63 pages 2 hours read

Louise Penny

The Beautiful Mystery

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Important Quotes

Quotation Mark Icon

“Annie took the plunger. ‘I’ll think of you every time I use it. Though I think you’ll be the one using it most of the time. You are full of it, after all.’ “Too kind,” said Beauvoir, ducking his head in a small bow. She thrust the plunger forward, gently prodding him with the red rubber suction cup as though it was a rapier and she the swordsman. Beauvoir smiled and took a sip of his rich, aromatic café. So like Annie. Where other women might have pretended the ridiculous plunger was a wand, she pretended it was a sword. Of course, Beauvoir realized, he would never have given a toilet plunger to any other woman. Only Annie.”


(Chapter 1, Page 7)

This scene portrays Annie and Beauvoir in a domestic idyll, and the humor and warmth between them. Annie is comfortable teasing her partner and he is able to laugh at himself. Beauvoir’s loving admiration of her use of the plunger as a weapon leads him to reflect on her role in his life. In this moment, he is content in the present, free of the fear and anxiety that will come to define his work on the investigation ahead.

Quotation Mark Icon

“At the very end of the bay a fortress stood, like a rock cut. Its steeple rose as though propelled from the earth, the result of some seismic event. Off to the sides were wings. Or arms. Open in benediction, or invitation. A harbor. A safe embrace in the wilderness. A deception. This was the near mythical monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups. The home of two dozen cloistered, contemplative monks. Who had built their abbey as far from civilization as they could get. It had taken hundreds of years for civilization to find them, but the silent monks had had the last word. Twenty-four men had stepped beyond the door. It had closed. And not another living soul had been admitted. Until today. Chief Inspector Gamache, Beauvoir and Captain Charbonneau were about to be let in. Their ticket was a dead man.”


(Chapter 2, Page 20)

The setting is crucial to understanding the work facing the characters. The monastery is a “seismic event” like an earthquake, leaving the landscape permanently altered—and perhaps, on a fault line that will collapse. The monastery is compared to many things, some of them contradictory: Gamache and Beauvoir will have to piece together how a place that seems like a “safe embrace” is also a “deception.” The paradoxical description continues in the phrase the “silent monks had the last word”—their silence is more powerful than speech. Penny emphasizes the abbey’s long years of isolation—visiting it is as grand an event as Charlie getting to Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory, as the word “ticket” suggests.

Related Titles

By Louise Penny

Study Guide

logo

A Fatal Grace

Louise Penny

A Fatal Grace

Louise Penny

Study Guide

logo

A Great Reckoning

Louise Penny

A Great Reckoning

Louise Penny

Study Guide

logo

All the Devils are Here

Louise Penny

All the Devils are Here

Louise Penny

Study Guide

logo

A Rule Against Murder

Louise Penny

A Rule Against Murder

Louise Penny

Study Guide

logo

A World of Curiosities

Louise Penny

A World of Curiosities

Louise Penny

Study Guide

logo

Bury Your Dead

Louise Penny

Bury Your Dead

Louise Penny

Study Guide

logo

How the Light Gets In

Louise Penny

How the Light Gets In

Louise Penny

Study Guide

logo

State of Terror

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Louise Penny

State of Terror

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Louise Penny

Study Guide

logo

Still Life

Louise Penny

Still Life

Louise Penny

Study Guide

logo

The Brutal Telling

Louise Penny

The Brutal Telling

Louise Penny

Study Guide

logo

The Cruelest Month

Louise Penny

The Cruelest Month

Louise Penny

Study Guide

logo

The Long Way Home

Louise Penny

The Long Way Home

Louise Penny

Study Guide

logo

The Nature of the Beast

Louise Penny

The Nature of the Beast

Louise Penny