Summary

In Chapter 12, over lunch with Toussaint, Gamache explained to her that even though her new job seemed big, she had an opportunity to reinvent the serious crimes division. Her husband had discouraged her from taking the promotion. He thought she was being made the captain of a sinking ship and when the demise came it would be blamed on her because she was a black woman. When Toussaint looked at Gamache’s face, she did not think he was setting her up for failure but instead saw kindness in his eyes, as if he would stand beside her if blame came.

Gamache explained to Toussaint that they needed to change everything about the department without appearing to have changed anything. Toussaint agreed that they needed to commit totally to “Burn our ships. No going back” (118). Gamache stared at her for a moment before...