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to Three
Pines, where the cruellest month is about to deliver
on its threat. |
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I hope this finds you all enjoying your summer.
Here in our Quebec garden the peony and roses
and lilac are in bloom, followed by the lilies
and columbine, the digitalis and sweet pea.
Heaven. Not a day goes by, sitting on our
screen porch overlooking the garden and field,
the pond and the forest, that I don't count
my blessings. Like anyone who sits at the
adult table, I know what loss and sorrow are,
and I know what great good fortune is.
Speaking of great good fortune, we have had the
most amazing 2008 so far. The third book
in the Armand Gamache mysteries, THE CRUELEST
MONTH, debuted at #1 on the IMBA bestsellers list
in the United States. It was also shortlisted
for the Arthur Ellis for Best Crime Novel in Canada.
The second book, A FATAL GRACE (Dead Cold) won
the Agatha Award for Best Traditional Mystery
in the United States, and the books have now been
sold, on top of all the other countries like Russia
and Germand etc, to Spain, Estonia and Japan.
I went on an American tour and traveled twice
to England for the books. Am hoping for
South Africa or India next, but my publishers
tell me not to pack just yet.
When we were in London this spring I did a television
interview with Borders TV. If you're interested
in seeing it, just click
here.
I haven't watched it yet. Too bashful.
Michael and I are busy dieting, trying to get
rid of the buffet meals that have followed us
home. Our diets are pretty much grapefruit
for breakfast and gummy bears for dinner.
But it all evens out, I suppose. We're happy
at least. And with the weather so much better
we have our bikes out and on top of that we walk
2 kilometers every morning.
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I've
tried to keep this summer quiet. A time to work
on the next book, laze by the pond, read and relax.
I do have a few events, though, especially in August,
and it would be wonderful to see you there. If
you go to the events page
you can see them, and others.
The fourth book in the series is coming out soon.
In the United States it will be a lead title with St.
Martin's Minotaur for January and will be called A RULE
AGAINST MURDER. In Canada, the UK, Australia,
New Zealand and the rest of the Commonwealth, it will
come out in October and is called THE MURDER STONE.
In fact, on the left of your screen you can see a picture
of Kim McArthur and Taryn Manias, of McArthur and Co,
my Canadian publishers, propping me up at BookExpo Canada.
Behind us is a preliminary cover for THE MURDER STONE.
The actual one has been re-jigged and is more refined.
Like us.
You can pre-order A RULE AGAINST MURDER and/or THE MURDER
STONE now from your independent bookstore, Barnes and
Noble, Chapters, Waterstones and online.
I suggest that you pre-order because the first
editions go very quickly and then there might be a wait.
For now, though, it's THE CRUELEST MONTH that is the
number one book.
Let
me tell you a bit about THE CRUELEST MONTH - starting
with the spelling. As though it wasn't bad enough
that book 2 had two different titles (A FATAL GRACE
in the US and DEAD COLD everywhere else) this book also
has a slight change. As George Bernard Shaw said,
England and America are 'Two nations separated by a
common language.'
In this case, they're separated by a slender 'el'.
In Canada and the Commonwealth 'cruellest' is spelled
that way. In the US there's one less 'el' - 'cruelest.'
Hence the confusion of spelling on this webpage.
I just alternate as the will takes me. Free form
spelling - perhaps even Australian-rules spelling.
There's also a different US cover, as always.
I really love both covers and it's interesting that
without consulting (and certainly without asking me)
both publishers picked up on the imagery of the tree.
An imagery that will be clear when you read the book.
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It's
spring in the tiny Quebec village of Three Pines and
an Easter celebration is underway. Its a time of
great relief in Canada, when winter loosens it's grip
and new, fragile, hope emerges. Everything is coming
back to life. Buds are on the trees, crocuses and snowdrops
and daffodils are struggling through the newly thawed
earth. Life is insisting and insinuating itself.
But not everything is meant to return to life. Some
things are better off dead and buried.
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I
was hanged for living alone,
for having blue eyes and sunburned skin,
tattered skirts, few buttons,
a weedy farm in my own name,
and a surefire cure for warts. |
Gabri,
Clara, Myrna and a group of other villagers decide to
celebrate Easter with a seance. They'll raise the dead.
And to do that they choose the most malevolent place they
know. The Old Hadley House, the horror on the hill, the
site of so much of their woe. The villagers decide it's
time to rid it of its evil. But the Old Hadley House doesn't
let go easily, and instead of raising the dead a new spirit
is created. One of their party dies. Of fright.
But were they helped along? By something of this world,
or the next?
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his team from the Surete
du Quebec are called to investigate and uncover the real
horrors of the Hadley House - the horrors that someone
had hoped would never rise again.
In The Cruellest Month Armand Gamache is forced to face
his own ghosts and a betrayal from within the Surete and
his own heart.
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When
they harvest my corpse
Surprise, surprise:
I am still alive. |
Something
nasty is stirring, and you're invited to attend.
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Before
I was not a witch.
Now I am one. |
So
many people have commented on the beauty of the website
that I really want to tell you it's not me. The site
is designed and maintained by the most amazing woman,
Linda Lyall, who lives and works in Scotland, and whom
I've never met, but who is always so creative and thoughtful.
Her email, if you're interested in your own site is:
l.lyall@ntlworld.com
Many people also ask about the inspiration for my characters
and I have to say most have taken on lives of their
own, but they've also been inspired by people I love.
For instance, Gamache is inspired by my husband Michael,
and Clara by a few wonderful friends and artists, significant
among them Sharon Sutherland. So many people have
asked about Clara's art that I wanted to link to Sharon's
website. Most of the works there are
from her time in Canada's arctic, though she's
done many other works too. Michael and I are fortunate
to have her art on our walls.
Another
question that keeps coming up is about the poetry in
the books. I really should have made it clear in the
acknowledgments that I don't write the verse. Most of
Ruth's poetry is from Canadian writers and they're listed
in the permissions page of the books. In DEAD COLD/A
FATAL GRACE I also use one of my favorite verses of
all time, from Leonard Cohen's work "Anthem
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Ring
the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering,
There's a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in.
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Here's to our light. Yours and mine. And our flaws.
When
I started writing I wanted to create a village I'd love
to live in, with people I'd choose as friends. As a
detective I wanted a man I could adore. Someone I'd
want to live with for many years. And so Armand Gamache
was created. A man of humour and integrity, a thoughtful
and kindly man.
I wanted, I realize now, a thoughtful and kindly world.
Because the truth is I don't always feel comfortable
and at ease. And in the past when bad things have happened
in my life I've turned to my old friends Agatha Christie,
Ngaio Marsh, Michael Innes and Dorothy L. Sayers. And
I've felt strangely comforted in the world they created
for me. These books are a way to give back, to say thank
you. And to find comfort myself in a world not always
kind. Each morning now I get to go to the computer and
visit Three Pines for a cafe au lait and croissant and
maybe a murder.
There's a wonderful line from Auden in his poem to Melville.
'Goodness existed: that was the new knowledge. His terror
had to blow itself quite out to let him see it'.The
Armand Gamache series is about terror, that brooding
whispering terror from deep within. But more than that,
these books are about goodness.
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