By LARRY BALLWAHN | Wilton
Finally! The Arnot case has been hanging over Chief Inspector Gamache since the first book in the series. And what has made it worse is the reader has been unaware of the details, which have only been teased. By the end of this third book, it is cleared up, sort of.
In this book, Inspector Gamache is off to Three Pines again, this time when a woman is apparently “scared to death” in a séance. The old Hadley house again becomes a main character in the story, as it has before. The fact that the séance takes place there is one of the factors that makes it seem as though it may not be death by natural causes.
Gamache regularly takes young cast-outs to mentor if he thinks they have unrecognized potential. In an earlier book, he has taken Agent Nicol as a project; she has failed to live up to the standards in the eyes of everyone on the team, so why does Gamache continue to allow unacceptable behavior? Is this somehow related to the Arnot Case?
Can someone really be “scared to death”? If so, how? If it is indeed murder, why?
Penny employs some humor in “The Cruelest Month,” perhaps dark humor.
Unlike the English, “The Quebecois were straightforward, clear. If they liked you, they hugged. When they murdered you, they just whacked you over the head. Boom. Done. Convicted. Next. None of this did she or didn’t she ….. ”
Beauvoir: “They [his in-laws] had even kidded that it should be easy for him [to find hidden chocolate Easter Eggs] since he was an investigator, after all. He thought the easiest way would be to simply to put his gun to his father-in law’s head and force him to say where the &#%&# eggs were.”
In addition to occasional humor, we are provided insight into why Gamache is better than most at his profession. “He gathered feelings. He collected emotions …. Armand Garmarch found murderers by following the trail of rancid emotions.”
With every book, the Gamache mysteries have gotten better.
♦ ♦ ♦
Addendum: Congratulations to the Brookwood drama students and their director, Kim Nofsinger. They presented two one-act plays this weekend and did a superb job. It was my pleasure to see “Cheating Death” and “Sleepy Hollow” on Saturday evening at Brookwood. The audience was much smaller than such an outstanding production deserved. “Cheating Death” may well go to state. It’s too late to see the fall effort, but there will be a spring play. Do yourself a favor and be there.
