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Gamache, the protagonist of Penny’s 18-book series, heads the homicide division of the Sûreté du Québec, the province’s police force. He has a strong sense of duty and ethics, and is devoted to the welfare of his subordinates, especially his longtime right-hand man, Beauvoir. Gamache is in his mid-50s, with a pronounced “scar at his left temple” (17)—an injury from a botched raid to rescue a hostage that resulted in the deaths of several police officers and the near-fatal wounds of Gamache and Beauvoir. This trauma influences much of Gamache’s behavior in The Beautiful Mystery.
Gamache is an astute, compassionate observer who conducts interrogations patiently, knowing how to read a suspect and manipulate the emotional tenor of a room. Committed to doing the right thing, Gamache refuses “to lose his soul in the process” (270) of his work. Fiercely loyal to family and friends, Gamache is devoted to his wife Reine-Marie and his daughter Annie.
In the previous novel in the series, Gamache had a lot in common with the zealots at the heart of the novel’s mystery plot—obsessed with completing the rescue operation, he left Beauvoir wounded in order to pursue his job. In that disaster’s aftermath, Gamache learns not to value his job’s mission over the lives of his close associates.
By Louise Penny
A Fatal Grace
A Fatal Grace
Louise Penny
A Great Reckoning
A Great Reckoning
Louise Penny
All the Devils are Here
All the Devils are Here
Louise Penny
A Rule Against Murder
A Rule Against Murder
Louise Penny
A World of Curiosities
A World of Curiosities
Louise Penny
Bury Your Dead
Bury Your Dead
Louise Penny
How the Light Gets In
How the Light Gets In
Louise Penny
State of Terror
State of Terror
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Louise Penny
Still Life
Still Life
Louise Penny
The Brutal Telling
The Brutal Telling
Louise Penny
The Cruelest Month
The Cruelest Month
Louise Penny
The Long Way Home
The Long Way Home
Louise Penny
The Nature of the Beast
The Nature of the Beast
Louise Penny
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