59 pages • 1 hour read
The Cruelest Month
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Background
Literary Context: The Gamache Series and Three Pines
The Cruelest Month is the third book in the Chief Inspector Gamache series. The series has collected numerous awards and is highly regarded by both critics and audiences. While Gamache and his team are officers in the Sûreté du Québec, the Gamache books are not police procedurals, a subgenre of mystery that focuses on the technical aspects of murder investigation. Instead, Gamache depends on insight, observation, and intellect, and he expects the same of his team, making the series more character-driven than many other murder mysteries.
Besides unique detective Armand Gamache, Penny also creates the village of Three Pines, tucked into the rural forests of Quebec. The village “was only ever found by people lost” (2). In Three Pines, Penny creates a quirky, friendly town full of eccentric residents. Settings like Three Pines are typical of cozy mysteries, another mystery subgenre, as is a lighthearted, humorous tone.
However, this tone can be deceptive. For example, in The Cruelest Month, Ruth’s adoption of two ducklings and walks around town with them seem to be just a bit of fun to distract the reader from the mystery’s seriousness. However, when one of the ducklings dies because of Ruth’s interference, Penny uses the event to deepen her exploration of the complicated nature of love, which highlights one of her main themes, Love and Attachment.
Penny also balances this lightness with the darker thread of Brébeuf’s betrayal of Gamache. Penny’s books are notable for their commentary on Canadian current events, including indigenous rights and police corruption. Gamache’s integrity and honesty bump up against these issues numerous times, and corruption is the impetus for the Arnot case that plagues Gamache for the rest of his career. The series is topically far-reaching, and the novels address societal issues within the context of a murder investigation.
Genre Context: Horror and Haunted Houses
Although The Cruelest Month is not a horror novel, Penny utilizes horror conventions and tropes to explore the theme of Skepticism and Belief. She immediately dips into the supernatural in the opening chapters, where the villagers participate in a séance. This sets the tone for the entire novel, which contains séances, witches, and, most importantly, a haunted house. Penny uses the haunted-house convention, represented by the Hadley house on the hill overlooking Three Pines, to address the ways that people deal with traumatic events and gain closure from their pasts.
The idea that the house in question is inherently evil is a common trope of haunted-house horror. The Hadley house is central to the novel and to Three Pines. It is more than just a place where bad things happened—everyone who comes in contact with it feels its malevolence.
Further, the Hadley house is not just evil—it appears to have agency. The characters all blame it for what happens within its walls, as if the house itself instigates violence. By personifying the house, Penny utilizes another common trope that allows her to develop the house as a metaphor for the murderer’s mind.
Personification also allows for the redemption of the house. At the beginning of the novel, Gilles tells the others that the house needs their help. By the end they realize that it is true and begin renovating it. Even Gamache himself realizes that the house has been waiting to be loved and cared for again.
In the end, there are no supernatural forces at work in the Hadley house. Penny shows that the house is indeed haunted not by supernatural forces but by the memories of those who suffered there. As Jeanne Chauvet explains it, the villagers of Three Pines have used the Hadley house as a repository for their negativity. Penny’s use of the haunted-house convention creates the opportunity to explore the ways that people project their terrible memories and how they can reclaim their pasts.
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By Louise Penny
