The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: Penny, Louise. A Trick of the Light. Minotaur Books, August 30, 2011. Kindle.

In the murder mystery A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny, the murder of art critic and artist Lillian Dyson draws attention to the viciousness of the world of art. This novel is the 7th installment in Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache series. As a young woman, Lillian used her reviews to destroy the hopes of young artists. People who knew Lillian before her murder claimed she had changed and was trying to make amends to people she had harmed. Regardless, Armand Gamache, the head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec, believed one of the victims of Lillian’s cruel reviews was responsible for her murder.

Clara Morrow dreamed of a solo art show since she was a young girl. As she walks toward the exhibition hall at the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Montréal, she is terrified by the thoughts of what critics might say about her work. The following morning, after a party at Clara and her husband Peter’s home in Three Pines, a woman’s body is found in Clara’s garden.

Gamache and his inspectors are called in to investigate the murder. They discover that the body belongs to Lillian Dyson. Clara had not recognized the woman, but knew Lillian. The two had been best friends as children; but, in college, Lillian wrote a scathing review of Clara’s art, ending their friendship. Clara had avoided Lillian since then and was not sure why she was at the party. No one else in attendance had seen her there.

A beginner’s chip from Alcoholics Anonymous, AA, was found in the dirt near Lillian’s body. Gamache attended a meeting of Lillian’s AA group and learned from her sponsor, Suzanne Coates, that Lillian had been trying to change and make amends to the people she had hurt in her life. Suzanne believed Lillian had attended Clara’s party to ask Clara for forgiveness.

Meanwhile, three art dealers had stayed in Three Pines. All three hoped to convince Clara and her husband, Peter, to sign contracts with them. Dennis Fortin, a gallery owner, had signed Clara for a solo show years before, but he had canceled when she embarrassed him after he made a rude comment to Clara’s homosexual friend. Now, Fortin begged Clara for another chance to represent her. Art dealers François Marois and André Castonguay also approached Clara with hopes of signing the rights to her work.

A search of the archives at the newspaper for which Lillian wrote her art reviews showed that Lillian’s reviews destroyed the careers of both Suzanne and Fortin. Suzanne told the investigators that she had forgiven Lillian for the review because she came to the point she no longer wanted to live with the anger and pain that came from the lack of forgiveness. Fortin told Gamache and the others that Lillian had come to him and asked for forgiveness as well. Fortin was not satisfied with her attempt to make amends. He said it did not make up for what she had done to him.

After Gamache identified Fortin as Lillian’s killer, Fortin admitted to killing Lillian because he hated her. He told Lillian about the party at Clara’s house and suggested to her that it might be a good time for her to apologize to Clara as well. Fortin met Lillian in the garden and killed her. He explained that he had chosen to kill her in Clara’s garden because he wanted to ruin Clara’s show. He knew that people would remember Lillian’s murder when they thought about Clara’s show.