The Nature of the Beast: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel

Nine-year-old Laurent Lepage frequently tells extraordinary stories—about alien invasions, walking trees, winged beasts, and dinosaurs in the Quebec village of Three Pines. No one believes him, including Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache, who have recently moved to the village. When Laurent disappears, the villagers must consider whether one of his tales might have been true. A search for the boy and the truth begins. What the villagers discover in the forest triggers a sequence of events leading to murder, an old crime, and an old betrayal—all connected to an elderly poet. Ruth Zardo senses that a dark presence has returned to Three Pines, a monster that once visited and took root there long ago. Armand Gamache, the former head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec, must confront the possibility that his own disbelief in the boy contributed to the tragedy that follows.