I'm so glad you've discovered Three Pines and the Armand Gamache books. I hope you're enjoying reading them as much as I love writing them.

The next Gamache book (#18!) is called, A WORLD OF CURIOSITIES and will be in your hands on November 29th. You can pre-order it now.

Here’s a short description of what Armand and the Three Pines villagers are facing:

It’s spring and Three Pines is reemerging after the harsh winter. But not everything buried should come alive again. Not everything lying dormant should reemerge.

But something has.

As the villagers prepare for a special celebration, Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir find themselves increasingly worried. A young man and woman have reappeared in the Sûreté du Québec investigators’ lives after many years. The two were young children when their troubled mother was murdered, leaving them damaged, shattered. Now they’ve arrived in the village of Three Pines.

But to what end?

Gamache and Beauvoir’s memories of that tragic case, the one that first brought them together, come rushing back. Did their mother’s murder hurt them beyond repair? Have those terrible wounds, buried for decades, festered and are now about to erupt?

As Chief Inspector Gamache works to uncover answers, his alarm grows when a letter written by a long dead stone mason is discovered. In it the man describes his terror when bricking up an attic room somewhere in the village. Every word of the 160-year-old letter is filled with dread. When the room is found, the villagers decide to open it up.

As the bricks are removed, Gamache, Beauvoir and the villagers discover a world of curiosities. But the head of homicide soon realizes there’s more in that room than meets the eye. There are puzzles within puzzles, and hidden messages warning of mayhem and revenge.

In unsealing that room, an old enemy is released into their world. Into their lives. And into the very heart of Armand Gamache’s home.

I can’t wait for A WORLD OF CURIOSITIES to get into your hands!


The most recent book, THE MADNESS OF CROWDS, debuted at #1 on the NYTimes, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star etc, bestseller lists, making it the top selling book in North America for its first week out!

It is now available in paperback.

Here are a few of the things the critics said:

Publishers Weekly
" Brilliant...Seamlessly integrating debates about scientific experimentation and morality into a fair-play puzzle, Penny excels at placing her characters in challenging ethical quandaries. This author just goes from strength to strength."

Booklist
"Always a master plotter, Penny brilliantly combines…a profusion of subplots that bring together multiple interconnected themes, all raising thought-provoking questions about ethics and human relationships in a post-COVID world."

 Library Journal
"This book has layers within layers: good versus evil; our duty to the weak; the nature of power"

Wall Street Journal - Tom Nolan
"The Madness of Crowds is Ms Penny’s 17th entry in her intelligent and emotionally powerful series….the author has produced a unique work twining moral issues and absorbing character studies into a challenging murder mystery."

Times of London has just published a rave review. Here's part of it:
“Penny is on peak form… "The Madness of Crowds is a grown-up, timely thriller that considers the nature of cowardice - "there's no peace without courage" - and how to find and defend "that spot between freedom and safety".

BookPage has made THE MADNESS OF CROWDS a Starred Pick for August.
“It’s easily one of the best mystery novels (or novels of any genre) in recent memory.”




And,not content to write about madness, I then segued into terror - with my co-author, Hillary Rodham Clinton! STATE OF TERROR came out last fall, and immediately hit the top of international bestseller lists.

Not surprisingly, it's a political thriller.

STATE OF TERROR is now out in paperback.

PEOPLE
“[A] pulsating thriller.”

New York Times
“A Page-Turner Part Sly, Part Sweet… The plot is ambitious and apocalyptic… marks of Penny’s writing… Clinton is celebrating women’s support for one another later in life.”

Los Angeles Times
“Taut thriller...Ethical trade-offs, political intrigue, high-level espionage and pure evil… Perfectly melds Clinton’s knowledge and Penny’s mastery of genre mechanics.”

The Washington Post
The real key to “State of Terror” is it’s secret weapon: female friendship”

TIME Magazine
“…full of action and intrigue. A heart-pounding mystery about terrorism, corruption and diplomacy, meticulously written.”

Tampa Bay Times:
“Breathtaking…. One of the best thrillers I’ve ever read.”



Back to Gamache. You might have heard that after turning down all offers for years, I finally agreed to let the UK company, Left Bank adapt the books into a TV series, on the understanding they would not toy with the characters. To that end, I am thrilled they have cast Alfred Molina as Gamache. Here's a photo of him in one scene.


Photograph credit: Laurent Guérin / Amazon

It will air on Prime later in the year, but I'm not sure when but will let you know as soon an air-date has been decided.

Have to say, I do not agree with many of their decisions and choices, though I do think some are wonderful. It will be interesting to see what you think.



Lots of exciting things happening. If you'd like to follow along, feel free to either join me on Facebook, or sign up for the newsletter.
There is also the site, Gamacheseries.com, a sort of virtual bistro where we discuss various themes and issues in the series. Among other features we have The Annotated Three Pines, Postcards from Three Pines, and the Cultural Inspirations for Three Pines. The merry minstrel of the virtual bistro, Paul Hochman, takes it one book at a time, and examines the art, literature, poetry, music, philosophy that informs the themes of the series.



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. And, of course, I encourage you to support your local library as well as bookstore.

Now, here's the order, from the first to the most recent:

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
ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE
THE MADNESS OF CROWDS
STATE OF TERROR (co-written with Hillary Clinton)
A WORLD OF CURIOSITIES



A Great Reckoning
The Nature of the Beast
The Long Way Home


As you might have noticed, you can no longer just click through to my Facebook page. Facebook has decided you now need to join. It’s definitely not my doing and I’m very sorry about that.
 
Go to my Facebook fan page for updates and my latest news.








Indie Bound





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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