INTRODUCTION BY KELLEY RAGLAND
I was working at Minotaur Books in 2004 when Still Life was sent in on submission, and in 2006 when we published it, and I remember the excitement over a series that started out modestly but inspired crazy passionate fans even with that first book. We all thought it was wonderful, but we had no idea where we were headed—to the top of the bestseller lists and the heights of popularity in crime fiction. I read each Gamache book as it came in and counted myself as a fan. By the time we were publishing the tenth and eleventh book in the series, I was getting more and more involved in the work behind the scenes, but it wasn’t until we published A Better Man, the fifteenth book in the series, that I became Louise’s lead editor.
I remember feeling several things, as I opened up the manuscript of A Better Man and started reading. Number one, about the number of people would gladly murder me in order to be one of Louise’s first readers and get their hands on this novel that wouldn’t be widely available for more than six more months. Next, how on earth would I be able to criticize, even constructively, the work of a writer I admired as much as I admire Louise? A total pro who’d written fifteen novels in fifteen years, each one selling more than the previous, each one proclaimed as “the best yet”? And how would I do it without making the utterly charming and thoroughly professional Louise Penny hate me forever?
Well, I read almost all day, the day I received the manuscript for A Better Man, and as it turned out, I needn’t have worried. The story sucked me in so quickly, this story of fathers and daughters, and sons; of rivers bursting through their banks; of Mother Nature raging and subsiding. A story of love and forgiveness, of passion and regret. I read so easily I forgot I was supposed to be taking notes, but then as I stopped to catch my breath, I found a few notes to jot down, not out of scolding or correcting, but out of strengthening, or amplifying. Louise’s message, her story, so strong that it only needed a gentle nudge here or a quiet boost there. And Louise was a perfect collaborator, reassuring me as much as I was reassuring her. We became a great partnership that week, and we’ve done three more books together. It’s the best part of an editor’s job, this kind of “work” and this kind of partnership, and I count my lucky starts every year when it’s time to edit Louise’s next book.
A Better Man to me is a perfect crime novel: it has a tightly structured plot that twists and turns and develops so methodically, so gradually, that you hardly realize you’ve reached the denouement until you turn the last page, breathing hard and marveling at the ending you never saw coming. But then, as your breathing slows, you think about the larger issues you’ve contemplated, and the novel’s art expands. You think about justice, and regret, and loyalty, but punishment and revenge as well, and the plague of violence against women and children. These are not small issues. And then you realize that Louise has also advanced the stories of several beloved characters in this book, from Jean-Guy and his move to Paris to Armand’s return to the Sûreté a diminished man, but also Myrna and Billy Williams, and Clara and her art. You’ve just spent hours with this cast you already know so well, and it’s a very satisfying way to spend your time. As you read on for the recap, be aware that spoilers lie ahead.
RECAP
Chapters 1-5:
It’s April in Three Pines, a rotten month that’s teasing of spring but isn’t yet, and artist Clara Morrow is getting the first bad reviews of her life, after painting a set of miniatures, and doesn’t know what to do about them. Her friends, Ruth Zardo, Myrna Landers, and Reine-Marie Gamache gather in the bistro to try and cheer her up.
Back in Montreal, Armand Gamache is returning to the Sûreté for the first time since being demoted and attends his first staff meeting with Beauvoir as his Chief Inspector. Isabelle Lacoste returns as well, and they all must deal with the awkwardness of the meeting and the various agents who don’t know Gamache and what he’s really like.
At the end of the staff meeting, Agent Lysette Cloutier tells them all about her goddaughter Vivienne Godin being missing, and she and Gamache head out to visit Vivienne’s husband, Carl Tracey, not too far from Three Pines. They stop at the local Sûreté office and meet local Sûreté agent Bob Cameron first, who originally took her father’s call about her being missing, and they learn that Cameron knew her husband was abusive and threatened Tracey a week earlier.
Chapters 6-10:
The folks in Three Pines discover that the Bella Bella River is rising with all the rain and the thawing, and it looks like it could be very bad, once-in-a-century bad, so they decide to organize an operation to sandbag it.
Gamache, Cloutier, and Cameron head out to the countryside to interview Carl Tracey and get very muddy on the way, and their interview with him is confrontational and aggressive. Eventually they get a warrant and search his house but find very little. When they leave, Gamache takes Vivienne’s dog Fred back with him to the Sûreté.
Gamache stops on the Champlain Bridge to look at the St. Laurence River beneath, swirling with ice and rising. He attends a tense meeting with higher ups in the city, including his replacement as Chief Superintendent, Madeleine Toussaint, who wants to disregard him but can’t, as they talk about a disaster plan to address the possible flooding all over the region, including in Three Pines.
