It is Winter Carnival in Quebec City, bitterly cold and surpassingly beautiful Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has coation gone hauntingly wrong But violent death is inescapable, even in the apparent sanctuary of the Literary and Historical Society-- where an obsessive historian’s quest for the remains of the founder of Quebec, Samuel de Champlain, ends in murder Could a secret buried with Champlain for nearly 400 years be so dreadful that soh he is supposed to be on leave, Ganite long-slish and the French Meanwhile, he is receiving disquieting letters froe of Three Pines, where beloved Bistro owner Olivier was recently convicted of murder ‘It doesn&39;t make sense,’ Olivier’s partner writes every day ‘He didn&39;t do it, you know’ As past and present collide in this novel, Gamache must relive the terrible event of his own past before he can bury his dead