The Beautiful Mystery

Both the detectives and the members of the religious community they investigate have their values tested and doubt their relationships, vocations, and beliefs.

The abbot and the prior find themselves at loggerheads because they interpret the will of God differently: The prior sees the success of the recording as a sign from God to enter the world, while the abbot maintains that the order’s vow of silence cannot be so easily sacrificed: “He said the recording was like the serpent in the garden, trying to lure us away, seduce us with promises of power and money” (162). Only the abbot sees the bigger picture: He worries that the order will fall apart just as the monastery building will fall apart. In naming Frère Antoine the new choir director, the abbot gives up his doubts about the recordings to preserve Saint-Gilbert.

The faith of the inhabitants of Saint-Gilbert is expressed through the Gregorian chants they sing, but Frère Luc’s musical devotion seems to split his faith in two directions. The prior’s killer tells Gamache that when he first heard the recording, he “met God” (89). Frère Luc is wholly committed to using his singing talent for the chants, but his commitment to the monastery is doubtful—he has not yet left the porterie, the designated porter’s area, to fully join the community. The abbot, in contrast, puts his religious beliefs above his love of the choir, telling Gamache, “If I could no longer sing, or listen to the chants, my love of God would be unchanged” (324). Frère Luc is so devoted to the chant that he considers the prior’s latest musical innovation a sacrilege worth killing over. His declaration, “Ecce Homo” (Latin for “behold the man”), is an assertion that his faith in his mentor has been betrayed, and that he has thwarted the prior’s effort to move beyond God’s original design of the chants.

Gamache and Beauvoir have a strong bond and the younger man views the elder as a mentor. Beauvoir depends on his faith in Gamache’s affection and love for staying mentally stable and for continuing his sobriety—things sorely tested by his constant memories of the shooting that nearby killed him. Gamache has faith that the relationship will always be close; he assumes that as he has healed from their shared trauma, so too has Beauvoir. But what Gamache doesn’t realize is that Beauvoir has none of his internal resources. Instead of faith in his ongoing connection with Gamache, Beauvoir is beset by doubts that stem from his sense of inferiority. Learning about this from Beauvoir’s therapist, Francoeur divides the investigative team by preying on Beauvoir’s insecurities: that Beauvoir’s relationship with Annie will not be accepted, and that Gamache is only using Beauvoir for his own purposes. Beauvoir falls for these manipulations, letting self-doubt overwhelm his faith in Gamache.