Louise Penny writes books that at first glance may seem cozy: They are full of interesting people, mouth-watering foods, and set in a scenic village tucked into the Canadian countryside. But underneath the beauty, threads of jealousy, greed, and pain run deep. This is especially true in her seventh book, A Trick of the Light.
As the book opens, middle-aged artist Clara Morrow has finally achieved recognition with a solo show at the prestigious Musée d'Art Contemporain in Montreal. Afterward, friends and family gather for a party at her home in Three Pines. But the next morning, a body is found in the Morrows' garden. It is art critic Lillian Dyson, a childhood friend of Clara's whom she hadn't seen in 20 years.
As Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Québec Sureté and his team investigate, they find Dyson was bitterly despised. Her scathing dismissals of artists were so notorious that everyone has memorized a line from one of her reviews: "He's a natural, producing art like it's a bodily function." But Dyson had recently joined Alcoholics Anonymous, and was described by fellow AA members as someone who had changed her life. If so, who would want to murder her now? And, as Gamache keeps asking, can someone really change?
The novel's central theme is the interplay between light and dark. Clara's art is described in terms of chiaroscuro, containing shadow and illumination. As Gamache says at one point, "That's what this crime, this murder was about. The question of just how genuine the light actually was. Was the person really happy, or just pretending to be?"
Penny's novels are beloved not just for their murder mysteries, but for their deep exploration (and sometimes upsetting) of her characters' lives: Gamache's team and the residents of Three Pines. Gamache's second-in-command, Jean Guy Beauvoir, continues to struggle with the aftermath of the police raid that left him and Gamache injured, both in body and psyche. A small rift begins to open between them. A bigger rift threatens the marriage of Clara and husband Peter, who has always been jealous of her art. And so, a murder is solved at the end of A Trick of the Light, but problems in relationships are not so easily wrapped up. If there's any drawback to Penny's books, it's that we have to wait a year for the next one.
