episode in the Armand Gamache/Three Pines series set in the Eastern Townships of rural Quebec, southeast of Montreal and just north of Vermont. For many years, Armand Gamache led homicide investigations for the Surete du Quebec, the provincial police force based in Montreal; Gamache dealt with crimes that took place in or around the remote village of Three Pines. When Gamache retired from the Surete, he and his wife, Reine-Marie, moved to Three Pines.

In the last book, he came out of retirement to head the Surete Academy, where all of the new agents are schooled. Now, he's taken on a new and even more commanding (and demanding) role: that of Chief Superintendent of the entire Surete du Quebec! Congratulations, Armand! You are finally being recognized for your expertise and your many years of dedicated service.

But we have no time for celebrating, because this book drops us right in the middle of a courtroom, right in the middle of a trial, right in the middle of the heat of summer. Gamache is on the witness stand. We don't know the circumstances of the case, of course, because the action happened between the last book and this one. As near as we can figure out, according to Gamache's testimony: a masked and dark-robed individual appeared on the Three Pines village green at Halloween. It stayed there for several days. And then it became the central figure in a murder. What was this thing? What happened to it? Who was found dead? Who was responsible? And why is Gamache in the hot seat for it?

The story toggles back and forth in time: from the courtroom and Gamache's testimony in the summer, to the way it reflects the real-time action from the previous fall. We don't reach the dead body until page 121, and we have to turn 12 more pages to find out who it is. By then, it's still unclear what happened. This story may be the most mysterious episode in the series so far.

Since Three Pines was the scene of the crime, we also learn that a few new faces showed up in the village the previous fall. A pair of young culinary artists, Anton Lebrun and Jacqueline Marcoux, began to work for Olivier in the bistro and for Sarah in the boulangerie, respectively. And then there were two couples in their 30s: Matheo Bissonette and Lea Roux, and Patrick and Katie Evans. The four were college friends who have vacationed together in Three Pines for a number of years (although they were never before in town at the same time as the readers, alas). Lea Roux is a well-known politician in Quebec. And the others all seem harmless, at first glance. Nevertheless, you have to be wary of newcomers entering a close-knit community. Is one of these individuals responsible for the tragedy? Did they put the wheels in motion for it not only to happen, but to happen here? Did they bring this horror to our favorite place in the world?

Aside from this case, the Surete du Quebec has enough crime to worry about. It should be paying closer attention to the cartels that are moving drugs through Canada and into the United States. But don't worry: Gamache has a plan. At least, we get the impression that he might have a plan. But what is it? And will it work? And is the Surete corruption-free these days?

Louise Penny shows writers how to jump right into the middle of the action and let the characters reveal their own truths. She did something similar in the sixth book, Bury Your Dead, when she asked Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir to remember and relive a tragedy that had happened between books. But back then, it was a secondary plot that lingered in the background. This time the crime is right in front of us, and we haven't been privy to any of the buildup to it. It's as if the author has laid out an unfinished jigsaw puzzle before our eyes, with a lot of pieces missing, and no matter how we move the remaining ones, none of them seem to fit. At least, not until the last 60 pages of the book, when we are suddenly kept glued to our seats. (A box of tissues may also be necessary for the last two pages, if not for the last ten.) What a masterful and unique way of crafting a mystery! We just have to keep reading and to trust that all will be revealed before we reach the end of the book. And will Armand ever get out of that courtroom?