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 current Chief Inspector Gamache novel, ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE, debuted at #1 on the New York Times list as well as The Toronto Globe and Mail, making it the top selling book in North America!



The reception has been amazing! We've received pre-publication starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE has also been named People Magazine’s Book of the week.

New York Times lead review
"Louise Penny’s most haunting novel yet."

People Magazine’s Book of the week
“Penny excels at capturing the inner life, whether it’s a criminal’s or a resentful child’s. Series novices and die-hard fans alike will be left breathless—and moved.”

Wall Street Journal
"Penny's novels unravel criminal schemes that have moral consequences... what stays with the reader are the tender passages, the human insights, the reminders of what makes life worth living.”

Booklist
" A deftly-plotted mystery... Penny's series has always been about the complexities and sustaining glories of family, and here she takes that theme even further, revealing fissures in the Gamache clan, but also showing the resilience and love at its root. Series devotees will revel in both Penny's evocation of Paris--every bit as sumptuous as her rendering of Three Pines--and in the increased role she allots to librarian Reine-Marie, whose research skills are crucial to untying the Gordian knot at the mystery's core. This celebration of the First Family of crime fiction will be treasured by Penny's ever-growing legion of readers." - Bill Ott

Kirkus
" Penny's mystery is meticulously constructed and reveals hard truths about the hidden workings of the world-as well as the workings of the Gamache family….If you're new to Penny's world, this would be a great place to jump in. Then go back and start the series from the beginning."

Publishers Weekly
" The tension rises as Gamache tries to investigate…in a jurisdiction where he has no authority, and vital secrets about his family come to light, changing relationships forever. Penny's nuanced exploration of the human spirit continues to distinguish this brilliant series. "

Library Journal
" The strengths of this latest procedural from the inimitable Penny will attract her longtime fans and also draw in new admirers. A deft touch with plotting, sensitive characterization, and the author’s warmth and humanity make this a must-have mystery…"

The St. Louis Post Dispatch
"Penny excels at creating a sense of place, and she brings Paris to life with scenes small (a favorite garden at the Rodin museum) and big (the top of the Eiffel Tower). We walk — or, when necessary, run — through the streets of Paris, taste lemon tarts and mourn the fire damage to Notre Dame.”

Women’s World
"…a thrilling read."

Bookreporter.com
"Ranks among the very best in this stellar series and shows us more of Gamache than we thought we already knew."

The Irish Times
"Impeccable…electrifying….breathtakingly well done."


And in other wonderful news for ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE:

Los Angeles Times
First in the list of top crime novels to read this fall

Parade Magazine has named it one of their most anticipated books of the fall.

Publishers Weekly has made it one of their Books of the Week.

Amazon has chosen ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE as a Best Book of the Month.

AARP has made it one of their Best Books of Fall

BookPage has made it their Top Pick in their crime column for September

LA Times has named the top Crime Novels for the fall, and ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE leads the list! With my friend Ann Cleeves right there too. Yay.

ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE has made it onto the B&N “best of 2020” list!

Amazon has named ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE one of the best mysteries of 2020.

Kirkus Reviews have named ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE one of the best mysteries of 2020.

The Toronto Globe and Mail has named ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE to its top 100 Books of 2020 list.

AARP has put it on the Gift Guide for Book Lovers 2020

Christian Science Monitor has picked ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE on their Best of 2020 list as well, with a glowing paragraph about it:
"Sparkling with psychological suspense, secrets, danger, and levity, this masterful addition to Penny’s ‘Three Pines’ crime mystery series also celebrates the enduring gift of love and family."

The Wall Street Journal has included ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE on their The Best Books of 2020: Mysteries

Barnes & Noble have named ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE on their The Best Mystery & Thriller Books of 2020

Library Journal has named ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE one of their Best Crime Fiction books of 2020.



If you’re a fan of audiobooks, there’s great news. Robert Bathurst has again done a great job. His reading of ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE has won an Audiofile Earphones Award. Here’s an excerpt from their review:
" Robert Bathurst is just about perfect delivering the 16th Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novel….Filled with stunning surprises and moments of tenderness and love, Bathurst's gently nuanced performance offers insights into Gamache's childhood; his relationships with his children; his deep bond with wife, Reine-Marie; and with Horowitz, his surrogate father."



Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, I wasn’t able to be on tour. But, I was able to do some virtual events which actually allowed more people, from more places, to attend. The links to some of those events are on my events page, including the launch with Hillary Clinton.



Here's a short description of ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE:

On their first night in Paris, the Gamaches gather as a family for a bistro dinner with Armand's godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz. Walking home together after the meal, they watch in horror as Stephen is knocked down and critically injured in what Gamache knows is no accident, but a deliberate attempt on the elderly man's life.

When a strange key is found in Stephen's possession it sends Armand, his wife Reine-Marie, and his former second-in-command at the Sûreté, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, from the top of the Tour Eiffel, to the bowels of the Paris Archives, from luxury hotels to odd, coded, works of art.

It sends them deep into the secrets Armand's godfather has kept for decades.

A gruesome discovery in Stephen's Paris apartment makes it clear the secrets are more rancid, the danger far greater and more imminent, than they realized.

Soon the whole family is caught up in a web of lies and deceit. In order to find the truth, Gamache will have to decide whether he can trust his friends, his colleagues, his instincts, his own past. His own family.

For even the City of Light casts long shadows. And in that darkness devils hide.

ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE is the 16th Gamache novel. You can pre-order it now through your local bookstore, your library, or online.

The previous book, A BETTER MAN, debuted at #1 on the New York Times, USA Today and Toronto Star bestseller lists, making it the top book in North America and has been nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel.

The paperback came out on June 30th.

You have supported, championed, given away, pushed the Gamache books on unsuspecting friends, family, complete strangers. And I am eternally grateful!!

A BETTER MAN received fantastic reviews. Here are some quotes:

The Times of London - Book of the Month
"A BETTER MAN maintains the brilliance of this deeply satisfying series. Office politics and family dynamics complicates a case that explores the difference between legal and natural justice."

Wall Street Journal - Tom Nolan
"Over the past 14 years, Ms. Penny has written a saga in which both hero and author have grown in ability and assurance. 'A Better Man,' with its mix of meteorological suspense, psychological insight and criminal pursuit, is arguably the best book yet in an outstanding, original oeuvre. We look forward to additional encounters with the dignified, inspirational Armand Gamache."

New York Times - Marilyn Stasio Crime Column
" Enchanting…one of (Gamache’s) more ennobling missions."

Library Journal
"Gamache is an explorer of the human psyche, and the care he takes with the victims, their friends and family, as well as his own allows this series and his character continually to surprise, delight, and enthral.”

Publishers Weekly
"With an uncompromising eye, Penny explores the depths of human emotion, both horrifying and sublime.”

Booklist
"The appeal of this series and especially of Gamache himself has always been Penny's ability to show her hero moving from the tangible, brutal facts of murder to the emotions within, the stories in the blood. There are multiple stories, often contradictory, to be found in the many-tentacled web of human tragedy and suffering that Gamache teases to the surface in this moving exploration of ties that both bind and destroy."

BookPage
"...Louise Penny’s latest offers suspense galore, well-drawn characters we’d like to know (even the crotchety poet Ruth and her “fowl-mouthed” duck), a return to the fictional village of Three Pines—where we would all like to live—and some of the finest prose to grace the suspense genre."

Irish Independent - Pick of the Week
"A classic whodunit detective mystery in Penny’s impeccable style"


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.

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

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?



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



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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