Louise Penny Books In Order

Inspector Gamache Books In Publication Order

  1. Still Life (2005)
  2. Dead Cold / A Fatal Grace (2006)
  3. The Cruellest Month (2007)
  4. A Rule Against Murder / The Murder Stone (2008)
  5. The Brutal Telling (2009)
  6. Bury Your Dead (2010)
  7. A Trick of the Light (2011)
  8. The Beautiful Mystery (2012)
  9. How the Light Gets In (2013)
  10. The Long Way Home (2014)
  11. The Nature of the Beast (2015)
  12. A Great Reckoning (2016)
  13. Glass Houses (2017)
  14. Kingdom of the Blind (2018)
  15. A Better Man (2019)
  16. All the Devils Are Here (2020)
  17. The Madness of Crowds (2021)

Inspector Gamache Short Stories/Novellas In Publication Order

  1. The Hangman (2010)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. State of Terror (With: Hillary Rodham Clinton) (2021)

Anthologies In Publication Order

  1. The Best American Mystery Stories 2018 (2018)

Inspector Gamache Book Covers

Inspector Gamache Short Stories/Novellas Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Anthologies Book Covers

Louise Penny Books Overview

Still Life

Winner of the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys awards. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sur t du Qu bec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it’s a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter. Still Life introduces not only an engaging series hero in Inspector Gamache, who commands his forces and this series with integrity and quiet courage, but also a winning and talented new writer of traditional mysteries in the person of Louise Penny.

Dead Cold / A Fatal Grace

Winner of the 2007 Agatha Award for Best Novel! Welcome to winter in Three Pines, a picturesque village in Quebec, where the villagers are preparing for a traditional country Christmas, and someone is preparing for murder. No one liked CC de Poitiers. Not her quiet husband, not her spineless lover, not her pathetic daughter and certainly none of the residents of Three Pines. CC de Poitiers managed to alienate everyone, right up until the moment of her death. When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, of the S ret du Quebec, is called to investigate, he quickly realizes he’s dealing with someone quite extraordinary. CC de Poitiers was electrocuted in the middle of a frozen lake, in front of the entire village, as she watched the annual curling tournament. And yet no one saw anything. Who could have been insane enough to try such a macabre method of murder or brilliant enough to succeed?With his trademark compassion and courage, Gamache digs beneath the idyllic surface of village life to find the dangerous secrets long buried there. For a Quebec winter is not only staggeringly beautiful but deadly, and the people of Three Pines know better than to reveal too much of themselves. But other dangers are becoming clear to Gamache. As a bitter wind blows into the village, something even more chilling is coming for Gamache himself.

The Cruellest Month

Many mystery buffs have credited Louise Penny with the revival of the type of traditional murder mystery made famous by Agatha Christie…
. The book’s title is a metaphor not only for the month of April but also for Gamache s personal and professional challenges making this the series standout so far.
Sarah Weinman

Welcome to Three Pines, where the cruelest month is about to deliver on its threat.
It s spring in the tiny, forgotten village; buds are on the trees and the first flowers are struggling through the newly thawed earth. But not everything is meant to return to life…

When some villagers decide to celebrate Easter with a s ance at the Old Hadley House, they are hoping to rid the town of its evil until one of their party dies of fright. Was this a natural death, or was the victim somehow helped along?
Brilliant, compassionate Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the S ret du Qu bec is called to investigate, in a case that will force him to face his own ghosts as well as those of a seemingly idyllic town where relationships are far more dangerous than they seem.

A Rule Against Murder / The Murder Stone

What happened here last night isn t allowed, said Madame Dubois.
It was such an extraordinary thing to say it stopped the ravenous Inspector Beauvoir from taking another bite of his roast beef on baguette.
You have a rule against murder? he asked.
I do. When my husband and I bought the Bellechasse we made a pact…
. Everything that stepped foot on this land would be safe.

It is the height of summer, and Armand and Reine Marie Gamache are celebrating their wedding anniversary at Manoir Bellechasse, an isolated, luxurious inn not far from the village of Three Pines. But they re not alone. The Finney family rich, cultured, and respectable has also arrived for a celebration of their own.
The beautiful Manoir Bellechasse might be surrounded by nature, but there is something unnatural looming. As the heat rises and the humidity closes in, some surprising guests turn up at the family reunion, and a terrible summer storm leaves behind a dead body. It is up to Chief Inspector Gamache to unearth secrets long buried and hatreds hidden behind polite smiles. The chase takes him to Three Pines, into the dark corners of his own life, and finally to a harrowing climax.

The Brutal Telling

Chaos is coming, old son. With those words the peace of Three Pines is shattered. As families prepare to head back to the city and children say goodbye to summer, a stranger is found murdered in the village bistro and antiques store. Once again, Chief Inspector Gamache and his team are called in to strip back layers of lies, exposing both treasures and rancid secrets buried in the wilderness. No one admits to knowing the murdered man, but as secrets are revealed, chaos begins to close in on the beloved bistro owner, Olivier. How did he make such a spectacular success of his business? What past did he leave behind and why has he buried himself in this tiny village? And why does every lead in the investigation find its way back to him? As Olivier grows more frantic, a trail of clues and treasures from first editions of Charlotte’s Web and Jane Eyre to a spider web with the word WOE woven in it lead the Chief Inspector deep into the woods and across the continent in search of the truth, and finally back to Three Pines as the little village braces for the truth and the final, brutal telling. Narrator Ralph Cosham reprises his Audie Award nominated role as Inspector Armand Gamache in this fifth novel audiobook edition in the much awarded Three Pines Mystery series.

Bury Your Dead

It is Winter Carnival in Quebec City, bitterly cold and surpassingly beautiful. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has come not to join the revels but to recover from an investigation gone hauntingly wrong. But violent death is inescapable, even in the apparent sanctuary of the Literary and Historical Society where an obsessive historian’s quest for the remains of the founder of Quebec, Samuel de Champlain, ends in murder. Could a secret buried with Champlain for nearly 400 years be so dreadful that someone would kill to protect it? Although he is supposed to be on leave, Gamache cannot walk away from a crime that threatens to ignite long smoldering tensions between the English and the French. Meanwhile, he is receiving disquieting letters from the village of Three Pines, where beloved Bistro owner Olivier was recently convicted of murder. It doesn’t make sense, Olivier s partner writes every day. He didn’t do it, you know. As past and present collide in this astonishing novel, Gamache must relive the terrible event of his own past before he can bury his dead.

A Trick of the Light

A New York Times Notable Crime Book and Favorite Cozy for 2011A Publishers Weekly Best Mystery/Thriller books for 2011 ‘Penny has been compared to Agatha Christie but it sells her short. Her characters are too rich, her grasp of nuance and human psychology too firm…
.’ Booklist starred review Hearts are broken, Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. Sweet relationships are dead. But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow’s garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara’s solo show at the famed Mus e in Montreal. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the S ret du Qu bec, is called to the tiny Quebec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light. Where nothing is as it seems. Behind every smile there lurks a sneer. Inside every sweet relationship there hides a broken heart. And even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they’ve found is the truth, or simply A Trick of the Light.

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