Louise Penny
Award-Winning and #1 New York Times Bestselling Author


Louise Penny is the #1 New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling author of 15 Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novels. She has won numerous awards, including a CWA Dagger and the Agatha Award (five times), and was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Novel. In 2017, she received the Order of Canada for her contributions to Canadian culture.

 

Before she began writing in her forties, Louise Penny embarked on an 18-year career as a radio host and journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, working in Toronto, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, and Quebec City. She entered her first novel, Still Life, in the “Debut Dagger” competition in the United Kingdom and placed in second. The novel won other awards, including the “New Blood” Dagger award in the United Kingdom, the Arthur Ellis Award in Canada for best first crime novel, and the Barry Award for Best First Novel in the United States. The book was eventually adapted into a film and aired on CBC TV in 2013.

 

Her novels follow Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec, who was created in the image of several people Louise meet throughout her life, as he digs beneath the idyllic surface of village life in Three Pines, finds long-buried secrets, and faces a few of his own ghosts. The novels in the series are Still Life, A Fatal Grace/Dead Cold, The Cruelest Month, A Rule Against Murder/The Murder Stone, The Brutal Telling, Bury Your Dead, A Trick of the Light, The Beautiful Mystery, How the Light Gets In, The Long Way Home, The Nature of the Beast,  A Great Reckoning, Glass Houses, Kingdom of the Blind, A Better Man, and the forthcoming All the Devils are Here. She lives in a small village south of Montréal.

Follow Louise on Facebook.

Download Bio
Hardcover
The Grey Wolf Chief Inspector Gamache Novel (Volume 19)
Minotaur Books

The 19th mystery in the #1 New York Times-bestselling Armand Gamache series.



PAPERBACK
The Madness of CrowdsChief Inspector Gamache Novel (Volume 17)
Minotaur Books

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns to Three Pines in #1 New York Times bestseller Louise Penny's latest spellbinding novel.


PAPERBACK
All the Devils Are HereChief Inspector Gamache Novel (Volume 16)
Minotaur Books

All the Devils Are Here, the 16th novel by #1 bestselling author Louise Penny finds Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Quebec investigating a sinister plot in the City of Light .


PAPERBACK
A Better ManChief Inspector Gamache Novel (Volume 15)
Minotaur Books

Catastrophic spring flooding, blistering attacks in the media, and a mysterious disappearance greet Chief Inspector Armand Gamache as he returns to the Sûreté du Québec in the latest novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny.


PAPERBACK
Kingdom of the BlindChief Inspector Gamache Novel (Volume 14)
Minotaur Books

Why would a complete stranger name Detective Chief Armand Gamache one of the executors of her will?


PAPERBACK
Glass HousesChief Inspector Gamache Novel (Volume 13)
Minotaur Books

When a mysterious figure appears in Three Pines one cold November day, Armand Gamache and the rest of the villagers are at first curious.


PAPERBACK
A Great ReckoningChief Inspector Gamache Novel (Volume 12)
St. Martin's

When an intricate old map is found stuffed into the walls of the bistro in Three Pines, it at first seems no more than a curiosity.


PAPERBACK
The Nature of the BeastChief Inspector Gamache Novel (Volume 11)
Minotaur Books

Hardly a day goes by when nine year old Laurent Lepage doesn't cry wolf.


PAPERBACK
The Long Way HomeChief Inspector Gamache Novel (Volume 10)
Minotaur Books

Happily retired in the village of Three Pines, Armand Gamache, former Chief Inspector of Homicide with the Sûreté du Québec, has found a peace he'd only imagined possible.


PAPERBACK
How the Light Gets InChief Inspector Gamache Novel (Volume 9)
Minotaur Books

Christmas is approaching, and in Québec it's a time of dazzling snowfalls, bright lights, and gatherings with friends in front of blazing hearths.


PAPERBACK
The Beautiful MysteryChief Inspector Gamache Novel (Volume 8)
Minotaur Books

No outsiders are ever admitted to the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, hidden deep in the wilderness of Quebec, where two dozen cloistered monks live in peace and prayer.


PAPERBACK
A Trick of the LightChief Inspector Gamache Novel (Volume 7)
Minotaur Books

Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Quebec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light.


PAPERBACK
Bury Your DeadChief Inspector Gamache Novel (Volume 6)
Minotaur Books

It is Winter Carnival in Quebec City, bitterly cold and surpassingly beautiful. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has come not to join the revels but to recover from an investigation gone hauntingly wrong.


PAPERBACK
The Brutal TellingChief Inspector Gamache Novel (Volume 5)
St. Martin's

Chaos is coming, old son. With those words the peace of Three Pines is shattered.


PAPERBACK
A Rule Against MurderChief Inspector Gamache Novel (Volume 4)
Minotaur Books

It is the height of summer, and Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache are celebrating their wedding anniversary at Manoir Bellechasse, an isolated, luxurious inn not far from the village of Three Pines. But they're not alone.


PAPERBACK
The Cruelest MonthChief Inspector Gamache Novel (Volume 3)
Minotaur Books

Welcome to Three Pines, where the cruelest month is about to deliver on its threat.


PAPERBACK
A Fatal GraceChief Inspector Gamache Novel (Volume 2)
Minotaur Books

Welcome to winter in Three Pines, a picturesque village in Quebec, where the villagers are preparing for a traditional country Christmas, and someone is preparing for murder.


PAPERBACK
Still LifeChief Inspector Gamache Novel (Volume 1)
St. Martin's

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal.


Murder for a Living Louise Penny talks about writing crime novels and how her personal experiences feed the plots, the characters, and the themes of her novels.
The Character of Crime Louise Penny talks about the inspirations for her characters and their actions--from the most vile to the remarkable.






Louise Penny went live for a Q&A and discussion on Facebook. Check out an interview with Louise Penny in TIME magazine. Louise Penny is the subject of a Saturday Profile for The New York Times. An article for Mashable reveals that Secretary Hillary Clinton is a huge fan of Louise Penny’s novels. Get the latest scoop on Inspector Gamache. Learn more about Louise Penny here.

Praise for How the Light Gets In

“Set in a Quebec village, Penny’s Inspector Gamache mysteries have ingenious plots, intriguing characters, and croissants. Delicious.”
- People Magazine

Praise for The Long Way Home

"Pilcher weaves a wonderful story filled with love, deceit, and friendship that is reminiscent of his mother Rosamunde’s work."
- Booklist

"An agreeable tale of friendship—broken and mended—set in the Scottish countryside."
- Kirkus Reviews

"Pilcher's sweet story of a past reconciled is warm and touching."
- RT Book Reviews