Excerpt from All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

After a day out in the great city, they'd return exhausted, and while Stephen made chocolat chaud in the cramped kitchen, young Armand would drift over to the paintings.

Inevitably, Stephen would find the boy standing in front of the small watercolor, looking into the frame as though it was a window. At the tranquil village in the valley.

"That's worthless," Stephen had said.

But worthless or not, it was young Armand's favorite. He was drawn back to it on every visit. He knew in his heart that anything that offered such peace had great value.

And he suspected his godfather thought so, too. Otherwise he'd never have hung it with all the other masterpieces.

At the age of nine, just months after both Armand's parents had been killed in a car accident, Stephen had brought the boy to Paris for the first time. They'd walked together around the city. Not talking, but letting the silent little boy think his thoughts.

Eventually, Armand had lifted his head and begun to notice his surroundings. The wide boulevards, the bridges. Notre-Dame, the Tour Eiffel, the Seine. The brasseries, with Parisians sitting at round marble-topped tables on the sidewalks, drinking espresso or beer or wine.

At each corner, Stephen took his hand. Holding it firmly. Until they were safe on the other side.

And slowly young Armand realized he was safe, would always be safe, with this man. And that he would get to the other side.

And slowly, slowly, he'd returned to life.

Here. In Paris.

Then one morning his godfather had said, "Today, garçon, we're going to my very favorite place in all of Paris. And then we'll have an ice cream at the Hôtel Lutetia."

They'd strolled up boulevard Raspail and turned left onto rue de Varenne. Past the shops and patisseries. Armand lingered at the windows, looking at the mille-feuilles and madeleines and pains aux raisins.

They stopped at one, and Stephen bought them each a tartelette au citron, giving Armand the small paper bag to carry.

Excerpted from All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny. Copyright © 2020 by Louise Penny. Excerpted by permission of Minotaur Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.