Chapter 11-15:
Jean-Guy heads out of Montreal to Three Pines to help address the flooding, but the river is already beginning to break through its banks. Armand and Cloutier have brought Homer Godin with them back to the Gamaches’ house in Three Pines, but he’s restless without word of his daughter and wants them to do more to find her, regardless of the natural disaster bearing down on them. All of Three Pines waits to see whether they’ll be flooded and their village destroyed.
Agent Cloutier, swilling wine home alone that night, discovers Tracey’s Instagram account and wonders what she can learn. At the same time, Agent Cameron clocks out but goes to keep watch on Tracey.
As the Bella Bella begins to swell beyond its banks, Billy Williams digs a trench on one side, just as the water starts to shift the sandbags, on Tracey’s land. They find Vivienne’s duffel bag as he’s digging, and then Gamache and Beauvoir come across her car, near a bridge over the river that they find has a broken railing.
Chapter 16-20:
Following the water from the broken bridge, they find Vivienne’s body and then Armand, Beauvoir and Homer Godin all almost drown in the Bella Bella, trying to reach her body. Feelings of protectiveness overwhelm Jean-Guy in particular, because he thinks of his own wife, and then he tells first Armand, and then Reine-Marie, that Annie is pregnant.
Cameron, then Gamache, question Tracey, and he refuses to confess. And then they arrest Homer for assault, more to keep him safe and away from Tracey than for cause, though he did accidentally hit Reine-Marie as he headed down to the river to reach Vivienne’s body.
Beauvoir takes command of the investigation, as Lacoste worries that both he and Armand are letting this case get too personal. And they begin trying to build a case against Tracey, whom they are certain is guilty.
As Three Pines tries to clean up after the flooding, Clara is still worrying over the miniatures, as is Myrna. Clara is more and more affected by the negative tweets, but someone jumps in to defend her there.
As they focus more and more on Tracey, Cloutier reaches out to Tracey on Instagram, trying to gain access to his private messages. And a second search reveals that Tracey has cleaned up his house and burned all of Vivienne’s belongings.
Chapter 21-25:
The team continues to speculate about Vivienne’s death, the evidence they have and where it leads, and to follow up on Vivienne’s movements, including trying to trace the phone calls she made on the night she died. Gamache follows up on Vivienne’s autopsy and finds proof that she was shoved off the bridge and that she was twenty weeks pregnant.
Cloutier finally gets into Tracey’s private Instagram account messages by posing as an interested gallery owner and corresponding with his web master and mistress, Pauline Vachon, and they discover that Tracey was having an affair with her.
Meanwhile the art critic Dominica Oddly arrives in Three Pines at Ruth’s invitation, as she had heard Clara say that Oddly was the only major critic never to review her work.
Finally Armand agrees to release Homer Godin from jail.
Chapter 26-30:
In chasing down the black market abortion drug they found in Vivienne’s duffel bag, Beauvoir has a frightening confrontation at gunpoint with a teenage drug dealer.
A doctored video showing Armand shooting unarmed children goes viral online, and then the real video of Armand in a shootout is released; Armand calls the families of all of the victims again, to warn them that the graphic video showing several Sûreté agents’ deaths has reappeared.
Cloutier and Lacoste interview Pauline Vachon, Tracey’s mistress, who eventually confesses to helping plan Vivienne’s murder.
Finally Homer is released and taken back to Three Pines, while Dominica is falling for the charms of the village—she checks into the bed and breakfast for a night.
Tracey is arrested and arraigned, but the evidence in the duffel bag is thrown out because some of the evidence against him is deemed to be “fruit from the poisonous tree.” Godin attacks Tracey in court and is taken down by Bob Cameron.
Chapter 31-35:
Gamache, Beauvoir, and Lacoste meet with the prosecutor, trying to find a way forward against Carl Tracey. Meanwhile Beauvoir wins a staring contest in a bar with Tracey, determined to keep him off-balance and under surveillance. Again they retrace their steps, talking to Bertrand, Pauline Vachon, and Gabriel Bertrand, whom Vivienne called multiple times on the night she died. And Homer and Gamache talk about justice and forgiveness.
The villagers gather for dinner at Clara’s, with many confrontations as well as conversations, as Dominica has released her review agreeing that Clara’s miniatures are not up to the standard of her previous works.
Chapter 36-40:
Gamache, Beauvoir, and Lacoste start to theorize about a different killer as they finally put a few last pieces into place. Cameron admits to having an affair with Vivienne, and Cloutier admits to being in love with Homer Godin. They discover that Vivienne had been getting payments from her father, and that Homer had withdrawn $20K a few days earlier.
Then Homer disappears from the Gamache house and they finally locate him at the broken bridge where Vivienne died, carrying an unconscious Tracey and preparing to throw him in. But Lysette stops him by confessing that she is guilty, and Beauvoir and Homer still fall in the water but are saved, as Cameron catches Armand, who is holding onto Beauvoir. Homer drowns.
