Penny,
Louise The Beautiful Mystery 2012
Book 8 in series
“Will no one
rid me of this troublesome priest?´ is a quote from T.S. Elliot’s Murder in
the Cathedral that keeps coming up in Louise Penny’s eighth book in her
Inspector Gamache series. Each time it
is mentioned it helps to highlight grave internal decisions faced by the
characters.
The setting
is not in Three Pines this time and it inserts Gamache and his assistant Jean
Guy Beauvoir deep into the Quebec’s wilderness where a group of cloistered
monks are facing the apparent murder of their own choir director. Once the
detectives are on the scene, it becomes apparent that brotherly rifts have been
simmering for some time over whether the order ought to issue a second CD of
Gregorian Chants to capitalize on a
wildly successful first one. The money earned had enabled the completion of
some major repairs to their buildings, but it had been at a cost of allowing
the modern world and modern temptations to enter their peaceful seclusion and
reduce their concentration on their music and their faith.
Surrounding
this central plot is the all-enveloping presence of Gregorian Chant as an
accompaniment to the daily monastery rituals of worship. Penny displays a
wealth of research and love for music on
almost every page. We learn a lot about the history of the Gregorian chant, the
sounds of various chants, and their impact on the psyches of both the singers
and their listeners.
The chosen
setting also lends itself to the emotional pressure cooker of the classic whodunit.
Agatha Christie would definitely approve of a murder in a walled monastery
located off the grid on the shores of a cold lake surrounded by deep
forests and swirling mists. Access is only by boat or seaplane. The 24 resident
monks, supposedly dedicated to Christian love and service, are then confronted
with the unpleasant knowledge that one of their sequestered brethren is a
violent killer.
To
complicate things further Gamache and Jean Guy bring with them their own
demons. They are both still suffering from the horrors of the disastrous
factory shootout that resulted in the deaths of several young officers and
seriously injured both of them. Their
guilt rushes even closer to the surface when Inspector Francoeur, Gamache’s
superior. swoops in like a giant bird of prey to stir an already boiling pot.
This allows Penny to zero in on questions of
responsibility and guilt. Why must there be guilt? Who is to blame for the
outcome? Must there always be blame? If so is it singular or plural? The chapter ends with Gamache thinking about the monestery’s own patron Saint
(Saint Gilbert), who had taken sides in King Henry’s dispute with the
Archbishop of Canterbury long years ago. Gamache asks himself, if it is ever
right to kill or hurt one for the sake of the many? This impacts the murder at
the monastery as well as his own pending conflict with Jean Guy and the even
more nasty conflict with his superior. Penny seems to answer with a biblical
quote--Matthew 10:36-- “And a man’s
foes, shall they be of his own household?” This clearly cuts several ways and
adds to the moral complexities that Ms. Penny delivers.
I found this
book a bit chillier than some of her earlier offerings. I do kind of miss some
of the warmth and humor that creeps into those that are set in Three Pines.
There is no monk who can hold a candle to Ruth Zardo and her acerbic comments
or her pet duck. Some other minor quibbles would be that It was a bit much to
see the big boss Francoeur make such a long and hard trip just to prosecute his
feud with Gamache. It also took some
suspension of disbelief to accept that the monks had been out recruiting
singers of supreme quality for over two hundred years and yet remained secret
and basically unknown until the murder.
Finally the late appearance of the Inquisition all the way from Rome was
definitely a step too far. Three arrivals at
this remote place in twenty four hours does test credibility. I’m afraid
I was reminded more of Monty Python when he showed up.
I give it a
3 and move on to the next one.
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