Book 17: What burning questions, observations, or comments do you want to share?

Burning question: what was Ruth’s connection to Dr. Cameron? I don’t remember her being a patient, but I remember something …

Butter tarts! Does anyone have a traditional Canadian recipe?

More lemon meringue pie! It shows up during the conversation between Jean-Guy and Armand about Jean-Guy’s actions at the rally, a conversation which clears the air for both of them and affirms Jean-Guy’s professional and personal connection to Armand, and, just possibly, on one of Idola’s onesies. I enjoy finding these references and thinking what LP is conveying about the importance of these times and people to her characters.

So many of the threads in this book touched me personally. I lived through the horrors of the COVID pandemic and watched as the world was brought to its knees by a virus. I watched crowds be overtaken by madness and parts of towns burned to the ground during the aftermath of the pandemic. I prayed that my daughter and her family would not be harmed as their sleepy town was torched by angry rioters and innocent people were shot. I agonized as my nephew struggled with the same issues as Jean-Guy when his daughter was born with Down’s Syndrome. I remember his fears and concerns as he dealt with what would be required of him as a father. Thank God everyone involved had peaceful Three Pines to return to where they could mend their wounded spirits and recover from yet another harrowing murder mystery. I’m thankful I could imagine myself eating a piece of meringue pie in the bistro as I settled my frazzled nerves after reading the Madness of Crowds.

I loved how all the very different residents of Three Pines overcame their initial reactions to Haniya Daoud (Sp.?). In the end, they learned to accept human being with a very different experience, AND Haniya learned that she doesn’t have to “greet each overture with curling lip”.

The above mentions of lemon meringue pies and butter tarts (in addition to making me very hungry) reminded me of something — I noticed that Jean-Guy, despite his voracious appetite and love of treats, is nonetheless a kind and generous man. He gives the last mince tart that he was craving during his late night fridge raid to Armand, and goes back to retrieve fresh baked brownies and makes sure that Ruth gets some, after she had been discouraged from joining them at the bistro! I thought that was sweet….

Another thing I noticed in this one– I know that sometimes people question how old these characters are. In this book, it says that Isabelle is in her early 30’s, Jean-Guy is in his late 30’s, and Armand is mid- to late- 50’s. Armand has gray hair, JG has some gray now, “and a few lines had appeared on his handsome face.” (and later Armand notes that the lines JG is developing are mostly laugh lines, like his own, which I loved). It’s been mentioned before that Isabelle has a bit of gray now, too, post-shooting. JG is “slender, fit, though beginning to flesh out a bit” (and he’s beginning to be surprised at the size of his stomach). In other words, they are the essentially the same age as they were in Still Life, give or take a couple of years, though there are now a few signs of physical aging. This does not bother me at all; I like the ages they are, it fits my imagination of them, as I don’t want them to age themselves out of their jobs (Armand needs to stay young enough to be as active as he is; I don’t know if they have a mandatory retirement age in the Surete or not; does anyone know?). I like to enjoy each book as it is; that is my reality of the characters at the moment; an alternate reality in each situation when it comes to this. But does it bother anyone else? How do you feel about this “fluidity of time” in Three Pines?

Penny included a French Canadian tradition that I’d never heard of. The children acted out one of La Fontaine’s Fables, the one called ‘Animals Sick of the Plague’. The last lines of Les Animaux Malades de la Peste are repeated several times and point to the moral dilemma; it is the world of Thrasymachus which is the insistence that justice is nothing but the advantage of the stronger. The last lines of the fable are: Thus human courts acquit the strong, And doom the weak, as therefore wrong.

Since when is there a university located a few kilometers from Three Pines? There are two universities not far from Knowlton Landing, the model for Three Pines: Universite de Sherbrooke (medium size) and Bishop’s University (small). Also, did you notice that they have cellphone coverage now?

Abigail never fully confesses in the final stand-off in the cabin in the woods. She tries to get Jean-Guy to shoot her which would make her a martyr for her cause. He doesn’t and Abigail is arrested, though not for the murders, for without a confession there are questions about material evidence. Abigail went into the library to get a log when Gilbert had gone upstairs to get his coat. The room was empty. Debbie had discovered that Abigail had killed her sister Marie. Abigail threw the log into the fire after she killed Debbie so the evidence was burned.