A Fatal Grace

“Anything CC didn’t like didn’t exist. That included her husband and her daughter. It included any unpleasantness, any criticism, any harsh words not her own, any emotions.” 

This is another assessment by Saul that summarizes CC’s approach to her family and to people in general. It also exposes her Li Bien philosophy as a way to avoid coping with emotion.

“And she tumbled down that dark chasm after them and found herself in a familiar room, at Christmas.” 

CC weeps as she recalls her traumatic childhood. She follows her tears into a memory of her mother. The quote implies that the dark chasm of her despair is a place she would prefer to keep buried. 

“She balled up all her rage and made a missile of it and, like Ahab, had her chest been a cannon she’d have fired her heart upon Clara.” 

CC’s pretense of mastering her emotions contradicts her visceral reaction to Clara. She despises Clara precisely because the latter has found a sense of calm that continues to elude CC. 

“A layer of pure white was both beautiful and dangerous. You never really knew what lurked beneath.” 

While Olivier literally refers to snow, the comment also applies to CC. She reveres white as the purest of all colors. It is devoid of emotion. CC and her white-washed teachings are both dangerous. 

“CC was like an alchemist, with the unlikely gift of turning gold into lead.” 

Kaye muses about CC’s destructive potential. She does her best to destroy Crie’s musical gift—turning gold into lead. Anyone who follows CC’s teachings would be similarly damaged. 

“The best of the best made it into homicide. The smartest, the bravest, the people who got up each morning from the comfort of their homes, kissed their children and went into the world to deliberately hunt people who deliberately killed.” 

Beauvoir expresses his admiration for Gamache. At the same time, Beauvoir praises himself for having been chosen as one of the elite. 

“Gamache was the best of them, the smartest and bravest and strongest because he was willing to go into his own head alone, and open all the doors there, and enter all the dark rooms.” 

Beauvoir admires Gamache for doing what he, himself, never can. Beauvoir prefers to live on the surface. The darkest corners of his own mind frighten him. 

“He’d continued CPR, pressing his warm lips to CC’s increasingly cold and rigid ones, until finally it felt as it had when he was a child and had kissed his ski poles. Just to see. They were so cold it burned.” 

Peter echoes Saul’s earlier comparison between CC and a veneer of ice. Although she is now dead, the implication is that CC would have exuded the same coldness even in life. 

“If there was ever a house that wept it was that one. Gamache would never forget that basement and the darkness.” 

Gamache is forced to encounter his own demons when he enters the Hadley home again. To his credit, he goes inside and doesn’t try to flee his own fear of the dark. 

“Clara knew the kind of anger that led to murder needed to ferment for a long time, often sealed beneath a layer of smiles and sweet reason.” 

Clara often sees what others miss. Most people assume murder occurs in a single moment. Clara sees the years of hidden rage leading up to that moment. 

“There on the cold, hard gurney lay a cold, hard woman. She had a snarl on her face and Beauvoir wondered whether her family would recognize the look.” 

Even in death, CC retains her most notable quality—her coldness. Earlier images associated with her include white snow, frigid temperatures, and ice. Her face remains frozen in its most characteristic expression. 

“The bistro was his secret weapon in tracking down murderers. Not just in Three Pines, but in every town and village in Quebec. First he found a comfortable café or brasserie, or bistro, then he found the murderer.” 

Gamache knows that witnesses will talk more freely when they feel comfortable. His goal isn’t so much to establish facts as it is to read people. 

“To describe the murderer as a monstrosity, a grotesque, was to give him an unfair advantage. No. Murderers were human, and at the root of each murder was an emotion.” 

Gamache implies that it’s harder to fight a monster than a man. He also points out that even people who commit horrific crimes do so based on very human emotions. 

“‘Mother is Faith, Em is Hope and Kaye is Charity. I was tired of seeing the Graces always depicted as beautiful young things. I think wisdom comes with age and life and pain. And knowing what matters.’” 

Clara once again proves that she holds more inner wisdom than CC ever could. She accepts all aspects of the human condition without trying to suppress anything less than perfect. 

“She looked down at his hands, large and expressive, and knew then all the horrible things they’d had to do […] Those fingers had formed loose fists and knocked on the doors of loved ones. To break the news. To break their hearts.” 

This comment demonstrates both Clara’s insight and Gamache’s burden. She recognizes that the inspector must take on duties that most average people would seek to avoid. 

“‘Now it haunts her, in her own mother’s voice. It’s the voice most of us hear in the quiet moments, whispering kindnesses or accusations. Our mother.’” 

Myrna explains the real damage that CC has done to her daughter Crie, who has internalized all her mother’s loathing even when CC isn’t present to berate her. 

“But then, that was the real horror of these places and these people. They looked normal. They sucked you in, then slowly the door swung shut and you were trapped. With a monster. Within a monster.” 

Beauvoir demonstrates his aversion to being pulled into darkness. He wants to remain on the surface. Diving to the depths is Gamache’s job. 

“Memories can kill, Yvette. The past can reach right up and grab you and drag you to a place you shouldn’t be.” 

Gamache cautions Nichol to let go of her past. CC might also have benefited from this advice. She courted disaster when she went searching for her mother. 

“‘C’est vrai.’ Em smiled at the memory. ‘She’s deceptive, the daughter.’ ‘How so?’ Gamache was surprised to hear this. ‘Oh, not in a devious way. Not like her mother, though CC wasn’t as deceptive as she would have liked to believe.’”

Em’s comment about Crie refers to the girl’s hidden singing talent but carries far more meaning. Crie is truly deceptive. She is able to plan and carry out her mother’s murder under everyone’s nose. 

“‘The tragedy of Crie’s life is that’s all she’s known. It became like the snow outside.’ They both looked out the window. ‘The insults piling up until Crie disappeared under them.’” 

Em feels guilty that she did nothing to deflect CC’s anger at Crie after the church service. Gamache gloomily points out that this episode isn’t unique in the unfortunate girl’s experience. 

“‘Perhaps I’m attracted to the damned.’ Gamache smiled. ‘Maybe that’s why I hunt killers, like Cain.’” 

Gamache refers to a bleak landscape that he finds appealing. He compares his taste for desolation to his fascination with murderers. 

“‘When you see the worst you appreciate the best.’” 

 This comment relates to Gamache’s attraction to the damned. Once he’s come out of the darkness of a murderer’s mind, the rest of the world seems wonderful

“‘Her emotions were denied and stunted and twisted and made into something grotesque. She claimed to be so balanced, so grounded. Well, she was so grounded it killed her. Karma.’” 

Mother Bea offers this comment about her rival, unaware of the irony. CC died, not because she was grounded, but because her boots couldn’t ground her against an electrical charge.