** spoiler alert ** 
 While I really enjoyed the main story, this is another of this series where the subplots got in the way for me. And it's not because they're poorly written or conceived, it's just that they seem to push particular buttons for me. 
 The internal corruption at the Surete plays a very big role in this book - to the point that's it's almost a co-main plot with the actual mystery. I really dislike this story arc due to the sheer nastiness of the people working against Gamache, and having it play such a prominent and continuous role throughout the book was almost enough for me to set this aside and not bother finishing it. 
 The continuing struggles of Beauvoir with pain medication also play a large role in the second half of the book. Here, perhaps realistically, it goes from a non-issue to almost destroying Jean Guy and his relationship with Gamache in the space of 100 pages or so. 
 Having both of these subplots going full steam along with the resolution of the mystery was very distracting. My final frustration was that neither of these subplots was resolved which, I expect, means that they'll both be back in the next book. Ugh. [ /rant ]