In A Rule Against Murder, Penny explores the complicated relationships between sons and fathers. She does so through Gamache’s relationship with his own father, Honoré, and son, Daniel, as well as Charles Morrow’s relationships with his sons, Thomas and Peter.

Charles Morrow is the enigmatic patriarch of the Morrow family. Although he died many years ago, his influence is still felt by all of his children. They remember him as a distant and harsh father; as Peter says, “I liked him about as much as he liked me. Isn’t that how it normally works? You get what you give? That’s what he always said. And he gave nothing” (63). Penny uses this question mark following Peters restatement of his father’s words to suggest a lack of conviction in this mimicry. Yet Peter still craves his father’s approval and treasures the fact that his father had kept a drawing of Peter’s throughout his life. Thomas also continues to seek a connection with his father, long after Charles’s death. He wears the frayed shirt that was his father’s, and his cufflinks, to be close to his father: “His father’s old shirt that Thomas had taken the day he’d died. The only thing he’d wanted.