Armand Gamache

Armand Gamache is the central character in this novel. He is the Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté, on suspension after a drug raid in which several officers were killed and injured, and thousands of doses of a fatal drug, carfentanil, was released onto the streets. In an effort to save thousands of lives, as well as his reputation, Gamache employs a cadet from the Sûreté Academy who was once a drug user to work undercover to track down the drugs.

Gamache plays a role in a second plotline in the novel in which Tony Baumgartner is murdered apparently in connection with his mother’s will. Gamache is pulled into the investigation of this murder not because of his job with the Sûreté but because he was named as an executor in the will. In the course of this investigation, Gamache is among those trapped...