66 pages • 2 hours read
Louise PennyA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Content Warning: The source material features depictions of traumatic injury, gun violence, and misuse of opioids.
The work opens with a flashback to a significant case in the career of Armand Gamache, head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec. Gamache is anxious as he leads a tactical team. The group is rescuing a young agent, Paul Morin, who has been taken hostage in connection with a factory raid. At this stage, however, Penny has not informed the reader what has led Gamache there or whom Gamache is reassuring over his headset. Just as Gamache “realize[s] he’[s] made a mistake,” the narrative shifts to the present day: a few months later, in another location entirely (2).
In the present day, Gamache is in Québec City, visiting his mentor, Émile Comeau, to recover from an unspecified trauma likely related to the opening scene. Gamache’s wife, Reine-Marie, bids them both farewell and leaves Gamache their beloved German shepherd, Henri.
The two men and the dog set out for breakfast. Gamache reflects that this is his first trip to the city for his own recuperation, rather than to assist his mentor with physically demanding household tasks.
By Louise Penny
A Fatal Grace
Louise Penny
A Great Reckoning
Louise Penny, Alison Weir
All the Devils are Here
Louise Penny
A Rule Against Murder
Louise Penny
A World of Curiosities
Louise Penny
How the Light Gets In
Louise Penny
State of Terror
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Louise Penny
Still Life
Louise Penny
The Beautiful Mystery
Louise Penny, Elizabeth Helen
The Brutal Telling
Louise Penny
The Cruelest Month
Louise Penny
The Long Way Home
Louise Penny
The Nature of the Beast
Louise Penny
The War That Ended Peace
Margaret MacMillan, Louise Penny
Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom
Louise Penny, Lynda Blackmon Lowery