66 pages • 2 hours read
Bury Your Dead
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Chapters 13-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
Gamache has coffee with Émile, surprised to hear him speak of Renaud in admiring terms, since Émile’s mentorship always taught him the value of interdependence and humility. As Gamache reflects on the trauma that white settlers inflicted on the Indigenous people of Canada, Émile realizes that Gamache may be dwelling on his recent suffering and assures him that he bears no culpability. Gamache says he is not yet ready to speak of the tragedy.
The two turn back to the many rumors surrounding Champlain, including one that he was the son of the king of France, Henry IV. Émile admits that this would be appealing to Québécois separatists, which he is. The two have an uncharacteristically tense conversation about separatism. Gamache decides to continue investigating the names from Renaud’s diary, inviting Émile to help him search Renaud’s home.
Gamache asks the members of the Literary and Historical Society board about a meeting with four men, based on his reading of Renaud’s diary, but when none of them can help, he returns to Renaud’s home, where Émile has found mysterious numbers in the diary on the same page referring to the meeting.
Following Gamache’s hunch about an “S Patrick” and his 1809 house number, the friends visit the historic home, whose owner, Sean Patrick, is Francophone despite his name. He has no knowledge of the Literary and Historical Society.
Inside the home, Gamache is struck by old family photos depicting miners digging. Penny will later explain that the four names refer to the founder of the historical society, a priest named Chiniquy (referred to as “Chin” in the diary), and the two Irish laborers in the photograph, O’Mara and Patrick, the latter of whom was Patrick’s ancestor. The Irishmen discovered Champlain’s body, near the site of the Literary and Historical Society: Its whereabouts were concealed by the society’s founder to disguise Champlain’s Protestant faith. He was buried with a Protestant Bible. Since Patrick has no insight to offer, Gamache decides to return to the library, to see if Elizabeth and the others can decode the numbers Émile found.
Chapter 14 Summary
Gamache begins to question his own motives for remaining on the case, considering the possibility that he is merely seeking distraction or gossip. As if in answer, he thinks back to his call with Morin, and the narrative flashes back to the tense day of the hostage standoff. Gamache grows increasingly disturbed by their failure to locate Morin, and he sends typed messages to Beauvoir and his third-in-command, Isabelle Lacoste, suggesting they investigate other possible motives. Francoeur intercepts them and orders Gamache to leave the matter to him, but he does not see Gamache pass a note to Beauvoir, instructing him to seek out other help.
The narrative moves back to the present day, where Gamache discusses his interest in the Battle of Québec with Blake, a member of the historical society. Blake is struck by the other man’s preoccupation with the French defeat. Gamache has a fanciful hypothesis that one French general delayed providing reinforcements on purpose, possibly in league with the English.
Gamache learns that the numbers Émile found may refer to some very old books at the Literary and Historical Society. With help from the members, he decodes the obscure cataloging system. Gamache delights in this rare chance to investigate directly, reflecting that on most cases this task falls to Beauvoir. He narrows his focus to works donated by the former housekeeper of a Catholic priest, Charles Chiniquy. Penny will soon explain that Chiniquy was a temperance activist later defrocked for his radicalism. Gamache will eventually learn that Chiniquy, together with the Literary and Historical Society’s founder, unearthed the remains of Samuel Champlain and deliberately reburied them.
Chapter 15 Summary
The next morning, over breakfast, Gamache explains his discovery of the meaning of the reference numbers and Chiniquy’s connection to the books. Émile is perplexed, as Chiniquy’s temperance activism had little to do with Champlain. Émile realizes that the “Chin” in Renaud’s diary refers to Chiniquy, not a contemporary Asian Canadian person, as he first surmised.
The narrative shifts to Beauvoir doing dishes in Clara Morrow’s kitchen. They discuss the case and Olivier’s possible motive for killing the Hermit: because Olivier knew the cabin would soon be discovered as the new resort owners, the Gilberts, opened the riding trails nearby. Beauvoir is surprised to find himself enjoying Clara’s company and appreciating her insight that the killer likely found the Hermit by tracking Olivier’s sales of his goods. They decide to reinterview all the other main suspects to determine who else could have discovered the cabin: the Parras, the Gilberts, and Old Mundin.
