Louise Penny has established herself as one of the great dames of Canadian crime fiction with a history of distinctions and dozens of awards.
Her novels revolve around the cases of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, one of the most humane and luminous characters born in the heat of crime novels.
Here we share a list of Louise Penny’s books in chronological order and invite you to immerse yourselves in the world of Inspector Gamache.
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18 Louise Penny’s Books in Order
- Still Life
- A Fatal Grace
- The Cruelest Month
- A Rule Against Murder
- The Brutal Telling
- Bury Your Dead
- The Hangman
- 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
1. Still Life (2005)
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Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his team stumble upon the scene of a suspicious death in Three Pines. Jane Neal was found dead in the woods and no one knows why or how this happened.
But Gamache does know that something strange is going on and he is determined to tie up all the loose ends.
2. A Fatal Grace (2006)
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Inspector Gamache investigates the case of CC de Poitiers, a sadistic socialite hated by all, who was electrocuted in a Christmas curling competition. Will someone be responsible for her death?
3. The Cruelest Month (2007)
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Celebrate Easter with a séance, what could possibly go wrong, right? That was what a group of people in Old Hadley House thought.
But what they would never have imagined is that they would end the day looking at the corpse of a person who apparently died of fright. Gamache receives the call and goes to investigate immediately.
4. A Rule Against Murder (2008)
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A high-society family reunion is interrupted by a storm and a death. Chief Inspector Gamache will get to work to unravel the secrets that those people seem so determined to hide.
5. The Brutal Telling (2009)
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With wit and humor, Louise Penny combines the mounting tension of the detective process with an exquisite gallery of characters.
Her capacity for plausible psychological portraiture and for delving into the depths of the human soul gives density to a story full of unexpected revelations and surprises.
6. Bury Your Dead (2010)
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Although Gamache had sworn to rest, he cannot avoid getting involved in an exciting and unofficial investigation that will bring to light dangerous secrets that have been sleeping for centuries.
7. The Hangman (2010)
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Gamache investigates a crime scene involving a man found hanging from a tree in the Three Pines Forest. Did he kill himself or was he killed?
8. A Trick of the Light (2011)
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Clara Morrow decides to throw a party to celebrate her next art exhibition at a major museum, but the next day the body of a woman appears in the garden: Lillian Dyson, who is not only a renowned art critic, but had also been the Clara’s best friend since childhood, until a strong dispute separated them for years.
What was she doing at that party she hadn’t been invited to? Who has killed her?
9. The Beautiful Mystery (2012)
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Together with Gamache and Beauvoir, we will enter the life of a monastery and unmask in an exciting investigation the hidden ambitions that could lead to the murder of one of the men of faith.
10. How the Light Gets In (2013)
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As Gamache proceeds with his investigations, and in the midst of going back and forth between Montreal and Three Pines during a very harsh winter, he tries to uncover a colossal web of murder, lies and corruption.
11. The Long Way Home (2014)
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Armand Gamache has retired and when he thought he had found peace, a woman asks him for help to find her missing husband.
With the help of a diverse group of friends from Three Pines, they will seek to find the man.
However, what begins as a simple investigation will end up taking them to remote places full of secrets.
12. The Nature of the Beast (2015)
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Laurent is a ten-year-old kid with a great imagination who spends his time talking about aliens and monsters that live in the woods. Gamache must undertake a new investigation when the little boy disappears without a trace.
13. A Great Reckoning (2016)
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An interesting and enigmatic map will guide Armand Gamache towards a new adventure full of secrets in Three Pines.
14. Glass Houses (2017)
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A mysterious figure appears in Three Pines, drawing the attention of Gamache and his neighbors.
But when it disappeared, it left a trail of death marked by the corpse of a person. Will the now Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté du Québec be able to find out what is going on?
15. Kingdom of the Blind (2018)
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Armand Gamache has just found out that a complete stranger named him as her executor. A dead benefactor, a puzzling will and a missing stockpile of deadly drugs will keep Gamache busy.
16. A Better Man (2019)
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A series of floods complicate Gamache Jean-Guy Beauvoir’s first days at the helm of the homicide department.
A missing girl and a desperate father will make Gamache rethink the extent to which the common good and empathy go.
Will Gamache be able to resolve his inner conflict with his sense of duty and thus save the people who put their trust in him?
17. All the Devils Are Here (2020)
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Stephen Horowitz, Armand Gamache’s billionaire godfather, is seriously injured in Paris.
Everyone says it was an accident, but Gamache knows that not everything is what it seems and he is determined to find out why someone would deliberately attempt on the life of that old man.
18. The Madness of Crowds (2021)
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Chief Inspector Armand Gamache doesn’t fully understand why he was sent to a college activity.
But listening to the ideas and theories of Professor Abigail Robinson and learning of a murder committed days after the conference, he comes to understand that sometimes madness hides in the crowds.
Good and evil play a central role in the novel and Gamache will have to do his best to solve this new and exciting case.
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What is the order of the Louise Penny novels?
Inspector Gamache Series in order:
1. Still Life (2005)
2. A Fatal Grace (2006)
3. The Cruelest Month (2007)
4. A Rule Against Murder (2008)
5. The Brutal Telling (2009)
6. Bury Your Dead (2010)
7. The Hangman (2010)
8. A Trick of the Light (2011)
9. The Beautiful Mystery (2012)
10. How the Light Gets In (2013)
11. The Long Way Home (2014)
12. The Nature of the Beast (2015)
13. A Great Reckoning (2016)
14. Glass Houses (2017)
15. Kingdom of the Blind (2018)
16. A Better Man (2019)
17. All the Devils Are Here (2020)
18. The Madness of Crowds (2021)