A Trick of the Light

by Margaret Atwood. Copyright © 1995. Published by McClelland & Stewart in Canada, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company in the United States. Used with permission of the author and her publishers (in their respective territories) and the author’s agent, Curtis Brown Group Ltd., London, acting on behalf of Margaret Atwood. All rights reserved.

Excerpts from page 82 of the book

Alcoholics Anonymous,

copyright 1939, is used by kind permission of AA World Services.

“Not Waving But Drowning” by Stevie Smith from

Collected Poems of Stevie Smith,

copyright 1957 by Stevie Smith. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Penny, Louise.

A trick of the light : a Chief Inspector Gamache novel / Louise Penny. — 1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-312-65545-7

  1.  Gamache, Armand (Fictitious character)—Fiction.   2.  Police—Québec (Province)—Fiction.   3.  Québec (Province)—Fiction.   4.  Murder—Investigation—Fiction.   I.  Title.

PR9199.4.P464T75 2011b

813'.6—dc22

2011020256

First Edition: September 2011

eISBN 978-1-4299-7289-5

First Minotaur Books eBook Edition: August 2011

Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Also by Louise Penny

Copyright