Is evil born or nurtured?

By Ande Jacobson

A World of Curiosities is the eighteenth mystery novel in Louise Penny’s Gamache series. Armand Gamache, his wife Reine-Marie, their children, grandchildren, Armand’s godfather Stephen Horowitz, his second-in-command and son-in-law Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and the rest of the Three Pines regulars are back. Armand has his hands full this time with old and new murders sending his Sûreté du Québec Homicide division on the trail again. There is a good bit of history in this installment, both Canadian history as well as Armand and Jean-Guy’s personal history, specifically the case that first brought them together in this life. That history concerns not only their relationship but also bears heavily on the current cases at hand. An old nemesis also returns for a disturbing confrontation that strikes deeply and disrupts Armand’s internal fortitude. Forgiveness, human nature, and revenge all come into play as the plot thickens.

Penny is good at planting seeds in earlier books that grow and return unexpectedly much later. This time this applies both to Armand’s nemesis and to when Armand found Jean-Guy and brought him onto his team. She had never delved into the specific case that brought them together although she had mentioned where Jean-Guy was working when Armand rescued him and gave him the chance to prove himself. The old case bears heavily on both the relationship between Armand and Jean-Guy and on the suspect pool for the current puzzles that go well beyond murder and swerve into the art world in an obscure and fascinating way.

As for history, Penny uses a real tragedy, a mass murder that occurred at the École Polytechnique in 1989 when fourteen young female engineering students were murdered. That event spawned memorials in later years, and it brought great significance to the later graduations, particularly for the female students. The story takes place in the present, but that real event is hovering in the background. It caused legislative changes for the country that were for the better. It also informed a story arc for what should have been a redemption that somehow goes awry.

The flashback to Armand and Jean-Guy’s first case together introduces readers to some new characters who pose a puzzle in their very existence. The old case concerned a mother who was murdered. Her two small children survive her, and their future was uncertain. The question was always about who committed the murder. The children were traumatized from years of abuse begging the question of whether they could escape their upbringing. Armand and Jean-Guy didn’t, and still don’t agree on which child was the more damaged or whether they continue to be dangerous. Armand favors the girl, Fiona Arsenault, who ultimately went to prison for the murder. She was later released and seemed to be on a path to a bright future as an engineer due largely to Armand’s support. Jean-Guy favored the younger brother, Sam, who never went to prison. Jean-Guy saw him as the “good” one deserving of help and support, but Sam somehow seemed off and potentially dangerous to Armand. As the story unfolds, hidden secrets between the siblings come to light, and unfortunately to Three Pines.

The art world connection surrounds a rendering of The Paston Treasure, a painting from the seventeenth century that has an important part in the story. There are also some secrets discovered in Three Pines that come into focus from the little village’s history. Some are architectural as the regulars discover a secret room in an unexpected place. The treasures within the room widen the mystery including the aforementioned altered rendering of the famous painting. The alterations pose yet another mystery that needs to be solved.

Agent Amelia Choquet also returns, and more of her history is revealed further explaining the odd connection between her and Armand. There’s a deep respect there that grows deeper, and she’s instrumental in helping solve the current day puzzles. Armand has an eye for talent where others see trouble. With Agent Choquet, Armand had to overcome some deep-seated trauma of his own. The trauma wasn’t Amelia’s fault, but her connection to it created a deep inner conflict for Armand. He could see her talent, yet he struggles to get past her background that is forever intertwined with his trauma. Still, he nurtures and mentors her and is proud to have given her the chance to shine despite the challenges along the way.

With Fiona though, the connection that wounds Armand isn’t one that he sees coming. Penny uses indirect hints, but readers are still taken by surprise when the final reveal occurs. Armand’s impression of Sam is closer to reality than everyone else cares to admit. Penny delves deeply into the nurture/nature dichotomy through the siblings, and while it’s not entirely clear which has the larger impact on a person’s personality and actions, it’s clear that it’s not always possible to overcome damage when inflicted through both nature and nurture.

There is one literary device that Penny uses that can be slightly annoying when consumed in large amounts. Ruth’s duck, Rosa, is a fairly strong presence throughout the series. Penny points to Rosa’s reactions to various events with offhand asides about her facial and bodily expressions noting that “ducks usually do/are” in reference to various mannerisms or looks the duck provides along the way. Initially this is somewhat quaint, but Penny tends to overuse it later in the series.

Despite the one annoying literary device, Penny’s Gamache series is still extremely engaging and different from many series. While it’s best to read the books in order to glean all of the breadcrumbs along the way, it’s not completely necessary. Penny provides enough summary information that if a reader chooses to jump into the series out of order, each book can potentially stand on its own. That said, while it’s certainly possible to jump ahead in the series, it wouldn’t work as well to go backward. Once later revelations have come to light, they’d either color a reader’s impression of earlier events, or spoil them entirely. And along the way, there are several books that are effectively tightly coupled pairs where a story arc begins in one book, and finishes in the next. This installment is a slight departure from that in that it pulls on strings from books much earlier in the series to finally resolve them.