Welcome to Three Pines! I’m so glad you have found yourself here and are having as much pleasure reading the books as I am in writing them.



You’ve been very patient, my friend, but finally after a year hiatus, the new Gamache is out! THE GREY WOLF came roaring out of the gate – hitting number one in the US and Canada, including the French edition, LE LOUP GRIS, which made number one in my home province, and not coincidentally where the characters also live, of Québec.

That made THE GREY WOLF the top fiction book in North America! Can you believe it??

I am overjoyed, and deeply grateful to you for making this happen. For telling family, friends, perfect strangers, about the Gamache books. Thank you. Merci!

Without spoiling any of the plot, here's a brief description of what Gamache et al are facing.

Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Though the tiny Québec village is impossible to find on any map, someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sûreté, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he finally answers, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning.

That's only the first in a sequence of strange events that begin THE GREY WOLF, the nineteenth novel in Louise Penny's #1 New York Times-bestselling series. A missing coat, an intruder alarm, a note for Gamache reading "this might interest you", a puzzling scrap of paper with a mysterious list--and then a murder. All propel Chief Inspector Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization. Something much more sinister than any one murder or any one case is fast approaching.

Armand Gamache, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his son-in-law and second in command, and Inspector Isabelle Lacoste can only trust each other, as old friends begin to act like enemies, and long-time enemies appear to be friends. Determined to track down the threat before it becomes a reality, their pursuit takes them across Québec and across borders. Their hunt grows increasingly desperate, even frantic, as the enormity of the creature they’re chasing becomes clear. If they fail the devastating consequences would reach into the largest of cities and the smallest of villages.
Including Three Pines.





The Washington Post
"Fresh and surprising… It’s a solemn treatise on power, greed, trust, devotion and the vulnerabilities of the world’s infrastructure. It will leave you shaken. Ever since ‘Still Life,’ the first Gamache novel, was published in 2005 in Canada, after being rejected by dozens of publishers, critics and fans have crowned each subsequent novel the most haunting, the darkest and the edgiest. ‘The Grey Wolf’ is all those things and more."

The Globe and Mail
"...Penny is a daring author. Rather than settling into a comfortable routine, she gives us her most ambitious novel yet with a complex, world-threatening plot and thrilling chases right down to a cliffhanger ending."

The Los Angeles Times
“Following 2022’s ‘A World of Curiosities,’ Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his intrepid band of investigators are back in a thriller that starts with a Sunday phone call that disturbs Gamache’s reveries in his garden and expands to include a break-in, a murder, political intrigue and a greater threat than even Gamache could imagine. Penny’s ability to balance the idyllic village life in Three Pines with impressive thriller chops makes ‘The Grey Wolf’ a richly complicated, compulsively readable tale that’s well worth the two-year wait. “
They also named it as one of the 30 Books to Read This Fall.

The New York Post
“The latest Inspector Gamache book finds the Québécois homicide investigator looking into a series of disturbing incidents — and a possible terrorist plot...”
They also included THE GREY WOLF in their roundup of - The Best New Books to Read

Woman’s World
“Danger, intrigue, and a cast of dynamic characters take center stage…”

Lesa Holstine - Lesa’s Book Critiques
“Fans will not be disappointed… filled with courage… of ordinary people confronted by their worst fears. She alleviates one fear with the storyline in The Grey Wolf, but she leaves us waiting, with bated breath, for the next step in the story arc.”

Christian Science Monitor
“With bursts of wit and warmth, the story exposes the deep fears and hurts – as well as the guiding lights and loves – that drive individuals to act.”
Christian Science Monitor - who also included The Grey Wolf in a list of October's 10 Best Books

Wall Street Journal
“Foiling this sinister plan rests on the actions of a fallible group of mortals who must choose between good and evil, action and inaction, courage and cowardice. The motto on Gamache’s office wall helpfully reminds: ‘Be not afraid.’”

UK Daily Mail
"Subtle, compelling storytelling at its elegant best."

Irish Independent
"Louise Penny’s beastly secrets in The Grey Wolf are a treat for old and new fans of Inspector Gamache."

St. Louis Post
“Everything about ‘The Grey Wolf’ builds to a thrilling climax that makes this one of the most action-packed books in the series.”

Library Journal
"Penny’s follow-up to A World of Curiosities plays on readers’ fears as she launches a new story arc that is completed in this installment but presents a cliffhanger. It’s a frightening novel of duality, of good versus evil, with an allegorical tale for today’s world, as only Penny can write."
Library Journal have also named The Grey Wolf, their Mystery of the Month!

Publishers Weekly
"One of the series' best... Penny pulls off the narrative’s uncharacteristically epic scope without a hitch, swapping fair-play puzzles for pulse-pounding cliffhangers without sacrificing intimate character moments. Gamache’s fans will be eager for his next adventure."

Booklist
"The story is complex and intense, and, as always, artfully constructed and lyrically delivered."

Kirkus
"One of those rare triple-deckers that's actually worth every page, every complication, every bead of sweat."

AudioFile Magazine included THE GREY WOLF in their list of Best Audiobooks for 2024

Click here to read more reviews.



The previous Gamache novel, A WORLD OF CURIOSITIES, was released in 2022 and hit #1 in the USA and Canada, making it the top hardcover fiction book in North America!

Here are some of the accolades:

A WORLD OF CURIOSITIES HAS WON THE AGATHA AWARD FOR BEST CONTEMPORARY NOVEL IN THE UNITED STATES.
ONE OF WASHINGTON POST'S BEST MYSTERIES AND THRILLERS OF 2022
ONE OF PEOPLE MAGAZINE'S BEST FALL BOOKS
ONE OF AARP'S BEST FALL BOOKS
ONE OF CRIMEREADS' MOST ANTICIPATED FALL BOOKS
ONE OF BARNES & NOBLE'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF 2022
ONE OF BUSTLE'S MOST ANTICIPATED NOVEMBER 2022 BOOKS
THRILLER OF THE MONTH, THE LONDON OBSERVER
BOOK OF THE MONTH, THE LONDON TIMES
NUMBER ONE PICK BY LIBRARIANS ACROSS CANADA
LIBRARY JOURNAL'S PICK OF THE MONTH
NAMED A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN AND THE MAIL ON SUNDAY IN THE UK


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. The newest addition to this feature is The Wisdom of Armand Gamache.



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 order (they're designed to be self-standing) there is a strong character development arc. I think of the books as chapters in one longer volume. THE GREY WOLF is Chapter 19.

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
A WORLD OF CURIOSITIES
THE GREY WOLF


I also wrote a novella, The Hangman, as part of a campaign for literacy, so that adults could read complex stories, but at an entry reading level. Up until now, they were forced to read children's books. Not really very fun or respectful.

Another book not in the Three Pines canon is STATE OF TERROR, written with my friend Hillary Clinton. We had a blast scheming and plotting, laughing and then digging deep into some very disturbing and prescient issues. It too hit #1 on the bestseller lists and has been optioned as a film. She and I are both executive producers. More on that as things develop.



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


 
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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