Chapter 41-43:
They finally figure out, with Lysette’s help, that Godin killed his daughter. And that he had confessed, in a way, to Gamache on the bridge. It turns out that Homer had abused Vivienne starting when she was a child, and perhaps was trying to make amends before their confrontation resulted in her death.
Clara realizes that her miniatures were indeed not special, not bold, and she nails them to her studio wall as a reminder to herself. She and Myrna discuss the case’s resolution.
Isabelle confronts Superintendent Toussaint, who she thinks has been trying to damage Gamache, and threatens to expose her, asking for a job in return.
The Beauvoir family leaves for Paris, and Jean-Guy gives Armand a recommendation for his second in command—Isabelle.
We learn that Toussaint, whose feelings about Gamache are complicated, was the one who leaked the real video of Gamache in the factory, to combat the lies told against him online.
FAVORITE QUOTES
“I guess I just want to believe.” –Myrna, chapter 43
Myrna and Clara are talking about the final resolution to the mystery, which they find hard to understand, not only because it means that a father killed his daughter, but because it’s difficult to see justice in his actions. As they try to puzzle out why he killed her, and what his motives were in the end, Myrna argues that he genuinely could have loved her, and could have been trying to make amends. Clara doesn’t see how a murderer, an abuser, could have felt this way and asks if Myrna really thinks they could have reconciled, if he truly could have been contrite. And Myrna replies with this really hopeful statement that, to me, embodies so many of Louise’s books.
CONCLUSION
This book has a bittersweet ending as Jean-Guy, Annie and Honoré leave for Paris at the very end. But if there’s one thing I have learned about Louise Penny is that her skill is in making you believe anything can happen. As you watch them get on the plane, you can’t believe they’re really going, and yet they go, and somehow you trust all will be well eventually. Indeed, in the world of Louise Penny, things often work out in the end, but she keeps you guessing the whole time—about murder, about Gamache, about all of her cast members. I read with my heart in my throat, even though I’m a lot like Myrna, and I just want to believe.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- The central conflict of A Better Man rests on the question of what we would do for the ones who we love: “What would you do if…?” “How would you feel if…” How did these questions influence the decisions that Gamache makes in the investigation into Vivienne’s death? Jean-Guy? Should they have done things differently? Would you?
- When the art critic Dominica Oddly visits Three Pines, she’s initially skeptical, calling it “a little on the nose…pretty but banal.” But the longer she spends there, the more she starts to change her mind. How does this change in perception relate to shifting attitudes about Clara’s art? What does Clara learn about herself from Dominica’s visit?
- Throughout the book, different characters quote a line from Moby-Dick: “All truth with malice in it.” What do you think this phrase means? How does it relate to the story?
- The social media humiliation of both Clara and Gamache — #MorrowSucks and #GamacheSux — is often presented together in the beginning of a chapter. How are these social media campaigns similar? How are they different?
- The tension of the investigation is amplified by the Bella Bella’s rising shores: “Until this day, the villagers had considered the Bella Bella a friendly, gentle presence. It would never hurt them. Now it was as though someone they thought they knew well, someone they loved and trusted, had turned on them.” How does the Bella Bella serve as a metaphor for the human relationships in this story?
- Clara and Carl Tracey are both artists. In what ways are they alike, and in what ways are they different?
- When Gamache returns to the Surete, he is demoted to Chief Inspector of Homicide, the same job currently held by Jean-Guy Beauvoir. The leadership thinks that Gamache “would never agree to this position, that the humiliation would be too great” — but he does. What do you think of Gamache’s decision to return to the Surete under these circumstances?
- Throughout the book, Louise will sometimes refer to Homer as “Vivienne’s father,” instead of by name. How does this affect how we think of him and his actions throughout the story?
- The idea of authority comes up a few times in the book, from Madeline Toussaint at the head of the Surete, to Jean-Guy and Gamache at Homicide, to Ruth leading the sandbagging effort as chief of the volunteer fire department. How do these different characters handle their positions of leadership? What are the similarities between their approaches, and what are the differences?
- How did your perception of Bob Cameron change throughout the novel? Of Agent Cloutier? Of Carl Tracey?
- At the end of the novel, the true identity of the person behind the @dumbass account is revealed. Do you think what she did was right? Why or why not?
- When Gamache was Chief Superintendent, he hung a framed poster in his office of the Latin words Noli Timere: be not afraid. And although the office now belongs to Chief Superintendent Toussaint, the poster still hangs in the same office today. What do these words mean to you? How do they influence the characters’ actions throughout the story?
One reply on “Series Re-Read: A Better Man”
A perfect review of this book. Thank you. I’m so deep emotionally with all the characters and 3 Pines- like an obsession. Then when I read comments , I can’t recall well. Pi feel better about the upcoming discussion. I’ve never commented, but so enjoy the conversations.