The Hangman

On a cold, damp November morning in the forests near the Quebec village of Three Pines, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Quebec Provincial Police stands before the body of a middle-aged man hanging from a tree. His second-in-command, Inspector Beauvoir, reports that no suicide note has been found. Gamache studies the dead man, who wears a warm coat and has greying hair, and silently questions why someone would dress warmly to kill himself. Dr. Harris, the medical examiner, determines that the man died the previous evening from a broken neck caused by hanging and concludes that the death appears to be a suicide.

Gamache questions Tom Scott, a guest at a nearby Inn and Spa who found the body while jogging that morning. When Gamache presses Scott on why he did not attempt to help the hanging man, Scott reacts with anger and defensiveness. Gamache senses Scott is lying but moves on. Scott mentions that the dead man looks familiar, possibly a fellow guest at the Inn.

Beauvoir reports that the dead man carries no wallet, papers, or identification. Walking back through the forest with Dr. Harris, Gamache prompts her to reconsider the dead man's hands, which are completely clean, with no dirt or bark under the fingernails. The man could not have climbed the tree himself. Gamache confirms the conclusion: The man was murdered, carried up, and hanged to stage his death as a suicide.

At the Inn and Spa, Gamache meets the owner, Dominique Gilbert, who tentatively identifies the dead man from a photograph as a guest named Mr. Ellis. Angela, the Inn's receptionist, confirms that the man is likely Arthur Ellis, who checked in two days earlier, paid cash, and booked an unusually long week-long stay. Angela describes Ellis as a lonely man whose smile never reached his eyes.

Gamache searches Ellis's room, which is tidy and orderly, with no wallet or identifying papers. On the pillow, he discovers an unsealed envelope containing a letter written in careful black ink. The letter expresses sorrow, states that the writer's work is "finally done," and declares that the writer is "at peace." Gamache initially reads it as a suicide note, but he notices the handwriting is too steady and composed for someone about to end his life. He concludes that the letter was written by the killer to reinforce the appearance of suicide.

Gamache walks into the village of Three Pines and visits the local bistro. Gabri, the co-owner of the bistro and the nearby Bed and Breakfast, recognizes the dead man from a photograph. Myrna, a former therapist who owns the bookstore next door, also spoke with the man. Ellis visited her store and asked whether Three Pines was a good place for young men to settle. Both recall that Ellis seemed specifically interested in young men moving to the area. Gabri mentions that his Bed and Breakfast has two guests: a woman who arrived a few days earlier and a man who showed up the previous night, the same night Ellis was killed. Gamache reveals that Ellis was murdered.

Soon after, Beauvoir calls with a surprising finding: The handwriting on the suicide note matches Ellis's own handwriting in the Inn's registration book. The note was written by Ellis himself. Gamache reconsiders whether Ellis committed suicide, but the clean hands still trouble him. Myrna then approaches with a Canadian mystery novel and explains that the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Mystery in Canada is named after a real historical figure: Canada's official hangman in the early 1900s, who possibly executed hundreds of people over his career. After a botched execution in Montreal in 1935, the original Ellis never hanged anyone again and died three years later, broken and alone. The investigators realize the dead man deliberately chose the hangman's alias. The question becomes: Did he come to Three Pines to execute someone, and who got to him first?

Beauvoir confirms the murder when Dr. Harris finds bruises beneath the rope marks, consistent with strangulation. The man was strangled, then hanged. Tracing the car's Ontario licence plates, Beauvoir identifies the dead man as James Hill, an employee in the federal Department of Records in Ottawa. Hill's wife and young daughter, Debbie, were killed 20 years earlier in Thunder Bay, Ontario, when their car was hit by a pickup truck carrying four teenagers. One teenager wiped the steering wheel clean of fingerprints, and no arrests were ever made despite Hill's years of effort.

Beauvoir reveals a further pattern: Two of the four teenagers were later found hanged in separate incidents, one in Victoria 10 years ago and one in Halifax 7 years ago. Both deaths were staged as suicides, and no police force connected them. Gamache pieces together the full picture. Hill used his government position to track down the teenagers, now adults, and executed them one by one under the alias Arthur Ellis. He came to Three Pines to find the remaining two survivors, Cindy Pane and Tim Short. Gamache notes the similarity between "Tim Short" and "Tom Scott" but also considers that Hill may have been searching for a woman.

Gamache interviews the people around Three Pines. Paul Goulet, a young man staying at the Bed and Breakfast who claims to be a university student from Ottawa on a cycling trip, shows no reaction to the name James Hill. Sue Gravel, a secretary from Montreal also staying at the Bed and Breakfast, claims she came to relax. Back at the Inn, Gamache confronts Tom Scott about lying about having a wife. Scott admits he invented a fictional wife out of loneliness and had been contemplating suicide when he found Ellis's body. Gamache also speaks with Angela and her husband Mike, a heavyset, red-haired handyman at the Inn. Angela reiterates that Ellis mentioned having a son who would love the area.

Gamache gathers all the suspects in the Inn's living room and announces they are there to catch a killer. He reveals Hill's real identity, recounts Hill's campaign of vengeance, and reads the suicide note aloud, emphasizing the key line: "My work is finally done." Paul Goulet offers that this obviously means Hill had killed the last person from the truck. Gamache agrees but instead of arresting Paul, he moves with Beauvoir to arrest Angela and Mike, who attempt to flee.

Over drinks at the bistro, Gamache explains the full solution. Angela and Mike are the two surviving teenagers from the truck. They changed their names, married, and moved to Three Pines, working for cash to avoid leaving a paper trail. Mike made a critical mistake by applying for a social insurance number, a federal identification number used for employment and tax purposes, under his old name to claim an inheritance. This allowed Hill to trace him to the area. Hill checked into the Inn and began searching for his targets without realizing they were the receptionist and handyman right in front of him. Angela and Mike, however, recognized Hill immediately: He had aged but not changed dramatically from his late twenties, while they had transformed from 16 to 36.

Gabri articulates the key insight: Hill's note said his work was "done" because he had found not one but two of the remaining survivors. He planned to kill them both and then take his own life. Angela had searched Hill's room and found the suicide note. That evening, she told Hill her car had broken down, hoping he would offer to drive her home. He did. Mike hid in the back seat and strangled Hill. The two of them then carried the body through the woods, hoisted him into the tree, and threw him off. Gamache reflects that lifting a body into a tree required two people, a clue he should have recognized sooner. Angela and Mike will be tried for murder, and their lawyer will argue self-defense. Even if acquitted, Gamache knows, they will never truly be free.