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Armand Gamache is back in Three Pines, this time as a resident. Retired from the Sûreté du Québec, the former homicide chief inspector and his wife, Reine-Marie, have settled in the quaint village with its eccentric residents and improbably high murder rate. Jean-Guy Beauvoir, once his second-in-command, is still in their lives, now as a son-in-law. While the previous book in the series seemed to have nicely disposed of their personal torments, not all is well in Three Pines.
In fact, a lingering thread that began in the very first book in the series is far from resolved. In those first books, Clara Morrow found her marriage crumbling, as her husband Peter, a prominent Quebec artist, finds his fame overshadowed by Clara's rising star in the art world. His jealousy tears them apart, and they separate, with plans to meet exactly a year later.
Now, in this tenth book in the series, Peter fails to show on the one-year mark, so Clara enlists Gamache's help to find him. The two, with Beauvoir and Clara's friend Myrna Landers, undertake a journey to find Peter, whose path they are able to trace until the last few months, when he mysteriously disappears. The foursome's journey initially takes them to Quebec City, and then further down the Saint Lawrence River, to a land so desolate that it once was called "The Land God Gave to Cain." A place that, surely, houses evil.
Through their travels and through some art pieces that Peter has left behind, they see glimpses into a man who has changed, who has left his popular but "safe" art behind, experimenting with art closer to the soul. But is Peter even still alive? And, if so, has he also left his marriage behind?
In her acknowledgments, Penny mentions that among the influences for this book is Joseph Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS, and it's easy to see that. As usual, Penny combines deep friendships with suspicious new acquaintances, lightness with darkness, humor with pathos, and hope with heartbreak. There is a mystery in this book, but its strength lies in its characters, and Penny's insights into human nature.
§ Lourdes Venard is a newspaper editor in Long Island, N.Y.
Reviewed by Lourdes Venard, August 2014
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