In the last book, Olivier Brule who had been sent to prison for murdering the hermit was found innocent of the crime by Inspector Jean Guy Beauvoir. Chief Inspector Armond Gamache of the Surete in Quebec instructed Beauvoir to do this after he had arrested the man. Also, a terrorist raid on a factory killed and injured many of Gamache's men, including Beauvoir and himself. An edited video made by the Surete was posted on the internet. It doesn't paint Gamache in a good light and almost has the desired effect of causing him to almost quit. The investigation determined that a hacker got into the system and leaked the tape. Gamache and Beauvoir don't believe this, but Gamache doesn't want Beauvoir to risk his career so he tells him to let it rest while he secretly goes after the person who leaked it. Beauvoir himself has problems. He left his wife, which is a good thing, but he's popping pills for his pain and he's doing too much of that. He needs to be in counseling because he's not coping well with the factory incident and he's in love with Gamache's married daughter. Beauvoir is training Agent Lacoste to become an Inspector, as well.
The book , another tour de force by Penny, opens up with Clara Morrow at her art opening at the Musee d'Art Contemporain in Montreal. She's a middle-aged woman and this is a big deal for her because this could finally be the big break for her career. Her husband Peter is trying to be supportive, but secretly he's jealous. He's also an artist and his art has been supporting them all these years. He sells his art to individuals but he's never had a big gala showing like this.
The next morning after a party had been held at her house celebrating her art show, Peter and Olivier arrive with the newspapers that hold the reviews of her show and as they come through the garden to get to Clara they see a dead body. No one recognizes the woman at first. But when Gamache says her name, Clara knows it and takes a second look at the picture and determines that, yes, she knew her once years ago. Lillian Dyson and Clara were childhood friends who grew up together and went to college together. As Myra describes her she was an emotional vampire. When Lillian gave Clara's art a bad review after she had changed her natural inclination of the direction of her art because Lillian had told her to it was the straw that broke the camel's back and Clara would have nothing to do with Lillian after that.
Clara was hardly alone in this. There were many artists she had eviscerated. There was one in particular that everyone remembers that was particularly harsh. Harsh enough to get the artist to stop painting. But Lillian quit her life as a critic and disappeared for a long number of years before showing back up in Montreal, this time as an artist trying to get people to look at her art, which was amazing. She was also in AA trying to put her life back together. Trying to be a different person. But can people truly change? Those who knew her in AA saw a different person than those who knew her in the art world.
There are plenty of suspects. The artists who received bad reviews from her. The gallery owners whose secrets she knew. Those in AA who may not be as they seem. This book is filled with secrets from the past and just as a trick of the light can let you see the hope in Clara's painting it can help Gamache and Beauvoir and the hard working and intrepid Agent Lacoste to find a killer.
Quotes
Then the Chief Justice’s gaze settled back on Castonguay, his eyes hard. Gamache had seen that look often in court. Rarely directed at him, mostly directed at some poor trial lawyer who’d transgressed. Had Castonguay been a Death Star, his head would have exploded.-Louise Penny (A Trick of the Light p 306)It amused her that Inspector Beauvoir no longer locked their car. When they’d first come to Three Pines, to investigate Jane’s murder, the officers had made sure the care was always locked. But now, several years later, they didn’t bother. They knew, she presumed, that people in Three Pines might occasionally take a life, but not a car.-Louise Penny (A Trick of the Light p 193)
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