We need to be open to the light

By Ande Jacobson

How the Light Gets In is the ninth full-length mystery novel in Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Armand Gamache (of the Sûreté du Québec) series, and was first released in 2013. This book resolves several long story arcs that have grown throughout the series. The most emotionally impactful is how the rift between Armand and his trusted second, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, finally resolves. Throughout the previous few books, Jean-Guy struggled with his feelings of abandonment from a traumatic police action that left him and Armand severely injured and many on their team dead. Armand’s superior, Sylvain Francoeur takes advantage of this rift and drives a wedge between Jean-Guy and Armand both personally and professionally. In this current book, that all comes to a head and is finally, and very satisfyingly resolved, but not without some serious consequences and life changes.

Throughout the series, Penny has made readers care about what happens to Armand and Jean-Guy, and while it’s painful at times to watch how their relationship evolves, it’s worth persevering to get to the resolution that’s tied not only to their fight, but to a case that started decades before that also comes to a satisfying conclusion. Armand and Sylvain had been at odds for some time after Armand found significant corruption within the service and took decisive action to address it legally. In the original case, the Arnot case from early in the series, Armand couldn’t prove Sylvain’s involvement to a level that would be provable in court. He never stopped investigating though. He has some expert help from a senior Sûreté official (Superintendent Thérèse Brunel) and her husband (Dr. Jérôme Brunel) putting them all in life-threatening danger. In this current installment, the Brunels are instrumental in helping Armand conclusively determine who Sylvain is working with (and it’s a shocker), and uncover the level of corruption in the service, and in the government at large. They race to stop a catastrophe that would kill thousands and relates to a seemingly unrelated observation by an unfortunate motorist in the first chapter who is terrified driving through a massive tunnel that she knows is in disrepair.

The story of how this all unfolds is riveting and heart wrenching at times. It’s a race against time to stop not only Sylvain but to save Jean-Guy, Armand, and the Brunels along with the public before it’s too late. Penny throws a few unexpected turns into the story as well, such as how Sylvain’s dismantling of Armand’s team is actually something that Armand uses to position himself and his team to close in and finally stop Sylvain’s assault on the service and the country. Along the way, Jean-Guy reaches his lowest point before turning around and repairing the damaged relationships in his life.

An important peripheral character returns in this installment as well – Yvette Nichol – the agent that Armand mentored, then assigned to the basement to learn how to listen. She and Armand have a connection that baffles those around them until she becomes indispensable to the operation.

Armand isn’t only involved in solving the Sylvain mystery though. He’s also conducting a side investigation with Isabelle Lacoste into the death of Constance Pineault, nee Ouellet, who it turns out is the last of the set of quintuplets that captivated Canada decades before. Although a major plot focus, and the reason that Armand is able to sequester the Brunels, Nichol, and himself in Three Pines to gain some time to further their unofficial investigation, that side trip seems just a bit contrived. The Ouellet Quintuplets are loosely based on a real set of Canadian quintuplets, but their lives as drawn in the book are entirely fictional bearing no resemblance to the real Dionne Quintuplets.

Penny is skillful in developing multifaceted characters with skills and flaws that make them relatable. There’s good vs. evil in the series, and in this installment, but even at that, it’s not a straight line. Some who seem evil at the start aren’t necessarily so, but merely misguided. Others who seem well-intentioned are anything but. Penny shows readers the landscape, and lets them discover the nuances along the way. She’s sneaky in keeping a few details hidden that would allow readers to solve some of the mysteries early, but when she eventually discloses them, the flow is natural and satisfying. Good does triumph over evil in this installment with some degree of finality.

Even the pets, the Gamache’s dog Henri, and Ruth Zardo’s duck Rosa, are written a bit bigger than life. Henri is drawn as a bit of a German shepherd caricature with giant, satellite-like ears and a dopey but loving manner. While Armand and others describe him as not college material, he doesn’t necessarily come across that way. Sure, he’ll eagerly chase after a snowball and is always surprised when he bites down and it melts away, but what shepherd or retriever wouldn’t be fooled by a round object flung for them to chase or herd? He’s a devoted companion whose heart is huge. Rosa, is the worldlier of the two pets. She’s devoted to Ruth and follows her around as Ruth dotes on her. She returned a book or two ago after flying away to migrate for several months, and is clearly tightly tied to Ruth. She mimics Ruth in a loving way. Both Henri and Rosa serve to bring people together in their own ways, and the stories are richer because of their presence.

How the Light Gets In ends in a delightful place with the Gamache family welcoming its newest “old” son joining with his soulmate in a wedding in Three Pines that readers have waited for through multiple books. The little village may never be quite the same as it welcomes Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache as newly retired residents who host the joyous festivities after what could have been a horrific tragedy. There’s a slight bit of foreshadowing toward the later books in the series, but this book ties up many of the current loose ends with one big exception. The next book picks up exactly where this one leaves off charting a shift as Armand begins his retirement in earnest. The question is whether the weathered investigator ever really retires. The folks of Three Pines met him when he was the Chief Inspector of the premiere homicide team in the country, and there are more mysteries to solve.