63 pages • 2-hour read
A Trick of the Light
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Symbols & Motifs
Plants, Trees, and Flowers
The Morrow garden, and the landscape of Three Pines itself, are key motifs in the novel. Before the vernissage, Gamache spends time “looking out into the trees of the park. A natural setting. He so yearned for that” (12). Gamache sees nature as an escape from his burdens, only to find that Clara’s garden is his next crime scene. There, Gamache takes in the lilac bushes and thinks how they “flourished and bloomed where other more apparently robust plants died. The village of Three Pines, he noticed, was dotted with lilac bushes” (60). Gamache’s reflections suggest that beauty is not a weakness or an indulgence, but can nourish and provide emotional strength.
Clara and her friends perform a spiritual practice in her garden, to acknowledge the wrong done there and promote healing. It is during this ritual that Clara and her friends find Lillian’s AA chip, which reflects how Lillian was also seeking peace and renewal. Clara and her friends acknowledge their complex emotions about Lillian’s death, and nature rewards them with the evidence that will lead Gamache to Lillian’s sobriety journey and the motive for her murder.
Later in the text, Suzanne Coates surveys the village and tells Gamache that she longed for “a quiet place in the bright sunshine. But every day we drank we got further from it” (222). For Suzanne, connection to nature is connection to the self. She says the same thing to Denis Fortin, upbraiding him for choosing violence when she chose her own healing instead of resenting Lillian. Thus, in the novel, those who can connect to and appreciate nature may have experienced trauma, but their connection to it signifies their fundamental decency and capacity to heal from the past in healthy ways.
Food and Meals
Food and meals form another central motif in the novel. Gabri and Olivier’s B&B is one of the central hubs of Three Pines, symbolizing community and connection. The food they serve there is often a personal highlight for Gamache and his team and reflects their fundamental kindness and loving nature.
Food and eating habits also reveal important aspects of a character’s mental state. In prior installments in the series, Beauvoir partook of food and drink with enthusiasm. In A Trick of the Light, he is intimidated by the bistro menu and struggles to order. Gamache notices when Beauvoir copies his own order, saying, “I thought for sure you’d have the eggs Benedict” (193). Beauvoir’s lack of appetite accompanies his increasing disconnection from others and is clearly a trauma response. When he does eat, it is often pizza near his new solitary apartment. Lacoste, in contrast, “kept herself awake on the drive from Montreal imagining what breakfast she’d have” (301). Though Lacoste also survived the warehouse raid, it has not changed her fundamental faith in humanity or her ability to enjoy her life. Gamache, similarly, talks over Lillian Dyson’s art over wine and cheese, seeing no problem with enjoying a meal as he pursues a challenging murder case.
It is telling that Beauvoir’s lingering dream of Annie involves taking her to an elaborate dinner at Montreal’s Restaurant Milos. His daydreams focus on Annie, and the restaurant, more than the food. Beauvoir still hesitates to make the dream a reality, to embody it in his daily life. Even in his romantic fantasies, Beauvoir cannot imagine caring for his body’s basic needs, reflecting how deeply traumatized he is.
Houses
Penny uses various settings in Three Pines to deepen her characters and showcase that people’s temperaments and values shape their environments, turning houses into important symbols. Domonique Gilbert’s restoration has turned the space from a “rotting, rotten old place” to an “elegant and gleaming country inn” (64). Gamache imagines he can hear some of the house’s lingering grief, as it was the scene of prior murders in the series. Its revival reflects Domonique’s choice to flee the city for a more tranquil life, while Olivier and Gabri’s B&B is similarly warm and welcoming, adding to the sense that Three Pines is a sanctuary from the outside world. During his final conversation with Gamache, Olivier is working in the bistro’s kitchen, away from its fireplace and inviting public spaces, as if he has taken his pain and doubts away from his community. Lillian’s parents live in a bleak apartment, which is a shrine to their daughter. She is the only color in the space, revealing both the extent of their devotion to her and the devastation her death will cause in their lives.
Though the work takes place in multiple settings, Clara’s home is the scene of final confrontation with the killer, as if to convey that Gamache and his friends are safest in a domestic setting. During this confrontation, Fortin mocks Clara for inviting him to her home, as he sees generosity as a sign of weakness. Peter Morrow’s views of his own home become a testament to The Destructive Power of Jealousy, as he resents Clara’s studio, and the ringing phone, each of which signal her artistic success compared to his own sense of failure. Clara asks Peter to leave their house at the end of the novel, as if recognizing that he has become a dark force in her life, and his departure is its own cleansing ritual.
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