The Cruelest Month 中期閱讀筆記 (with quotations)

（「中期閱讀筆記」，可能只對我自己有意義。寫這些筆記蠻開心的。）

工作一忙，便不斷吃comfort food（好在未算junk food），看完兩本Louise Penny的實體中文書，便轉戰她的英文版電子書。

我打算順序看「三松村系列」(Three Pines Mysteries)，The Cruelest Month是第三本。故事是說三松村發生過兩次殺人案後，村民都有點不安；加上復活節來臨，遂有人提議到「凶屋」舉行降靈會(what a stupid idea!)，期間，有參加者死亡。

與此同時，凶殺組督察長葛馬許(Gamache)因幾年前得罪了警察局內的某一派，被人秋後算帳。他的兩位菜烏手下分別被兩位警局高層指派作臥底。擅於詐傻扮懵的那位由他的好朋友（他們的友誼已變質）指派；有棱有角不受歡迎的那位由一位神秘人士指派，但未知用意是害他還是救他。

兩條線的份量同樣吃重，不過警隊那條線更貼近現實，竟出奇地好看。我很少在看一本偵探小說時，是不急欲知道兇手是誰的。


在此節錄一些我喜歡的句子：

• Gabri Dubeau vacillated between delight at being called ‘young man’ and defensiveness.
  －－學英文時間！
  
• ...didn’t wash over her and protect her from the suspicion she’d been found out for the pathetic little thing she knew herself to be. From trying to fit into a world where everyone knew the code, except her.
  －－有時都會覺得自己不懂某些社會上的潛規則。
• She was genetically designed to be eaten first. Clara felt badly for the brutality of her thoughts.　　　－－有些人是天生的弱者！
  
• Gamache had been to Three Pines on previous investigations and each time he’d had the feeling he belonged. It was a powerful feeling. After all, what else did people really want except to belong?
• The Québécois were straightforward, clear. If they liked you they hugged. When they murdered you they just whacked you over the head. Boom, done. Convicted. Next.
  －－關於魁北克人的描述，大抵是真的。
  
• Madeleine Favreau’s seat. The best in the room. Now how was that decided? Did she just take it? Did Hazel offer? Was Madeleine Favreau a bully? Was Hazel a professional victim?
  －－兩個女性好友同住，其中一個的慣常坐位是全個客廳最好的位置。督察長在想，誰在哪裡是怎樣決定的？是她強行霸佔最好位置？是好友讓給她的？她是否欺負好友？真是觀察入微！
  
• Loss was like that, Gamache knew. You didn’t just lose a loved one. You lost your heart, your memories, your laughter, your brain and it even took your bones. Eventually it all came back, but different. Rearranged.
  －－sighed... 這句寫得很好。
  
• Because murder was deeply human. It wasn’t about what people did. No, it was about how they felt,　because that’s where it all started.
  
• Some feeling that had once been human and natural had twisted. Become grotesque. Had turned sour and corrosive until its very container had been eaten away. Until the human barely existed.　&　
  
  ‘Because, we’re looking for someone not quite right. We’re looking for someone who appears healthy, who functions well. But who is very sick. We find those people not by simply collecting facts, but by collecting impressions.’
  －－作者描述殺人者的心態。變異。
  
• On the veranda Clara and Peter had hugged him but offered no easy words of comfort. To do that would be to simply comfort themselves.
  －－安慰人，行動比語言有力。
  
• He squeezed his bulk through the narrowest possible opening in the door, which was actually wide open by the time he was halfway through,
  －－他是個胖子。作者寫得很幽默。
  
• It was a golden day with every shade of green imaginable just appearing.
  
• ‘Actually, he says they find him. He goes for walks in the woods and listens. When a tree calls him he goes to it.’ Beauvoir stared at her. She’d said this as though that’s what Ikea did too. As though it was perfectly natural and normal to hear trees, never mind listen to them.
  －－這位探員害怕怪力亂神，所以當聽到有人說"a tree calls him"，他便在心裡取笑那人。
  
• As I did once, said Brébeuf to himself. Once, when I loved Armand. When we trusted each other and pledged to protect each other. Once, when I could still admit I was wrong, I needed help, I didn’t know. When I could still say, I’m sorry. But that was long ago now.
  －－未看過書的，便不會知道這句話的震憾之處。