A Trick of the Light (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #7)

by Louise Penny

“You must’ve been thrilled when you saw the Ottawa Star review. When it called my art an old and tired parrot mimicking actual artists. Did that give you pleasure, Peter?” “How can you think that?” Peter asked. But it had given him pleasure. And relief. It was the first really happy moment he’d had in a very long time. “It’s the New York Times review that matters, Clara. That’s the one I care about.” She stared at him. And he felt cold creeping down his fingers and toes and up his legs. As though his heart had weakened and couldn’t get the blood that far anymore. His heart was only now catching up with what the rest of him had known all his life. He was weak. “Then quote me from the New York Times review.” “Pardon?” “Go on. If it made that big an impression, if it was that important to you, surely you can remember a single line.” She waited. “A word?” she asked, her voice glacial. Peter scanned his memory, desperate for something, anything from the New York Times. Something to prove to himself, never mind Clara, that he’d cared in any way. But all he remembered, all he saw, was the glorious review in the Ottawa paper. Her art, while nice, was neither visionary nor bold. He’d thought it was bad when her paintings were simply embarrassing. But it was worse when they were brilliant. Instead of reflected glory, it just highlighted what a failure he was. His creations dimmed as hers brightened. And so he’d read and re-read the parrot line, applying it to his ego as though it wa...