- This topic has 4 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 1 day ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
What interests you most about the two murder victims, CC and the bag lady known only as Elle, and the way Gamache conducts his investigation?
-
It was interesting how Gamache became part of the bag lady’s case. He and Marc Brault exchanged unsolved cases on Boxing Day to see if new eyes would find anything. It seems the MMP were not too interested in Elle’s death because she was a vagrant. She had only been dead a few days, so not technically a cold case. Reine-Marie knew her from having seen her by the Berri bus station.
No one really cared that CC was dead. She was despised by everyone. Saul found himself “becoming cruel in her company” and despising himself. Almost like a Greek tragedy, CC kills her mother and Crie kills CC. Gamache’s investigation seems to take longer because there seem to be many more possible suspects and some seem to not want him to arrive at the truth, like Saul burning a roll of film and the Three Graces not being truthful.
-
I agree Nancy – it turned out to be very much like a Greek tragedy with the family turning on each other. That’s what struck me about it that the murders ended up being so insular and generational. CC was just so mean. I had a bit of sympathy for her given the mental illness of her mother and how that affected her but to murder her mother. That she was blind to what she was doing to her own daughter – yet touted herself as a self-help guru – was also difficult to reconcile. What I thought most interesting about Gamache’s investigation in this book is that he did seem a bit lost and off-track throughout it all. He’s not got his usual clarity and focus. I think that is because he was being thwarted in multiple ways – between Saul burning the film and the Three Graces telling lies and the confusion with L and Elle, not to mention the distraction of the Arnot case. Does anyone else agree? Interested in hearing what others thought of Gamache’s investigative skills in AFG.
-
Elle’s compliment of Clara’s art intrigued me, more so than Reine-Marie’s recognition. It made her stick in my mind although I thought Clara’s ruminating that Elle was God to be far-fetched. I wondered throughout the book as to what her tie to Clara was. The Three Graces revelation about Elle was quite moving and made me sympathetic to her even more. And it was very operatic that she be killed by her long-lost daughter. It was a curious coincidence that Gamache and Reine Marie only stumble onto Elle’s case because of a Christmas Eve tradition. So there were a lot of coincidences around her case – too many for me to think it didn’t factor into the bigger plot in some way but I didn’t really figure it out until the very end. I was a bit intrigued how Gamache sent Lemieux away to investigate her death and wondered if he had his suspicions early on about the young officer. I guess with CC the one thing that was interesting about her murder was that virtually everyone hated her! I was curious as to why she made people dislike her so much and I enjoyed all the details that LP revealed about her.
Personally, I thought Gamache was on top of things during the investigation – maybe with the exception of the fire when Agent Nichol recklessly put herself in danger and not realizing that the Three Graces might do something desperate.
-
The thing that interested me about the two women who were murdered was that both were considered undesirable in a sense, Elle because she was a homeless person generally regarded as unworthy of notice or consideration and CC because she had alienated everyone with whom she came in contact. in some ways, they seem worlds apart but they are not only connected by DNA and heritage, they are both individuals who have no one to mourn their deaths, no one who demonstrates an obvious connection to them as a person. For Elle, that is because she prevented those who cared about her from establishing and maintaining that connection. For CC, she repulsed everyone who might have considered connection. At the point where we meet them in AFG, they are alike in the absence of those who mourn their deaths. That obviously changes for Elle but not for CC.
Gamache is the one who makes the connection between the two women, a result of his capacity to hold seemingly unrelated clues in consideration and to do that against the backdrop of multiple conflicting pieces of evidence. Reine Marie plays a role in ensuring Elle’s death is not overlooked but I think Armand would have made the connection anyway.
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.