Why Everyone Should Read Thriller Writer Louise Penny
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Every day, thousands of readers worldwide embark on a much-anticipated trip: one that requires no plane, train, or automobile (unless they’re traveling to the bookstore) but is instead powered by the magic of fiction. With the 2022 publication of Louise Penny’s 18th Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novel, A World of Curiosities, readers are invited to return once again to the fictional village of Three Pines, the setting of the long-running series, and now a TV show available on Prime Video. For many, it’s a place they can’t get to fast enough. I talked to Penny recently on the What Should I Read Next? podcast about the writing life, the stunning success of her series, and why readers continue to gobble up the Gamache books just as fast as she can write them.
When Penny was initially shopping her debut novel, Still Life, to publishers before its 2005 publication, she was told readers would never be interested in a crime novel set in Québec. How wrong they were: Readers can’t get enough of Three Pines, finding comfort in returning not only to beloved characters book after book but to the village itself, with its snug boulangerie where Sarah bakes crusty loaves fresh each morning, Myrna’s bookshop that smells of tea and flowers, Olivier’s bistro where endearing eccentrics gather to banter (or argue) over mugs of café au lait or glasses of evening scotch. Penny may have drawn inspiration from real places, but Three Pines is fictional, even a touch magical: In the world of the books, it’s a known curiosity that the village doesn’t appear on any maps, and “is only ever found by people who are lost.” That hasn’t stopped scads of devoted readers from flocking to the Eastern villages of Québec to see and experience a version of village life for themselves.
Why is everyone reading Louise Penny? Three Pines holds a magnetic pull for readers, despite the fact that terrible things happen in and around the village—and happen fairly often, given Penny’s publication rate of a book a year. The books are, after all, murder mysteries; by her own description, they are “proudly and specifically crime novels.” The series follows the investigations of the supremely decent, quietly intelligent, startlingly kind Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec. His job may be to investigate murders, but at their heart, Penny’s books are not primarily focused on crime. Her whodunit plotlines serve as a springboard to explore the mystery of human nature, an approach that grants the stories a satisfying depth and psychological astuteness. Penny’s novels shine a light on the best and worst of humanity, exploring love and friendship, belonging and loneliness, goodness and evil—the stuff of life that matters deeply not only to the Three Pines residents that populate her stories but to readers everywhere. And if she does it in a way that keeps us turning the pages, saying, “Just one more chapter” long after bedtime? So much the better.
A common question with any long-running series is: Where does one begin? In other words, must you begin at book #1 before you can enjoy book #18? Penny told me no; it would be unfair to demand readers read 17 books to earn the right to read the new one. That’s why every book is intentionally written so it can serve as an entry point into the series. Good news for Three Pines newcomers: A World of Curiosities is particularly hospitable to those meeting Armand Gamache and his fellow villagers for the first time. In this new release, a brother and sister with a tragic past return to Three Pines after a long absence. Many years ago, their mother was brutally murdered, and Penny reveals that it was this case that brought Gamache and his protegé Jean-Guy Beauvoir together. She takes us back in time to their very first meeting and the ensuing investigation that left both feeling uneasy. Now, more than a decade later, the siblings’ reappearance resurrects painful memories for Gamache and Beauvoir and rattles the community, already on edge because of a series of recent murders in the area. Longtime Gamache readers will appreciate how the newly revealed origin story adds layers to the two’s history; new readers will benefit from meeting the pair at the beginning of their relationship.
Regardless of where you choose to begin, these series highlights will give you a sense of what to look forward to upon entering the world of Three Pines.
1. Still Life (1)
In the idyllic village of Three Pines, people feel such a sense of safety that they don’t even lock their doors. When a beloved local woman is found in the woods with an arrow shot through her heart, the locals assume it’s a tragic hunting accident—but Three Pines resident and Surêté du Québec Chief Inspector Armand Gamache senses something is off, and probes to discover what really happened in those woods, and why. A stunningly good first novel and a tantalizing series opener, with more of a slow burn than her subsequent works.
