How often had he questioned a murderer expecting to find curdled emotions, a soul gone sour? And instead found goodness that had gone astray.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1)

Importance: Gamache’s thoughts about murderers and his memories that people who killed others were often not the emotionless people he expected but instead good people who had just gone astray. These thoughts open a series of speculations on how things are not always as they appear.

But Clara Morrow knew deep down that she had set something in motion. That she’d seen something in those eyes. Deep down. She hadn’t, perhaps, so much placed it there as awakened it.
-- Narrator (Chapter 2)

Importance: Clara did not want to tell Gamache that Peter was missing because she was afraid she would disturb the peace that he had just begun to find in Three Pines. She can tell when she looks in his eyes that she has awakened his old...