Bury Your Dead

Gamache’s longtime second-in-command, Beauvoir is younger, more impulsive, and cynical whereas his chief is tolerant and patient. His persistence in investigations and willingness to follow any lead are on full display in Bury Your Dead. Beauvoir reflects that “If the Chief asked him to conduct the interviews naked, he would” (72). The unstinting loyalty been the two men, and their shared trauma, is a core aspect of the text. Beauvoir reflects privately that “Chief Inspector Gamache was far from ‘all right,’ as was he” (70). While Gamache is haunted by Morin’s voice, Beauvoir finds himself resenting the ringing of telephones—now associated with that day’s disaster—and angry at his wife’s solicitous concern for him.

Beauvoir begins the narrative angry and isolated. He resents the assignment to return to Three Pines, calling the villagers “cunning, deceitful, arrogant, and nearly incomprehensible” (73). He finds himself reluctantly enlisting the aid of Clara Morrow, developing a new respect for the artist’s thoughtful assessments of others. He finds some relief from physical pain via a visit to Dr. Vincent Gilbert, who explains why his injuries still bother him, though Penny foreshadows that he may struggle to appropriately use his pain medication.

He also finds himself in need of a confidant about his ordeal and chooses Ruth Zardo, the village’s bitter poet who has an alcohol addiction. The two share a biting cynicism, but Ruth’s ability to listen without imputing her own emotions seems to offer Beauvoir real comfort, as the two end the text by having dinner together at the Morrow home. Beauvoir fulfills Gamache’s usual role in Three Pines, unmasking the Hermit’s real killer. In so doing, he heals the rift in the community and begins to develop an understanding of his own pain. Beauvoir’s character arc in this novel foreshadows future developments in the series: His ongoing fragility has serious implications for both himself and Gamache.

An amateur archaeologist obsessed with Samuel de Champlain, Renaud is generally regarded as an eccentric crank who alienates much of the society around him. Gamache is convinced to take the case because Renaud’s obsession with Champlain is likely to ignite tensions between the English and Francophone communities. One bookseller describes Renaud as “a fanatic,” adding, “I think he’d do just about anything to get closer to Champlain’s body“ (301). He also had no concern for public scorn or ridicule, continuing his digging even when he’d “dug for Champlain on live television only to break through into the basement of a Chinese restaurant“ (115).

Renaud is ultimately portrayed as venal and vindictive, trying to extort his way into the Société Champlain in exchange for concealing the explorer’s secret Huguenot origins. He, like Gamache, is a dogged investigator, but one interested in personal aggrandizement as much as truth.

The former head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, Émile is now retired and living in Québec City. Gamache turns to him for advice and support in the aftermath of his ordeal, revealing the enduring strength of their bond. Émile, like Gamache, is Francophone, and he is surprised to be drawn into the world of the Anglophone Literary and Historical Society. Émile is instinctively engaged by both cases, the mystery in Three Pines and the murder of Augustin Renaud, and Gamache reflects, “Everything [he] knew about homicide, he’d learned from this man, and more besides” (33). In the course of the investigation, Gamache finds himself realizing a new side to his mentor: his separatist politics and desire for an independent Québec. Both men, however, reject political violence as a means to that end. Penny underlines that he is a “great man because he [i]s a good man, no matter what [i]s happening around him,” suggesting that what draws the men together is their fundamental decency (233).

Émile briefly betrays Gamache, hiding that his friends at the Société Champlain knew some of what Augustin Renaud was working on and had had contact with him before his death. Émile’s apology and regret, and his eventual honesty, convince Gamache to preserve their friendship. Gamache agrees to watch the video of the factory raid and thanks Émile “[f]or not leaving [him]“ (467), emphasizing his emotional reliance on his friend, especially in Beauvoir’s absence. Émile’s budding friendship with the Anglophone Elizabeth MacWhirter, and his preserved bond with Gamache, underlines Penny’s optimism that the divisions within Québec City may, at least on an individual level, be bridgeable.

An eclectic artist, Clara lives in Three Pines with her husband, Peter. By this point in the series, Clara is on the cusp of fame, attracting attention for a set of portraits of the Three Graces based on real people in Three Pines. In this installment, however, she is primarily Beauvoir’s assistant in his effort to detangle the Hermit case and consider whether Olivier is innocent. Clara is warm, empathetic, and observant, perpetually disheveled and unconcerned with her appearance. Beauvoir finds himself choosing Clara as his confidant for the real motive for his presence in Three Pines, considering her, at first, the “best of a bad lot” (213).

