Louise Penny: Still Life
Personal Information:
Born 1958, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; married; husband's name Michael (a physician and pediatric hematologist). Addresses: Home: Sutton, Quebec, Canada. E-mail: contact@louisepenny.com.
Career Information:
Writer, novelist, journalist, television producer, radio broadcaster. Worked as a journalist, radio host, and documentary producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) until 1996; full-time fiction writer, 1996--.
Sidelights:
Former broadcast journalist and radio host Louise Penny has become well known as the author of a mystery series focusing on Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec, or Quebec police force. He lives in Montreal but is frequently called upon to solve murders in the picturesque village of Three Pines. Some reviewers have compared Gamache to French writer Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret. "Each delights in great wine, good food and their loving wives, both command the unswerving loyalty of their men, and both can see, clearly and deeply, into the murderous hearts of men," commented Erna Buffie in an article on the series for the Web site Suite101.com. Three Pines, Buffie added, "harbors as much greed, jealousy and betrayal as any big city," and the setting, the recurring and often quirky characters, and Penny's plotting combine for "a wonderfully original mystery series."
In the series' first novel, Still Life, Gamache is called in to investigate the death of Jane Neal, a middle-aged artist and well-loved local, found dead near Three Pines with an arrow through her heart. Since she was discovered near an area frequented by deer hunters, Neal's death is at first considered an accident. However, Gamache's investigation indicates that the more likely scenario involves murder. Unfortunately for him, the village of Three Pines contains a multitude of suspects, as a good many of its residents are accomplished archers. Finding a murderer along the generally affable residents of Three Pines will not be easy. Gamache discovers that Neal had recently contributed a controversial painting to a local juried show--observers either loved or hated her primitive-style work. The intensely private Neal had also just announced that she would open her house to the public for the first time in order to celebrate her painting. Her death happened the day of the announcement. Neal's obnoxious niece Yolande immediately stakes a claim to the artist's house and does her best to keep the police out. Meanwhile, a will is found, in which Neal leaves everything to Clara Morrow, a married neighbor who had been like a daughter to the aging artist. Gamache persists in looking for clues, not only in Neal's painting and behavior, but also in the secrets that might be found in her house and among her neighbors.
Still Life won praise from several critics. "Like a virtuoso," Penny sounds a "complex variation on the theme of the clue hidden in plain sight," remarked a Publishers Weekly reviewer, while Kliatt contributor Jean Palmer observed that "Penny's descriptions of the people and the setting are beautifully crafted." Emily Melton, writing in Booklist, dubbed the novel a "beautifully told, lyrically written story of love, life, friendship, and tragedy," and a New York Times commentator called Penny "an author whose deceptively simple style masks the complex patterns of a well-devised plot." A Kirkus Reviews critic concluded: "Cerebral, wise and compassionate, Gamache is destined for stardom. Don't miss this stellar debut."
Armand Gamache Series:
Still life
Series: Inspector Armand Gamache mysteries, 1
A fatal grace (other title: Dead Cold)
Series: Inspector Armand Gamache mysteries, 2
The cruelest month: a Three Pines mystery
Series: Inspector Armand Gamache mysteries, 3
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A rule against murder (other title: The Murder Stone)
)Series: Inspector Armand Gamache mysteries, 4
The brutal telling
Series: Inspector Armand Gamache mysteries, 5
Bury your dead: a Chief Inspector Gamache novel
Series: Inspector Armand Gamache mysteries, 6
A trick of the light: a Chief Inspector Gamache novel
Series: Inspector Armand Gamache mysteries, 7 (forthcoming, 8/30/11)
Author’s website: ( includes a pronunciation guide for the French names and words.
I'm often asked two questions: should the books be read in order? And, what is the order?
Both excellent questions. At the risk of appearing to want you to buy more books let me say that while it's not necessary to read them in any particular order (they're designed to be self-standing) there is quite a strong character development arc. I think you'd enjoy the books even more if read in order.
Some of the books have different titles, as you might have noticed. The publishers did this not, as you might suspect, to be annoying but because they genuinely feel their readers respond to different titles. I hope it's not too confusing.
And finally, a small note about the themes in my books. They're inspired by two lines from a poem by WH Auden, in his elegy to Melville. Goodness existed, that was the new knowledge/ his terror had to blow itself quite out to let him see it.
How powerful is that?
My books are about terror. That brooding terror curled deep down inside us. But more than that, more than murder, more than all the rancid emotions and actions, my books are about goodness. And kindness. About choices. About friendship and belonging. And love. Enduring love.
If you take only one thing away from any of my books I'd like it to be this:
Goodness exists
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