An Inside Job

“‘What were you thinking?’ he asked. ‘I thought it was the right thing to do’ ‘That’s all well and good, but you went about it entirely the wrong way.’ ‘How?’ ‘The flyer, for one. It was a terrible mistake.’ Gabriel brushed the tears from his daughter’s face. ‘You must never allow your adversary to know what you’re thinking.’”

Gabriel’s daughter, Irene, has just made the mistake of broadcasting her intention to call for a boycott at school. Gabriel’s comment about keeping information from one’s adversaries is indicative of his investigative style. He excels at working surreptitiously and never announces his plans to his enemies.

“The laguna, he thought, had indeed been unkind to her. Now she lay on a tray of cold metal in the Venice municipal morgue, alone and in darkness. A woman without a name. A woman without a face.”

Gabriel has just encountered Penny Radcliff for the first time. The events that lead to her identity’s discovery emphasize the novel’s preoccupation with questions of identity. This highlights the theme of The Deceptive Nature of Appearances.

“At the risk of sounding like His Holiness Pope Obvious, Catholicism cannot thrive without a dedicated, energetic clergy to preach the Gospels and administer the sacraments. Something has to change. But if I push too far or move too quickly, the world’s oldest institution could tear itself to pieces.”

Luigi makes this comment to Gabriel as a way of venting his frustration with the current state of the Catholic Church. Entrenched interests benefit from corruption and have no wish to see the new pope make radical changes. To some degree, Luigi must uphold the status quo or risk losing any chance of being a force for good in the future. This quandary highlights the theme of Preserving Reputation at All Costs.