A Trick of the Light

Myrna sits with Clara in her bookstore, knowing Clara has still not read the critical reactions to her exhibition. Myrna is patient and listens to Clara process her anger at Lillian, and her guilt for not grieving her. Myrna, a retired therapist, says she had patients like Lillian, who thrived on undermining those close to them. Myrna suspects, privately, that Lillian had returned for a kind of vengeance, since Clara had cut off other forms of access to her. Myrna changes the subject and begins quoting the glowing reviews of Clara’s art. Clara hugs her friend, overjoyed.

Peter sits alone in his studio, where he has retreated from taking phone messages. He is bitter and resentful at the constant calls for Clara.

At the B&B, Beauvoir confesses to Gamache that there is an additional complication to their upcoming witness interviews. He became so exasperated with snobby art aficionados that he pretended to be the critic for France’s influential Le Monde newspaper, using artistic terms he overheard but does not understand, such as chiaroscuro, the Italian term for the interplay of light and shadow.

Gamache explains this to the guests he is interviewing, Normand and Paulette. The artists admit they dislike Clara and find her work shallow, but the vernissage and party were a good opportunity to network.