The Morrows and a murder

By Ande Jacobson

A Rule Against Murder is the fourth Chief Inspector Armand Gamache (of the Sûreté du Quebec) story by Canadian author Louise Penny first released in 2009. In Canada, the title was originally The Murder Stone which gives more away about the mystery from the outset. This time Armand and Reine-Marie are enjoying an anniversary trip to the luxurious Manoir Bellechasse, an inn in a lovely forested location not far from Three Pines. They had planned to enjoy the scenery and each other’s uninterrupted company in the peaceful old-world setting. The only other guests are the Finneys – a large, wealthy, multigenerational family there for their own celebration of sorts. Early on Irene Finney, the matriarch of the Finney family, and her adult children get the entirely wrong idea about the Gamaches thinking that Armand is a lowly shopkeeper, and Reine-Marie is a cleaning women when they misinterpret something that the Gamaches say in casual conversation. The Finneys are awaiting the wayward sibling and his wife, who surprisingly turn out to be Peter and Clara Morrow from Three Pines. Peter and Clara arrive the night before a statue of Irene’s first husband, Charles Morrow, is to be unveiled. It turns out that Bert Finney is Irene’s second husband, but her children (Thomas, Julia, Peter, and Marianna) are all Morrows.

Serious dysfunction comes to light early on. The adult siblings are instantly at odds with one another, each one hiding something from their past and tormenting the others. They also are not necessarily what they appear to be. They each have their talents which are often under or unappreciated, and they also have serious deficits borne of their traumatic childhoods.

Thomas appears to be a successful businessman like his father, and he also has some technical musical skills but lacks any feeling behind his playing. As the first-born, he takes a somewhat dictatorial stance with his siblings despite the fact that they are all now adults with lives of their own.

Although Julia has been estranged from the family for many years for reasons that come out as the story unfolds, she’s returned for the celebration. She had been married at one point, but her well-connected ex-husband had gone to jail for a series of white collar crimes, and she’s been on her own for some time. Her relationship with her father and the family as a whole is complicated, and it doesn’t take long for everyone to start hassling her.

The youngest sister, Marianna, is tech savvy and in fact has done well for herself despite all appearances to the contrary. She also has musical skills that the others lack. Her biggest difference from her siblings is that she’s the only one who has a child in attendance. Bean is prepubescent and androgynous. In fact, Marianna likes it that way and intentionally keeps the child’s gender a secret. None of her family have any idea whether Bean is a boy or a girl, something that she holds over her own mother. Until Bean hits puberty and it becomes obvious one way or the other, Marianna isn’t telling. Louise Penny specifically wanted to leave Bean’s gender an unsolved mystery in the book. Interestingly, in the Three Pines television adaptation of several of the Gamache stories, they specify that Bean is a girl in the relevant episodes. Bean is an unusual child in many ways, is an avid reader, and has an active imagination. While the child runs about the grounds, they never leave the ground by jumping or climbing on things as their peers might.

We find out more about Peter’s background in this book and just how he and Clara established their life in Three Pines. His relationship with his siblings is fraught, and it becomes clear why he has a tendency to disappear into his head in uncomfortable situations.

Clara isn’t happy to be at the Manoir and counts the hours until she can return home. The family essentially ignores her, and her mother-in-law refuses to address her by her proper name instead calling her Claire.

The unveiling finally occurs, and the statue is confusing. Charles Morrow, a ruthless business tycoon in life, looks startled. His face makes him look lost, and there are some other peculiarities as well.

Others on the scene include several staff members at the inn such as Clementine Dubois (the receptionist, office manager, etc.), Pierre Patenaude (the maître d’), Elliot Byrne (a young waiter), Colleen (a gardener), and Chef Véronique Langlois, each with a past they too would prefer to keep hidden from the guests and even from one another for the most part.

The night after the unveiling, a vicious storm hits the area, and Julia Morrow is crushed under the statue of her father that has fallen forward onto her from its pedestal. Once the murder occurs, of course Chief Inspector Gamache’s team arrives in short order, and he leads the investigation much to the shock of the Finneys/Morrows, all except for Peter and Clara of course who are highly amused at the family’s embarrassment over their erroneous assumption.

As in so many Gamache stories, there is no shortage of suspects, but the nagging question this time is how someone could have carried out the crime. The statue was extremely heavy, far too heavy for somebody to move without a crane, especially given the pedestal is completely unmarred. Also, while there are understandably some hard feelings amongst the family, it’s questionable whether any of them hated Julia enough to kill her.

As the team works through the clues and swings far afield in their search for the truth, the puzzle pieces eventually fall into place, though it’s a race at the end to apprehend the killer before anyone else falls victim.

As is the case with the series thus far, this mystery is fully a character study and is not focused on the gore of the crime. The story unfolds by untangling the family’s past and explaining how their relationships became so fractured. Over the course of the story, they gain some insights into one another and into who Charles Morrow really was despite all appearances to the contrary. The Morrow kids also find out why their mother behaved the way she did when they were growing up, and it wasn’t at all what they had grown to believe. The tragedy brings old hurts to the surface and allows new bonds to form.

As for the staff, their secrets also come to the surface in unexpected ways. There’s a rich history to both the inn and the people who keep it thriving in the wilderness. The question once the mystery is solved this time is whether the inn will continue as it is, or will morph into something else. Only time, and possibly future books in the series, will tell.

References:
A Rule Against Murder, by Louise Penny
https://www.gamacheseries.com/books/a-rule-against-murder/
https://agoodreedreview.com/2023/03/27/book-still-life/
https://agoodreedreview.com/2023/05/19/a-most-ungraceful-exit/
https://agoodreedreview.com/2023/06/16/book-the-cruelest-month/