Bury Your Dead

BURY YOUR DEAD

ALSO BY LOUISE PENNY

The Brutal Telling

A Rule Against Murder

The Cruelest Month

A Fatal Grace

Still Life

LOUISE PENNY

BURY YOUR DEAD

MINOTAUR BOOKS

NEW YORK

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

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

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

BURY YOUR DEAD. Copyright © 2010 by Three Pines Creations, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.minotaurbooks.com

Grateful acknowledgment is given for permission to reprint the following:

“Morning in the Burned House” by Margaret Atwood © 1995.

Published by McClelland & Stewart Ltd. Used with permission of the publisher.

“Vapour Trails” by Marylyn Plessner © 2000.

Published by Stephen Jarislowsky. Used with permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Penny, Louise.

Bury your dead : a Chief Inspector Gamache novel / Louise Penny. — 1st ed.

       p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-312-37704-5

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

PR9199.4.P464B87 2010b

813'.6—dc22

2010026415

First Edition: October 2010

10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

This book is dedicated to second chances—

Those who give them

And those who take them

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Michael and I spent a magical month in Quebec City researching Bury Your Dead. Québec is a glorious place, and the old walled city is even more beautiful. I hope I’ve managed to capture how it felt to walk those streets every day and see not just the lovely old stone buildings, but see my history. Canadian history. Alive. It was very moving for both of us. But Quebec City isn’t a museum. It’s a vibrant, modern, thriving capital. I hope I’ve captured that too. But mostly I hope Bury Your Dead contains the great love I feel for this society I have chosen as home. A place where the French and English languages and cultures live together. Not always in agreement, both have suffered and lost too much to be completely at peace, but there is deep respect and affection.

Much of the action in Bury Your Dead takes place in the Literary and Historical Society library, in old Quebec City. It is a stunning library, and a stunning achievement to have created and kept this English institution alive for generations. I was helped in my researches by the members, volunteers and staff of the Lit and His (as it is affectionately known). Because this is a work of fiction I have taken liberties with some of the history of Québec, and the Literary and Historical Society. Especially as it concerns one of its most distinguished members, Dr. James Douglas. I realize some will not be pleased with my extrapolating, but I hope you understand.

I also need to make clear that I have met the Chief Archeologist of Québec many times and he is charming, helpful and gracious. Not at all like my fictional Chief Archeologist.