Parental responsibility and nurturing are important themes in the novel, with various characters modeling parental and pseudo-parental roles to illustrate how important it is for the young and the vulnerable to be protected. By stepping into a role as the head of the academy—where young cadets are trained to become police agents—Gamache takes on a pseudo-parental role for all of them. He sees it as his duty to counteract Leduc’s corrupting influence and prepare the cadets to function effectively as a team. Sometimes Gamache’s parental role toward the cadet leads him to be stern with them, such as when he scolds them and says, “You need to stop this sniping. You’re not in a schoolyard” (212). However, it also leads him to feel a strong sense of duty toward their well-being and humility when he realizes that he has failed to protect them.

The strongest example of parental sentiment occurs when Gamache tries to insist on being present when Amelia is being questioned, acting in loco parentis and standing in “for all their parents. […] The students have been entrusted to my care” (283). While Gamache acts from a good place, his insistence is so strong that it raises suspicions for both Reine-Marie and Jean-Guy that he might be Amelia’s biological father.