2. A Rule Against Murder (4)
Because a small village can realistically only absorb so much murder, Penny sends Gamache away from Three Pines for his murder investigations roughly every other book. In this installment, Gamache and his wife, Reine-Marie, retreat to the luxurious Manoir Bellechasse to celebrate their anniversary, only to find that the wealthy, cultured, and absolutely unbearable Finney clan has descended upon the place for an ill-tempered family reunion. When somebody turns up murdered, it’s obvious to all that the killer must still be at the manor. If you enjoy mysteries with a closed circle of suspects, you’re going to love this one.
3. The Brutal Telling (5)
In the opening pages of this installment, a stranger is found murdered on the floor of Olivier’s Bistro. Olivier and his partner, Gabri, claim they don’t know the victim, but it quickly becomes clear to Gamache that that’s not the whole truth. Three Pines residents are forced to confront the unthinkable: Could the murderer really be the man who tends the hearth of the bistro, the symbolic heart of village life? “Thomas Hobbes said that hell is truth seen too late,” Louise Penny wrote on Goodreads. “That’s the vortex around which The Brutal Telling swirls.”
4. Bury Your Dead (6)
My personal opinion: The series moves to the next level in this sixth installment, in which Penny brings the riveting plotline she’s hinted at in previous books front and center. Plus it’s set during Winter Carnival in startlingly beautiful Québec City (which, upon reading Penny’s lavish descriptions, you will want to visit immediately). Gamache is there not to revel with the celebrants but to grieve an investigation gone horribly wrong, retreating to the city’s snug Literary and Historical Society for rest and research. But then a historian is found murdered in the basement.
5. How the Light Gets In (9)
A missing celebrity, a fatality at the Champlain Bridge, a Sûreté in turmoil under corrupt leadership: Folks may be feeling festive in Three Pines as Christmas draws near, but Gamache’s world is in chaos. This book, which takes its title from a Leonard Cohen lyric, adroitly balances the baffling murder investigation of an elderly woman with the excruciating drama gutting the Sûreté—and Gamache’s own inner circle—from within.
6. A Great Reckoning (12)
When an old map showing Three Pines is found in the walls of Olivier’s Bistro, the villagers are at first intrigued by the curiosity—particularly because Three Pines, as a rule, doesn’t appear on maps. But then the map is implicated in the murder of a Sûreté professor, a murder seemingly committed by one of their own. Even Gamache himself is a suspect. The investigation leads the former head of homicide to devastating secrets, ones whose truths he is afraid to uncover.
7. A Better Man (15)
There's a lot happening in this 15th book: A pregnant woman goes missing during a record-breaking flood, the Sureté itself is in turmoil, thanks to ongoing corruption and power struggles, and Gamache makes a terrible decision. Readers relish seeing poet Ruth Zardo in her role as fire chief and artist Clara Morrow as she faces a pivotal career decision after critics skewer her new show. By introducing new characters and challenges, Penny deftly sets the stage for a new set of plotlines we’ll see unrolled in later books.
A World of Curiosities: A Novel (Chief Inspector Gamache Novel, 18)
amazon.com
8. All the Devils Are Here (16)
Louise Penny + Paris sounds like a match made in heaven, but the title smacks of hell. It’s drawn from The Tempest: “Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” While Gamache’s visit to the City of Lights is tainted by murder most foul, the litany of Parisian landmarks employed in these pages is pure delight for the reader. We visit neighborhood bistros, fancy hotels, patisseries, the Paris Archives, the Eiffel Tower, and the garden of the Musée Rodin.
Anne Bogel is the author of the bestsellers Don't Overthink It and I’d Rather Be Reading. She’s the creator of the top-rated literary podcast What Should I Read Next? and the long-running blog Modern Mrs Darcy.
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