54 pages • 1 hour read
Louise PennyThe Nature of the Beast
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 18-27Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 18 Summary
Gamache questions Professor Rosenblatt about his impression of Bull’s gun. Rosenblatt is puzzled by the absence of the firing mechanism. He also admits that he knew Bull better than he previously made clear. The two of them worked together when Bull was a researcher at McGill University, but Rosenblatt denies collaborating with Bull on plans for the supergun. When Gamache asks why the Whore of Babylon would be etched onto the gun, Rosenblatt suggests that it is an allusion to Iraq (where ancient Babylon was located). However, Gamache is unconvinced that the gun was built for the Iraqi regime because it is located in Quebec and was found to be pointing toward the United States. Gamache is increasingly drawn to the theory that Bull may have had a collaborator. If so, that individual could still be at large.
Chapter 19 Summary
Clara Morrow, a longtime resident of Three Pines, visits Al and Evie Lepage. Clara has recently lost her husband, Peter, so she relates to the grief that Laurent’s parents are feeling. Clara comforts Evie, encouraging her to talk about her son. As a fellow artist, Clara admires some sketches of a lamb that Evie made for Laurent and displayed in the house. Evie tells Clara that she and Al are both aware that people suspect Al may have killed his own son, but she insists that this cannot be true, since “Al adored him from the moment he was conceived” (167).
Meanwhile, Lacoste and Jean-Guy begin showing a photo of Gerald Bull to the villagers, wondering if any of them will recognize him from the time when he was in the area building the gun. Most residents are too young; Ruth and Clement Beliveau are old enough to have been in the village in the 1980s, but they both deny ever having seen Bull or ever hearing anything about a gun being built in the woods.
Chapter 20 Summary
Clara is still at the Lepage home when the police show up to question Al Lepage further. Jean-Guy and other officers search the house and question Al and Evie; Laurent’s parents insist that he never told them anything about meeting anyone connected to the gun. Like everyone else, they assumed that the story about the gun was something that Laurent had invented. When Jean-Guy shows Al Lepage the cassette tape that was found near the gun, Al quickly confirms that it is his, but he has no idea how it got there. He also becomes angry, for he can tell that the police suspect him of being involved in Laurent’s death.
Later, Isabelle Lacoste updates Gamache about her theories on the case. Neither of them can figure out why the gun would have been placed in such a remote location. She also notes something unusual that arose while Al Lepage was being questioned. Al was a draft-dodger who fled to Canada from the United States; he claimed to have arrived in Three Pines by chance, but Lacoste knows that the village is so remote and secluded that no one could stumble upon it. As she concludes, “He’d have to have had a guide. Someone who brought him here” (177).
Chapter 21 Summary
Mary, Sean, Professor Rosenblatt, and various Three Pines villagers gather at Clara’s home for a dinner party. During the dinner, Gamache takes the opportunity to question both the CSIS agents and Rosenblatt; he is increasingly convinced that they know more than they are revealing and have additional motives. The conversation also focuses on the plans that Bull would have used while designing and building the gun. Since the existence of the supergun proves that it can successfully be built, these plans are now extremely valuable and dangerous. Whoever acquired the plans can presumably assemble another gun that includes a firing mechanism, making it a highly dangerous weapon. As Gamache ponders, “If the gun was here, the plans might be too” (188).
Chapter 22 Summary
The morning after Clara’s dinner party, Isabelle Lacoste receives a call from local police agents; Antoinette Lemaitre (the woman who was leading the production of Fleming’s play) has been found murdered in her home.
Chapter 23 Summary
Lacoste and Jean-Guy hurry to the scene of the crime. Killed by a blow to the head, Antoinette died either late at night or very early in the morning. Her home is in disarray, and police suspect that she interrupted a robber. Jean-Guy explains that Antoinette was invited to the dinner party at Clara’s home but decided not to come at the last minute. When Antoinette called to cancel, she explained that she wanted a quiet evening; her partner Brian was out of town, so she would be alone.