Clara inventively finds herself unnerved by assisting Beauvoir, as it requires her to wonder, “[W]hat did she really know about them?” (330). Clara’s doubts and uncertainties reflect the divisions within Three Pines since the Hermit’s death. Clara is also honest and forthright, finding herself unable to conceal her work with Beauvoir from her best friend, bookstore owner and former psychologist Myrna Landers. She is among the particularly compassionate villagers who wear pajamas to the bistro on Sundays to support Gabri, who found it was the only way he could bear to work after Olivier’s imprisonment. Beauvoir’s increasing friendship with her is a barometer of his changed feelings toward the village, as he accepts an invitation to dinner at her home and “smile[s] at Clara, something that felt at once foreign and familiar” (463).

A prizewinning poet who has faded into obscurity in her later years, Ruth Zardo is one of the more eccentric long-term residents of Three Pines. An acerbic woman with an alcohol addiction who makes many caustic comments, she frequently calls Beauvoir “numb nuts” (287). She remains sharply observant, however, as she doubts that Beauvoir is merely in the village on vacation. Penny takes most of her poetry from Canadian author Margaret Atwood.

In Bury Your Dead, Beauvoir finds himself choosing Ruth as the repository for the truth of what happened during the factory raid. He tells her it is because no one will give credence to anything she says, as most of the villagers avoid and ignore her. But perhaps the truth is more complex: Ruth offers minimal commentary, and certainly no sympathy, which is what Beauvoir seems to need most. She recognizes, somehow, that silence is the space he needs. Beauvoir also notices that she has made a nest for her beloved duck, Rosa, refusing to believe that the creature will fail to return to her. In Penny’s world, Ruth is a reminder that no one can live without love, or in total isolation.

A senior member of the Literary and Historical Society, Elizabeth comes from a wealthy family with deep roots in Québec City. She recognizes Gamache near the library’s crime scene and begs for his help, anxious about the impact of the murder on her community’s standing. Though she is sometimes frustrated with other members of the Literary and Historical Society, she remains committed to the idea that you “don’t make war with others in the raft” so she exercises a quiet authority while placating more egoistical members (11).

Gamache notices immediately that while she is not the official board president, everyone there looks to her for direction. She has vivid memories of more violent periods of Québec’s history, including when French separatists tried to burn the library. Her commitment to her heritage underscores Penny’s theme of the past’s influence on the present, while her increasing friendship with Émile Comeau offers a collegial microcosm for the city’s future.

A carpenter and furniture restorer, Old Mundin is actually in his thirties—“old” is a nickname from his father, who called him “old son“ (384). He is changed forever by his father’s death in his teens. At the time, it was thought to be a death by suicide. Old Mundin is devoted to his wife and child and respected in the community. Beauvoir comes to realize, with help from Gamache, that the Hermit was Old Mundin’s father—the “Charlotte” in his cabin referred to his mother. Old Mundin explains that he saw his father’s priceless treasures for sale in Montreal antiques shops and traced their provenance back to Olivier, originally suspecting him of murdering his father. When Old Mundin explains his use of his childhood nickname, “Woo,” to terrify the Hermit, now believing him to be his father’s murderer, the room is quiet, and “no one could look at the beautiful young man now [...] they dropped their eyes from that scalding sight. All that love turned into hate” (456).

Old Mundin explains that he acted only out of vengeance, hoping Olivier would take the treasure and the entire cabin could be forgotten. Beauvoir reluctantly explains to him that the man he killed was, in fact, his father, who had faked his own death to go into hiding with his luxuries. Old Mundin is driven by grief into a desperate act that ultimately destroys his wife and son, fracturing the community he has come to think of as home. Like Tom Hancock, he is weighed down by a responsibility to the past that destroys his present.

A Presbyterian minister, Hancock is new to the Literary and Historical Society and its youngest member by several decades. He is personable and empathetic, immediately recognizing that Gamache is in emotional pain and offering him advice and support. To Gamache’s surprise, Hancock offers a kind of tribute to Renaud after his murder, speaking openly from the pulpit about the dead man’s “passion and purpose” (133). Given that Hancock is the killer, this celebration may be a kind of clever disguise, but Gamache is struck by Hancock’s sincerity, declaring that he “spoke of joy for a reason. He knew it” (137).

Hancock admits to Gamache that he is deeply afraid of failing his congregation, which is one of Penny’s significant clues as to the killer’s identity, since Gamache also identifies “[f]ear of losing what you have or not getting what you want“ as the underlying motive for most murders (183). Hancock later admits that he killed Renaud to protect the English community’s future, believing that the truth about Champlain and the society’s role in his concealment would destroy them. Hancock’s despair over his act causes him to think of suicide, but Gamache convinces him that his self-destruction would merely compound tragedy rather than ease it. Hancock’s choices underline the destructive power of community, especially combined with guilt: Hancock’s sense of powerlessness convinces him that Renaud’s death is the only way to protect those he cares for.

