The Madness of Crowds: A Novel (Chief Inspector Gamache Novel, 17)

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns and this time it’s post-Covid.

We are met with a few new cast of characters and the return of some of our beloved ones. This time we meet Professor Abigail Robinson, a University lecturer in statistics who became a cult figure whether she likes to see herself as that or not. Robinson’s views are controversial. Her facts are inevitably correct; her conclusions, however, based on probability theory, suggest the advantages of mass euthanasia – mercy killing, as she calls it – of the ill, the handicapped, and the aged.
“Fortunately,” she says, “numbers don’t have feelings.”
“No,” Gamache responds, “but the mathematician, the statistician, does…. as do homicide investigators…. The same set of facts can lead us to different conclusions. Our interpretation of facts can depend on our experiences ... on what we want the facts to say.”
Several attempts have been made on her life. So far, she survives each and every single one of them. But will her luck run out?

When it does, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache will be there ready to solve the case. But with his views totally against all that Professor Robinson is lecturing, will he want to solve the case?

My emotions were truly up and down. It was a gripping read and a hard one because like, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, I too disagree vehemently with what Professor Robinson proposes. I don’t believe in a mercy killing. Had a hold on me until the very last pages.

This is my first Louis Penny and jumping into the Inspector Gamache series was smooth and enjoyable. I'll probably go back and read at least the first book in the series to enjoy more of the people who live in Three Pines. I should leave it at that as I liked this book! Only read below if you want to read about my personal pet peeves! The Robinson Report Statistics: The discussion of statistics was a complete mess and made me cringe. It was a glaring plot hole throughout. I wish she'd spoken to an actual statistician when writing the book as she clearly did not (and if she did, she didn't understand what they were saying). While an individual statistician can misrepresent reality either on purpose or through a bad study or analysis that's corrupted by poor scientific methodology: small sample size or specific types of bias. However, peer review specifically addresses these mistakes, and identifies what's correct or incorrect. While you can have false correlations, other statisticians would point those false correlations out, that's the whole point of peer review. You cannot "lie" with statistics and have it accepted by the statistics community at large. The Robinson Report Recommendations/ Policy Opinions: Secondly, the application of underlying facts to policy has very little relation to statistics. Policy combines numerous specialties but most powerfully politics and law. How then could Robinson's paper be "true?" What statistician in their right mind would say it was factually correct? Statistics could show that a government doesn't have the resources to save x number of people in the next pandemic, but it couldn't determine that there were no alternative solutions such as: government fundraising, investment in medical innovation, investment in pandemic prevention, climate change innovation, etc. The entire discussion around Robinson seemed amateurish and frequently contradictory which was a problem because the people having the discussions were scientists and statisticians in addition to more easily forgiven laypeople. Freedom of Speech: As an attorney, the conversation regarding freedom of speech completely missed the mark as well. Freedom of speech means your government does not arrest you or kill you for expressing political views. It does not necessitate anyone giving you a platform. And depending on your country, the government may arrest you for speech that immediately endangers people (in the US, yelling fire in a crowded theater; in Germany, which learned its lesson better than the rest of us, for dehumanizing speech or "Volksverhetzung.") I realize this takes place in Quebec, but I assume they also have some restrictions on speech, as civilization seems to require it.

I have read all of Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache novels and each one is better than the last. She is a master craftswoman with her plot twists and surprises.