Louise Penny

Penny was born in Toronto, Canada,^[2] on July 1, 1958.^[1][3] Her mother was an avid reader of both fiction and non-fiction, with a particular liking for crime fiction,^[4] and Louise grew up reading mystery writers such as Agatha Christie, Georges Simenon, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Michael Innes.^[4]

Penny earned a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Radio and Television) from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Toronto Metropolitan University) in 1979.^[5] After graduation, aged 21, she embarked on an 18-year career as a radio host and journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).^[6]

Penny left the CBC in 1996 to take up writing.^[7] She started a historical novel but had difficulty finishing it and eventually switched to mystery writing.^[7] She entered her first novel, Still Life, in the "Debut Dagger" competition in the United Kingdom, placing second out of 800 entries.^[7] 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, the Dilys Award,^[8] the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best First Novel in the United States.

Penny continues to write, garnering major crime novel award nominations for almost every one of her novels and subsequently winning several of those awards.^[8]

Her work features Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, head of the homicide department of the Sûreté du Québec.^[9] The novels are set in the province of Quebec but feature many hallmarks of the British whodunit genre, including murders by unconventional means, bucolic villages, large casts of suspects, red herrings, and a dramatic disclosure of the murderer in the last few pages of the book.^[10]

In 2009, Penny helped to launch a new award for aspiring Canadian mystery writers, the Unhanged Arthur for Best Unpublished First Novel.^[7]

At the start of her broadcasting career, Penny took postings at locations far from friends and family, and to help deal with feelings of loneliness and isolation, she increasingly turned to alcohol. At the age of 35, she admitted to an alcohol problem and has been sober since.^[7] Shortly afterwards, she met her future husband, Michael Whitehead, head of hematology at Montreal Children's Hospital,^[11] on a blind date.^[7] Whitehead was diagnosed with dementia in 2013 and Penny took on the role as his primary caregiver.^[12] He died on September 18, 2016.^[13]

Penny currently lives in Knowlton, a small village in Quebec's Eastern Townships about 100 km from Montreal, Quebec.^[2]

In 2013, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada "for her contributions to Canadian culture as an author shining a spotlight on the Eastern Townships of Quebec".^[14] In 2017 she was made a Member of the Order of Quebec.^[15]

For several years, Penny resisted selling the TV or movie rights to her books, afraid of losing creative control of her characters.^[16] However, when approached by PDM Entertainment and Attraction Images and offered a position as executive producer during film production, she changed her mind and agreed to sell them the rights to her first two novels.^[16] Still Life went into production in the fall of 2012, with British actor Nathaniel Parker cast as Chief Inspector Gamache.^[16] The movie aired on CBC TV in 2013.^[16] In September 2021, production of Three Pines began in Montreal and rural Quebec, starring Alfred Molina.^[17] After airing only one season, the series was cancelled by Prime Video.^[18]

• Still Life (2005) – Winner of the New Blood Dagger award, the Arthur Ellis Award, the Dilys Award,^[8] the 2007 Anthony Award, and the Barry Award
• A Fatal Grace (Alternate title: Dead Cold and White Out as the television episode)^[23] (2007) – Winner of the 2007 Agatha Award^[19]
• The Cruelest Month (2008) – Winner of the 2008 Agatha Award;^[2] nominated for the 2009 Anthony, the 2008 Macavity Award, and the 2008 Barry Award
• The Murder Stone (A Rule Against Murder in U.S.) (2009) – Nominated for an Arthur Ellis Award^[24]
• The Brutal Telling (2009) – Winner of the 2009 Agatha Award,^[25] and the 2010 Anthony Award
• Bury Your Dead (2010) – Winner of the 2010 Agatha Award,^[26] the 2011 Anthony Award, the 2011 Macavity Award, the 2011 Arthur Ellis Award,^[20] and the 2011 Nero Award
• A Trick of the Light (2011) – Nominated for a Macavity,^[27] an Anthony Award,^[28] and an Agatha Award^[29]
• The Hangman (2011) – A novella in the Inspector Gamache series, written at a third grade level for emerging adult readers.
• The Beautiful Mystery (2012) – Winner of the 2013 Macavity Award for Best Mystery^[30]
• How the Light Gets In (2013) – Nominated for an Edgar Award^[31] and an Agatha Award^[19]
• The Long Way Home (2014) – Inspector Gamache's friend Clara enlists him to find her missing husband, Peter.
• The Nature of the Beast (2015) – Quebec ballistics scientist and international artillery expert Gerald Bull's assassination and his supergun are central plot elements – Nominated for an Anthony Award, an Agatha Award, and winner of Left Coast Crime's^[32] Best World Mystery
• A Great Reckoning (2016) – A map found in the walls of the local Three Pines bistro leads Gamache to shattering secrets on his new job as the superintendent of the Sûreté Academy.
• Glass Houses (2017) – A dark figure appears in Three Pines and leads Gamache to an old wives' tale and murder.
• Kingdom of the Blind (2018) – Gamache, Myrna and a young builder are named executors of a will for a woman none of them has ever met.
• A Better Man (2019)
• All the Devils Are Here (2020) – set in Paris – Winner of the 2020 Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel^[22]
• The Madness of Crowds (2021)
• A World of Curiosities (2022)
• The Grey Wolf (2024)

• State of Terror (2021), co-written with Hillary Clinton

• Ledford-Miller, Linda. "The Dangers of Village Life: The Novels of Louise Penny". The Nashwaak Review [1] 38–39 (January 2018): 297–313.

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Louise Penny.

• Official Website
• St. Martin's Author Profile
• Feature in SHOTS Crime & Thriller Ezine "Louise Penny Tells All"
• Louise Penny at IMDb