The police confirm that Brian was out of town at the time of the murder and found Antoinette’s body when he returned home later that morning. Jean-Guy is immediately suspicious of the robbery theory, since he can tell that, “someone had killed Antoinette, then spent hours searching her home while her body cooled” (200). They question Brian, who confirms that he was in Montreal the previous night; however, he does not have an alibi for the entire time frame. Brian is distressed by the idea that Antoinette may have been deliberately targeted rather than being the victim of a robbery gone wrong. Jean-Guy takes the original manuscript of the play with him when he leaves the crime scene; Brian claims that he had it with him in Montreal and brought it back to the house.
Chapter 24 Summary
Gamache questions Mary Fraser. He is growing increasingly suspicious of her and wonders whether she has history with Gerald Bull or was even involved in killing the inventor. Gamache has secretly tracked Mary and Sean and has learned that they have driven from Three Pines to a small town called Highwater, right at the American-Canadian border. Gamache plans to go to Highwater to investigate; as he departs, he runs into Isabelle and Jean-Guy, who tell him that Antoinette has been murdered.
Chapter 25 Summary
A young police agent named Adam Cohen comes to Three Pines. He was working on the investigation of Antoinette’s death and has found surprising information. Because Adam is very loyal to Gamache, he decides to share the information in person. In Three Pines, he meets with Lacoste, Gamache, and Jean-Guy. Adam explains that Antoinette is the niece of an engineer named Guillaume Couture. The house where Antoinette and Brian have been living was built and owned by Guillaume, and Antoinette inherited it when he died. Adam has discovered that Guillaume collaborated with Gerald Bull’s research projects; he even has a photo showing Gerald and Guillaume together, along with a third, unknown man.
Chapter 26 Summary
Jean-Guy, Isabelle Lacoste, Adam, and Gamache continue to discuss the case. They suspect that whoever killed Antoinette knew that her home had once belonged to Guillaume Couture. They surmise that the killer was potentially searching for the plans to the supergun. However, there is no way to know if Couture would have had the plans, or if the killer would have had reason to think that he did. Gamache continues to speculate that Bull never designed the gun and wonders if Couture was the genius who created the plans. If so, that would explain the location of the gun. It is unknown whether Antoinette’s killer found the plans or not; if so, the plans are at risk of falling into dangerous hands. Later, Jean-Guy and Gamache join Rosenblatt at the village bistro; Gamache confronts Rosenblatt directly, asking if someone else designed the supergun.
Chapter 27 Summary
Rosenblatt admits that he has been withholding information; he is unsurprised when Gamache shows him the photo of Bull and Couture together. Rosenblatt confirms that “Couture became Bull’s chief designer and silent partner” (231); Bull was savvy and pragmatic but lacked the intellectual ability to design the gun. Because Bull represented himself as the sole designer of the gun, he was the one who ended up being targeted for murder.
Rosenblatt cannot confirm whether Couture would have kept the plans in his home, but he suspects that he would have. The investigators must now assume that whoever killed Antoinette now has the plans. Gamache and Jean-Guy tell Mary Fraser that the plans have likely been found; Gamache confronts her about her secrecy and evasions, but she pushes back, telling him that he is shirking his responsibility by choosing to retire and live quietly in Three Pines. Mary admits that CSIS was aware that Couture was the true designer of the supergun; they quietly kept him under surveillance, but after he died, there seemed to be no further reason for concern. She won’t explain why she didn’t immediately share the information about Couture when the gun was first found. Mary is adamant that her biggest responsibility is to prevent another supergun from being built. She asserts that if that her secrecy contributed to the deaths of Laurent and Antoinette, it is regrettable collateral damage.
After the confrontation, Gamache and Jean-Guy realize that Brian has overheard the entire conversation. They speculate about whether Mary and Sean might actually want to find the plans themselves The possibility exists that they may not be working in the interests of CSIS at all.
