The 17th in the Gamache series, this book is another page turner as well as a mystery that provides character studies and commentary on the world around it, which in this case is immediately post pandemic. The plot begins when Gamache and the Surete have been asked to provide security at a lecture where a statistician presents information that causes concern and provokes disagreement that turns violent. A murder occurs in the local hotel during the new years celebration and Gamache and his team attempt to solve it in the midst of misinformation and dissension and the discovery of past and present history that impacts the current investigation.