My EXTREMELY late "Dead Cold" Blog

Chief inspector Gamache has one of the hardest jobs anyone could be submitted to. In his position one would have to both show empathy towards the victims of his crimes and at the same time be completely focused on the murderer him/her self. Gamache walks perfectly down this line. He is motivated by his love of people. In the book he barely ever speaks or thinks poorly of someone. “’You mean he didn’t look for her?’ asked Reine-Marie, her fork stopped partway to her mouth in astonishment. Gamache shook his head. ‘odious man,’ said Reine-Marie. It was hard not to agree, and Gamache was left to wonder why he was trying so hard not to.” (122 in reference to CC) As anyone that has read Dead Cold knows, CC is by far the most repulsive form of person imaginable, and yet Gamache is still able to sympathize with her.


Humour is used throughout the book and in most crime novels. 99.9% of the time it is extremely dark humour and the quotations I found fall nicely into that percentage. “It was almost impossible to electrocute someone these days, unless you were the governor of Texas.” (p.77) This is the guileful thought that Gamache had after talking to Lemieux on the phone about C.C.’s shocking death. It works in the scene to both bring uncertainty as to how the killer killed C.C. and to let the readers know how Gamache thinks.