63 pages • 2-hour read
A Trick of the Light
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Themes
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of substance use and addiction.
The Destructive Power of Jealousy
Through Gamache’s investigation of the art world, Penny explores the dangers of competition, especially in fields where power and prestige are scarce. Through Clara’s broken friendship with Lillian, and her strained marriage, Penny presents the destructive power of jealousy from multiple angles, all of which highlight its ability to break down trust and hamper true creativity.
The issue of jealousy and competition is apparent in Lillian Dyson’s life, as it is in Clara’s. Clara remembers Lillian’s resentment when her art was praised as the moment “the fissure had widened. Some cracks let the light in, some let the darkness out” (46). Whereas Clara’s artwork focuses on light, joy, and the possibility of redemption, Lillian’s jealousy shattered their friendship, and she continued her critical career in the same vein. The artists Normand and Paulette confess that Lillian intentionally drove them apart with rumors about one another. Lillian sought to create resentment, as if demanding the world conform to her inner turmoil.
Peter’s arc demonstrates how jealousy can ruin emotional lives, not just careers. Peter continually lies to himself and others about his support for Clara, leading Gamache to wonder, “if he had lied about that, what else had he lied about?” (51), implying that Peter’s deceptions have made him a murder suspect. When Clara finds out that Peter has hidden her phone messages, she thinks, “she could almost see the yellow tape around him, swallowing him” (155). Peter is “swallowed up,” evoking the view of jealousy as a monster, a force that nearly consumes him. Peter later claims to Clara that, “your hope […] was far worse than your art” (182) as a driver of his resentment. Clara can access emotions Peter cannot, and that Lillian could not. Rather than learn from her, both of them wound her through their jealousy.
Though Lillian chooses to make amends, as part of her commitment to sobriety, her attempt to repair her bond with Clara would also have disrupted Clara’s happiness. Envy, Penny posits, is fundamentally selfish, and she gives Lillian’s killer an even more warped version of these toxic traits. Denis Fortin tells Clara he killed Lillian at her house intentionally, because, ‘‘I have nothing except my reputation, and you took that away’” (328). When Clara refused to work with Fortin for Gabri’s sake, she chose community over success. Fortin took violent steps to diminish her triumph and make a mockery of her morality. Fortin is arrested, but Peter does not fully confess his role in Lillian’s review of Clara’s work—a small signal that he cannot truly put his ego aside for his spouse, and that jealousy continues to destroy him.
Art as a Reflection of Self
The interpretation of paintings—and the inner worlds of those who produce them—is central to the murder plot and multiple character arcs. Though Gamache and Beauvoir are police officers, not artists, they must deal with the power of art and the potential clues to identity and motives art can hold. Through their investigation, the novel explores art as a reflection of self.
Penny introduces the connections between artistic expression and inner self early in the novel, in having familiar and unfamiliar characters assess Clara’s paintings. Gamache meets Marois in front of the painting of Ruth as the Virgin Mary and immediately interprets it correctly—he recognizes Ruth as the subject but is less willing to commit to the painting’s thesis. Marois wonders if, “maybe it isn’t hope at all” that he sees, but “merely a trick of the light” (27). Though Marois later reveals he is passionate about discovering a new Canadian artist, his insight is partly due to his own ambition: He wants credit and prestige. His refusal to see the painting as optimistic makes it a reflection of his own inner cynicism. Beauvoir, though he claims not to understand art, is so moved by the painting of Three Pines matriarchs as The Three Graces and thinks “more than love this painting ached of intimacy. Jean-Guy quickly turned his back on it, unable to look’” (21). Beauvoir understands the painting but cannot face it. His relationship to art is like his relationship to his injuries and trauma, both of which are rooted in his refusal to trust his emotions.
Later, Gamache himself evokes the term “chiaroscuro” to describe both Clara’s art and the solution to the case, as Fortin’s relationship to art reflects the secrets of his inner self. Lacoste confirms that artistic and visual media contain truth when she brings back the final piece of evidence: A photo of a young Denis Fortin, full of youthful enthusiasm and totally unlike the cynical man Gamache knows. Fortin’s motives are revealed through his own relationship with art: He abandoned his career in anger after Lillian’s harsh criticism, which made him determine to avenge himself by killing her.
Fortin’s inability to continue expressing himself through art the way Clara does therefore reveals his arrogance and vainglory, suggesting that he was always more motivated by a desire for fame and power than a true desire to create. Thus, in these ways, art becomes both a reflection of the self and a key to unlocking who truly wished to harm Lillian, and why.
The Challenges of Grief and Trauma
In A Trick of the Light, both Gamache and Beauvoir are still facing the aftermath of the warehouse shooting in the previous book in the series. Beauvoir is reluctant to accept that the event has changed him, and clings to anger, guilt, and denial. For his part, Gamache struggles to navigate Three Pines in the aftermath of Olivier’s wrongful conviction, along with his worries for Beauvoir and their fracturing relationship. Through their character arcs, the novel examines the challenges of grief and trauma.
As the novel opens, Reine-Marie Gamache suggests Gamache is reluctant to attend Clara’s vernissage, not out of a distaste for her art, but due to his own struggles with grief and guilt. She brings up Olivier, “quietly and gently, trying to tease the truth of her husband’s feelings from him” (11). Gamache admits to his reluctance, avoiding Olivier for much of the novel as he finds his guilt over Olivier’s wrongful arrest too overwhelming. Gamache also remains shaken by the traumatic near-death experience he had in the warehouse shooting, and the loss of his former protege: Beauvoir “notice[s] the tremble in the chief’s right hand. Very slight’ (132) as he comforts Lillian Dyson’s parents. Gamache acts as a father figure to his agents, and the tremor’s emergence here suggests Lillian’s death evokes his own lingering sense of loss and vulnerability along with sympathy for the elderly couple.
Beauvoir finds it even more difficult to confront his grief and trauma than Gamache does. His obsessive viewing of his own near-death experience on tape speaks to how he is trapped in that moment, unable to fully process it and move on in a healthy way. Beauvoir watches the video so many times that even Gamache’s tender kiss to his forehead takes on an air of betrayal, leading him to confront Gamache in a sudden outburst and accuse Gamache of abandoning him. More significantly, Beauvoir tries to numb his pain through abusing painkillers, developing a rapidly worsening substance dependency over the course of the novel. His cynicism and defensiveness when listening to the AA members speaks to his reluctance to confront his own inner pain.
While the novel does not offer a conclusive resolution to these issues, the ending does foreshadow how recovery from grief and trauma will continue to play a key role in the series, especially for Beauvoir. Although Beauvoir is still in denial at the close of A Trick of the Light, his desire to connect with Annie and his enduring loyalty toward Gamache suggests that, ultimately, his love for others will help him find a way to overcome his trauma at last.
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