Book Report: The Brutal Telling

1/29. Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling (2009) (1/5/20)

I am double-numbering this entry because I still have a month on last year's challenge (which I launched on February 19), but it sure is easier to use a calendar year—so I'm overlapping last year's and this year's. I make the rules.

If you've been following this blog, you may have noticed several entries lately that reference this book, the fifth in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series: the painter Emily Carr, the Irish fiddle lament "Colm Quigley," and just today, Haida (First Nation) woodcarving. I've learned quite a bit from The Brutal Telling—in part because I've occasionally put the book down and sought out interesting references. But as always with Gamache, I've mostly learned about human nature, and the search for clues—and for the truth.

This mystery involves the death of a hermit, whose body appears one morning in the popular bistro of the little Québecois village of Three Pines, owned by the gay couple Olivier and Gabri. The local Czech community figures in, as well as a newly arrived couple who have refurbished the decrepit Hadley House up on the hill overlooking town, creating a hotel-spa with bridle trails. And there are priceless treasures, found in the hermit's little cabin hidden away deep in the forest. Braided throughout all this is a legend, or myth, or warning: of Chaos coming.

It's a fine story, though I was not convinced of the outcome. Sure, maybe the evidence pointed to the person who was convicted, but did all the actions and the motives? I believed one person's protest—"[The accused] didn't do it. . . . Why would [they] move the body?" Indeed—why? (I noticed in a comment on Goodreads that Penny's next book may take the story further—so of course I ordered it tout de suite. I may be disappointed and find no further clarification of this mystery, but I expect I'll get another whopping good tale regardless.)

Near the end of the book, Gamache flies to Haida Gawaii—the Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of British Columbia—to try to learn more about the hermit and some exquisite carvings he'd found in the cabin. There, he is taken to a remote and special spot, where he is introduced to John the Watchman—watching over the Haida legacy and future. Landing on the island,

[Gamache had] been so struck by the surroundings, by the Watchman, by the frigid water, he'd failed to see what was actually there. Now he saw. Standing on the very edge of the forest was a solemn semicircle of totem poles.
 Gamache felt all his blood rush to his core, his center.
 "This is Ninstints," whispered [Haida woodcarver] Will Sommes.
 Gamache didn't answer. He couldn't. He stared at the tall poles into which was carved the Mythtime, that marriage of animals and spirits. Killer whales, sharks, wolves, bears, eagles and crows were all staring back at him. And something else. Things with long tongues and huge eyes, and teeth. Creatures unknown outside the Mythtime, but very real here.
 Gamache had the feeling he was standing at the very edge of memory.
 Some totem poles were straight and tall, but most had tumbled over or were lurching sideways.
 "We are all fishermen," said Will. "Esther was right. The sea feeds our bodies, but that feeds our souls." He opened his hands in a simple, small gesture toward the forest.
 John the Watchman spoke softly as they picked their way among the totem poles.
 "This is the largest collection of standing totem poles in the world. The site's now protected, but it wasn't always. Some poles commemorate a special event, some are mortuary poles. Each tells a story. The images build on each other and are in a specific and intentional order."
 "This is where Emily Carr did much of her painting," said Gamache.
 "I thought you'd like to see it," said Sommes.
 "Merci. I'm very grateful to you."

I enjoy Gamache, and his crew—Beauvoir, Lacoste, and now Agent Morin. I enjoy the "usual suspects" of Three Pines: Clara and Peter, Myrna, the irascible Ruth and her duck, Rosy. And of course Olivier and Gabri. Plus now the new characters, the Parra family, Old Mundin and The Wife, and the Gilberts, reviving the old Hadley place. One reason I enjoy reading series from the beginning is the development. We get a little of that here. It's like running into old friends: you just catch right back up.