The Beautiful Mystery

As his investigative team prepares to carry Frère Mathieu’s body to the boat, the abbey is silent. Gamache cannot find the monks and the front door is locked, so no one can exit. Gamache goes off to find someone, refusing to bring Beauvoir’s gun. Beauvoir visits the kitchen and discovers that the monks make chocolate.

Gamache enters the small porter’s area. There, he sees the large book Frère Luc is always reading, which contains Gregorian chant. As Gamache examines the book, he hears chanting, “low, monotonous, and getting closer” (68).

Gamache enters the chapel and finds the monks coming out of a door he had not known about. He realizes that “he was the first person to ever actually see the monks in their chapel, singing” (69).

Gamache instructs the others to bring Frère Mathieu’s body to the church. Gamache and Beauvoir stay for the evening service, Vespers. Beauvoir watches Gamache’s hand tremor, a legacy of his injury and stroke, and feels protective, even angry, when Charbonneau notices it. Gamache asks Beauvoir who is filling the leadership vacuum left behind by the prior’s death. This puzzle distracts Beauvoir from the boredom and resentment of being trapped in a religious service he does not value.

When the service ends, the abbot explains that he and the other monks were in the chapter room—a special safe haven that protects them “If we need to hide” (76), built when the Gilbertines had more to fear than their modern counterparts. Gamache reflects that this fits with the order’s history in the Reformation, which the Gilbertines fled to “the shores of this far-flung lake. Very much alive, and singing chants so ancient and so beautiful they awakened something primal in millions worldwide” (77).

Finally, Luc opens the door and Gamache and Charbonneau place the prior’s body on Etienne’s boat. The abbot thanks Gamache for giving the monks time to pray over Mathieu’s body. Gamache asks about the prior’s social standing. The abbot explains that their life depends on learning to coexist but admits that the prior could be a challenge. Gamache reflects that he faces a similar struggle, as he cannot avoid professional conflicts.

The abbot admits that while he should know the other monks well enough to identify the killer, he cannot. He agrees to look for signs of mental suffering to indicate who is guilty. Gamache warns that the investigation will only deepen conflicts. The abbot is stunned to realize Gamache and Beauvoir are staying: Only Charbonneau is leaving with the body. Gamache tells him, “I leave with the murderer, or not at all” (82).

Gamache and Beauvoir set up their equipment in the abbot’s study and discuss the case. As they discuss that to have a choir of this quality, the abbot must seek singers on purpose, Beauvoir remembers his first job, where he was unpopular and unwanted until Gamache invited him to help on a case: “Beauvoir, who had sworn to never trust again, had trusted Armand Gamache. That was fifteen years ago. Had these monks also been recruited? Found? Saved, even? And brought here?” (84).

Gamache decides to go speak to Frère Luc, the abbey’s newest inhabitant, as his arrival may reveal more about the social dynamics. Gamache wonders if his job as a porter is a sign of unpopularity: after all, the door is never opened. Luc seems “torn between being afraid of Gamache and being relieved to see him. Wanting him to both leave and stay” (88). Reluctantly, in a melodic speaking voice, Frère Luc explains that he joined the community after hearing the remarkable recorded chants and searching the globe for its creators. After he learned that the Gilbertines still existed, the abbot recruited him because of his unique voice. Frère Luc likens the Gregorian chant to a romantic partnership.

Gamache asks whether a second recording including Frère Luc is in the works and asks about the piece of paper the prior died clutching. Frère Luc tells him this manuscript, whatever it is, defies the rules of chant. When Gamache points out that the text is written in the right format, Frère Luc explains, “It’s meant to look like a Gregorian chant. It’s masquerading as one. But it’s an imposter” (93). He insists the killer must be responsible for the manuscript but denies any knowledge of who the killer could be. Frère Luc confides that the new recording was a source of controversy in the community, but before he can answer Gamache’s questions about who opposed a new recording, Frère Simon, the abbot’s secretary, arrives to escort them to dinner.