Chapters 18-27 Analysis
As the characters’ various motives begin to tangle, The Destructive Consequences of Deception are introduced, for even though the secrets that certain characters are carrying have yet to be brought to light, their ongoing silence contributes to the past mystery and the present danger. With the introduction of the second murder, the tension rises to new heights, for although the discovery of the gun is noy threatening in and of itself, the plans to it may be. Thus, with the dual revelation of Antoinette’s death and the realization that the plans constitute a threat to international security, the need to solve the murders becomes all the more pressing. In this way, Penny strategically blends current events with the unsolved mysteries of the town’s past history, subtly emphasizing a handful of secondary characters (such as Ruth) whose reactions demonstrate that they clearly know more about the issue than they are willing to admit. Similarly, the various experts brought in to assist with the case, chiefly Rosenblatt and the CSIS investigators, also show signs of deception, for they reveal crucial information belatedly and grudgingly, indicating that they hold undisclosed reasons for seeking the remains of Bull’s research.
Just as some minor characters obstruct the investigation, others play a crucial role in bringing key facts to light. A prime example is Clara Morrow, who unknowingly discovers a major clue when she visits the Lepage house to console Evie and notices “a series of small framed drawings of a nimble lamb […] gamboling” (167). Clara is particularly attentive to the drawings because she is a skilled artist herself, but in reality, Penny uses this scene to insert an innocuous yet pivotal detail that will eventually provide an important piece of the puzzle. The drawings function in parallel to the text of the play and the etchings on the supergun, for all of these artistic works inform the investigation and provide significant clues. Additionally, while the lambs are appropriate images to entertain a young child, they also symbolize innocence and are traditionally associated with the concept of sacrifice; this association is invoked to highlight the cruel tragedy of Laurent’s death. While Clara does not initially realize that the drawings of the lambs are connected to the etchings on the gun (which she has not yet seen, in any case), the etching is an allusion to the Book of Revelation, and lambs also feature prominently in Revelation as a symbol for Christ.
While Laurent’s murder initiates the conflict, Antoinette’s murder greatly exacerbates the tension and implies that a larger and more sinister plot is at work; Gamache quickly concludes that whoever killed Laurent almost certainly killed Antoinette, especially given her family connection to a member of Project Babylon (via her late uncle, Guillaume Couture). Because someone is clearly willing to kill to control access to the gun and the plans, Gamache must solve the case as quickly as possible, and he therefore grows increasingly impatient in the knowledge that Rosenblatt and Mary Fraser are not telling him the whole story. For Gamache, information about the supergun is only significant in that it may help him to solve the two murders. As a former homicide investigator, he values the prospect of bringing peace to the families of the victims and forcing a killer to face justice. Mary, however, has different motives entirely, and her matter-of-fact willingness to accept these deaths as collateral damage speaks to the fundamental callousness of her underlying motivations, for in her desire “to save millions” (236) from a theoretical threat, she considers the loss of a few people to be negligible. In this way, her attitude reflects the larger theme of making costly Compromises for the Greater Good. Gamache’s inability to do the same may be linked to his appreciation and respect for the strong sense of community in Three Pines, for within this close-knit world, every individual is deeply valued.
With the mystery of Laurent’s death still unsolved, Gamache is keenly interested in Al Lepage, and he eventually uncovers Al’s history as a “draft dodger.” This detail reflects Penny’s commitment to placing realistic historical details within her fictional story, thereby lending her own tale an additional sense of authenticity and plausibility. Between 1964 and 1974, an estimated 40,000 American men fled to Canada to avoid being conscripted to serve in Vietnam or to avoid fulfilling their roles after enlisting. Initially, this history is intended to align with Al’s persona as a gentle and peaceful man who is content to live a quiet and reclusive life. This detail invokes the theme of The Destructive Consequences of Deception, for it shows that despite his peaceful nature, Al is nonetheless capable of keeping secrets about his past. This hint sets the stage for darker revelations that are still to come.
Related Titles
By Louise Penny