Olivier Brulé runs the bistro and antiques shop in Three Pines with his partner, Gabri Dubeau. Quieter than the voluble Gabri, Olivier becomes a central character in The Brutal Telling when the villagers learn his deepest secret: that he maintains his lifestyle by selling antiques from the reclusive Hermit whom he holds near-captive. His incarceration cements the thematic importance of broken communal bonds in Bury Your Dead. The villagers struggle to believe in Olivier’s guilt, and yet most have lost trust in him for his relative secrecy and obvious avarice. Only Gabri believes in his innocence, eventually leading Gamache to reinvestigate. This doubt epitomizes Gamache’s existential uncertainty following the factory raid—his doubts about Olivier’s guilt work in tandem with his doubts about his own fitness for police work.

Beyond his devotion to luxury and Gabri, Olivier’s dominant trait at this point in the series is his unique talent for deception and self-deception. Olivier reflects, in prison, “He’d lied all his life about everything, until the habit became who he was […] He blushed, stumbled for words, got confused when telling the truth” (158). Penny thus transforms a background character into a case study of human frailty and the dangerous power of habit. Telling Beauvoir that he traded basic necessities for priceless antiques, Olivier reflects that, having confessed the story so many times, he is “almost immune to the disgust in people’s faces. Almost.” (158). Olivier is always a person with a conscience, even if he has, to an extent, conditioned himself to ignore it. Penny’s Three Pines is a world where even those guilty of horrors have rich and complex emotional lives.

By the novel’s end, Olivier has been vindicated, as Old Mundin confesses to the Hermit’s murder. This justifies Gabri’s persistent faith in his innocence and establishes Penny’s point that redemption and recovery are nearly always possible. Though Olivier struggles to forgive Gamache, his admission that he might someday further signals that the community is not irreparably fractured.

A young Sûreté agent, Morin is introduced in The Brutal Telling and contributes some key insights into the case of the Hermit’s murder. Gamache and his team are unexpectedly charmed by the young man’s skill with the violin.

Morin is taken hostage months before Bury Your Dead begins; he appears primarily in flashbacks and Gamache’s memories. The two men remain on the phone for a full 24 hours, sharing stories of their lives and their beliefs. Morin is fundamentally an optimistic idealist, dreaming of his wedding and expressing the hopeful view that “things are strongest when they’re broken,’’ as his mother once told him (317). Gamache faces the real possibility he could be forced to let Morin die in order to prevent a larger terrorist plot to destroy a dam key to North America’s hydroelectric power supply. Morin dies in the factory raid, shot by the terrorists when Gamache goes the wrong way in his attempt to rescue him. Morin’s voice comes to represent Gamache’s Grief and Guilt, haunting him at all hours. Only when he fully accepts Morin’s death and apologizes to him does the voice grow silent, reflecting Penny’s belief that facing trauma is key to healing.

Gamache’s boss and longtime rival, Francoeur is arrogant, ambitious, and corrupt. He and Gamache despise one another. Francoeur is skeptical of Gamache’s ability to investigate Morin’s kidnapping, eavesdropping on the homicide team and ordering them to cease operation.

Gamache’s refusal to comply uncovers the terrorist plot, which Francoeur also refuses to act upon until Gamache reminds him how many lives are at stake. Francoeur operates as a symbol of the Sûreté as its own divided community. Penny uses him to establish that Gamache is singular in his commitment to truth over his own ego and interests. In later installments of the series, Francoeur will threaten both Gamache’s and Beauvoir’s lives in hopes of preserving his own power.

A young Sûreté agent, Nichol emerges in the first installment of the series, Still Life. She is then a new recruit to Gamache’s homicide team. She is arrogant, rude, and disrespectful. Gamache ultimately reassigns her to monitor communications, as she “need[s] to learn to be quiet” (350). She seems to have absorbed Gamache’s methodology, as she echoes Gamache when she says to Beauvoir, “Tell me what you know” (292).

Nichol successfully locates Morin, but Gamache decides not to include her on the rescue team. He begins to suspect that she is the leaker of the factory-raid video as a kind of vengeance against him, knowing he has no desire to become publicly venerated for the tragedy and that he would instead feel shame about the raid’s failure. In later works in the series, she becomes an unlikely ally in Gamache’s struggles with corruption.