The Mundins are warmly welcoming, and Beauvoir learns that Mundin has taught Havoc Parra, Roar’s son, basic carving, leading him to speculate more on the “Woo” references. Beauvoir returns to the bistro, where Ruth asks him why he is really there, knowing he would never choose to vacation in the village. He does not explain, instead retorting that she has merely sought him out due to a macabre desire to hear the rest of his story. Privately, he admits that he is eager to unburden himself.
Chapter 16 Summary
Alone with Ruth in the bistro, Beauvoir resumes his account. Gamache’s note told him to seek out Agent Yvette Nichol, a misanthrope who could not be relied on in homicide and whom Gamache had reassigned to communications. His hope, Beauvoir realizes, is that she can trace the call and locate Morin without Francoeur knowing.
Nichol is surly with Beauvoir, with little empathy for the situation. She indicates that she needs a pause in the conversation to track Morin more effectively. She agrees to set up a secure channel to communicate privately with Gamache.
The narrative returns to Beauvoir in the present, who tells Ruth he has chosen her to confide in because no one in the village would give her any credence if she shared the story.
The narrative jumps again, this time to Gamache in Québec City, visiting booksellers he knows Renaud patronized. This bookseller, Alain Doucet, is charmed by Gamache’s dog, Henri, and agrees to help. He explains that he sold Renaud some books from the Literary and Historical Society’s sale and that Renaud had recently requested more volumes. Gamache leaves when Émile tells him there is new insight into Chiniquy.
When Gamache arrives at the Literary and Historical Society, he finds that Émile has befriended Elizabeth and another member, Mr. Blake, who is a particular champion of Chiniquy’s historical and social value to Québec. Gamache asks if he might have had a relationship to the society, and MacWhirter and Blake recall that he was close to the society’s founder, James Douglas—possibly the JD in Renaud’s diary. MacWhirter and Blake pique their curiosity by revealing that Douglas also collected mummies.
Chapters 13-16 Analysis
The twists and turns of the Renaud case allow Penny to illustrate The Power of the Past even over intellectuals and dispassionate investigators. Gamache and Émile, longtime friends and professionally skilled at analysis, nearly come to an argument over Québécois separatism. Their passion resolves in a shared horror of violence, but it becomes clear that the killer, and others in the narrative, may not be so easily calmed. Gamache’s relationship with Émile echoes the one he was building with Morin before the younger agent’s death. The loss of a protégé brings Gamache back to the man who made him an investigator, as if he is searching for his best self in a time of turmoil. The investigation progresses when Émile joins him in the cloistered world of the library—when a proud Francophone separatist joins with the embattled English community over books. Penny thus suggests that trust facilitates insight.
Gamache sees his historical research, and his fanciful, nearly unprovable hypothesis, as a kind of escape. This likely explains his affinity for the tiny Anglophone community. But the escape can only ever be temporary, as he is now known all over the province, the face of tragedy and loss. His anger at being asked for his autograph on one occasion underlines that he resents his celebrity, refusing to see himself as any kind of hero. While Émile considers him blameless, Gamache can hear only Morin’s voice, now the voice of his self-reproach.
Beauvoir’s time in Three Pines makes clear that he, like Gamache, is struggling with isolation. He finds himself willing to trust Clara and charmed by the family life of the Mundins, clearly eager for contact and connection. Even stronger than the call to camaraderie, however, is the call to confession, as Beauvoir turns to Ruth once more. He can trust her precisely because she is not otherwise trusted—her own isolation is a guarantee of security.
The character of Nichol reinforces the theme of the Sûreté as community: Though Gamache could not ultimately offer her the career she wanted, he does not abandon or forget her. Her role in the case allows Penny to suggest that no mentorship or kindness is truly a waste. Gamache and his team must work in silence and secrecy, a stark contrast to his simultaneous reality of constantly speaking with Paul Morin. The constant switching of point of view here builds suspense in the reader, as part of the outcome has been discussed often—the funeral that made Gamache the face of loss—but not what its key participants felt or experienced. For Penny, the emotional heft of an event has as much meaning as the facts of the narrative. The unsolved mysteries for her rest not merely in the identities of the perpetrators but also in the motives and emotional lives of all parties involved in the case. The disorientation provoked by the changes in perspective and timeline serves as a kind of invitation to join the characters in their own sense of dislocation and doubt. Resolution, then, may restore both social order and emotional equilibrium.
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By Louise Penny
