Picture of author.

Louise Penny

Forfatter af Still Life

37+ Works 49,665 Members 3,100 Reviews 134 Favorited
There is 1 open discussion about this author. See now.

Om forfatteren

Louise Penny was born in Toronto, Canada in 1958. She earned a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Radio and Television) from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Ryerson University) in 1979. Before she turned to writing mystery novels in 2004, she was a journalist and radio host for the Canadian vis mere Broadcasting Corporation in various cities across Canada for 25 years. She writes the Chief Inspector Gamache Novel series. She has won numerous awards including the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys awards for Still Life and the 2007 Agatha Award for Best Novel for A Fatal Grace. Louise's title, The Long Way Home, made the Hot Mystery Title's List for Summer 2014. Her titles The Nature of the Beast made The New York Times best seller list in 2015 and A Great Reckoning made The New York Times best seller list in 2016. (Bowker Author Biography) vis mindre

Omfatter også følgende navne: Louis Penny, Louise Penny, by Louise Penny

Image credit: Taken by Lesa Holstine, March 2008

Serier

Værker af Louise Penny

Still Life (2005) 6,652 eksemplarer
A Fatal Grace (2007) 4,013 eksemplarer
The Cruellest Month (2007) 3,303 eksemplarer
The Brutal Telling (2009) 3,123 eksemplarer
A Rule Against Murder (2008) 3,024 eksemplarer
Bury Your Dead (2010) 2,924 eksemplarer
The Beautiful Mystery (2012) 2,790 eksemplarer
A Trick of the Light (2011) 2,612 eksemplarer
How the Light Gets In (2013) 2,602 eksemplarer
The Long Way Home (2014) 2,173 eksemplarer
A Great Reckoning (2016) 2,154 eksemplarer
Glass Houses (2017) 2,134 eksemplarer
The Nature of the Beast (2015) 2,082 eksemplarer
Kingdom of the Blind (2018) 1,923 eksemplarer
A Better Man (2019) 1,693 eksemplarer

Associated Works

Hvem dræbte? (1926) — Introduktion, nogle udgaver9,947 eksemplarer
Still Life: A Three Pines Mystery [2013 film] (2013) — Original novel — 9 eksemplarer
Mysterious Writers: The Many Facets of Mystery Writing (2010) — Bidragyder — 9 eksemplarer
State of Terror / Never (2022) — Bidragyder — 1 eksemplar

Satte nøgleord på

Agatha Christie (233) Armand Gamache (1,535) artists (175) audio (374) bibliotek (231) Canada (2,365) Canadian (657) Canadian author (370) Canadian literature (254) chief inspector gamache series (295) crime fiction (679) detective fiction (170) detektiv (615) ebog (641) ejer (216) Gamache (447) Hercule Poirot (325) Kindle (673) kriminalitet (912) kunst (206) Louise Penny (169) lydbog (565) læst (770) Montreal (201) mord (800) murder mystery (339) mysteries (230) mysterium (8,576) mystery-thriller (164) Poirot (262) police procedural (556) Quebec (1,951) read in 2019 (165) roman (348) serie (1,037) Skal læses (2,644) skønlitteratur (4,041) spænding (192) Three Pines (897) thriller (286)

Almen Viden

Fødselsdato
1958-07-01
Køn
female
Nationalitet
Canada
Fødested
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Bopæl
Québec City, Québec, Canada
Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Montréal, Québec, Canada
Knowlton, Canada
Uddannelse
Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (BA|Radio and Television)
Erhverv
journalist
radio host
mystery novelist
Agent
Chris, Teresa
Kort biografi
I'd like to tell you a little bit about myself. I was born in Toronto in 1958 and became a journalist and radio host with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, specializing in hard news and current affairs. My first job was in Toronto and then moved to Thunder Bay at the far tip of Lake Superior, in Ontario. It was a great place to learn the art and craft of radio and interviewing, and listening. That was the key. A good interviewer rarely speaks, she listens. Closely and carefully. I think the same is true of writers.

From Thunder Bay I moved to Winnipeg to produce documentaries and host the CBC afternoon show. It was a hugely creative time with amazingly creative people. But I decided I needed to host a morning show, and so accepted a job in Quebec City. The advantage of a morning show is that it has the largest audience, the disadvantage is having to rise at 4am.

But Quebec City offered other advantages that far outweighed the ungodly hour. It's staggeringly beautiful and almost totally French and I wanted to learn. Within weeks I'd called Quebecers 'good pumpkins', ordered flaming mice in a restaurant, for dessert naturally, and asked a taxi driver to 'take me to the war, please.' He turned around and asked 'Which war exactly, Madame?' Fortunately elegant and venerable Quebec City has a very tolerant and gentle nature and simply smiled at me.

From there the job took me to Montreal, where I ended my career on CBC Radio's noon programme.

In my mid-thirties the most remarkable thing happened. I fell in love with Michael, the head of hematology at the Montreal Children's Hospital. He'd go on to hold the first named chair in pediatric hematology in Canada, something I take full credit for, out of his hearing.

It's an amazing and blessed thing to find love later in life. It was my first marriage and his second. He'd lost his first wife to cancer a few years earlier and that had just about killed him. Sad and grieving we met and began a gentle and tentative courtship, both of us slightly fearful, but overcome with the rightness of it. And overcome with gratitude that this should happen to us and deeply grateful to the family and friends who supported us.

Eleven years later we live in an old United Empire Loyalist brick home in the country, surrounded by maple woods and mountains and smelly dogs.

There are times when I'm in tears writing. Not because I'm so moved by my own writing, but out of gratitude that I get to do this. In my life as a journalist I covered deaths and accidents and horrible events, as well as the quieter disasters of despair and poverty. Now, every morning I go to my office, put the coffee on, fire up the computer and visit my imaginary friends, Gamache and Beauvoir and Clara and Peter. What a privilege it is to write. I hope you enjoy reading the books as much as I enjoy writing them.

Medlemmer

Discussions

Anmeldelser

Persistent mixed feelings about this series.
 
Markeret
Kiramke | 121 andre anmeldelser | Mar 25, 2024 |
Hard to put down, as always. Penny has become adept at handling complex plots and many characters. I had a little trouble with the basic premise, that someone could propose such an idea so successfully . . . but that premise did weave in very well with the 'true' piece of the story. One of Penny's strengths is that at the core of every book is something that really did happen or, at the least, is hard-core lore. Anyway, a good read. ***1/2
½
 
Markeret
sibylline | 75 andre anmeldelser | Mar 25, 2024 |
The fourth Armand Gamache book takes place at the Manoir Bellechasse rather than in Three Pines.

Armand and his wife Reine-Marie are staying at the exclusive resort to celebrate their wedding anniversary. The other guests are the Finney family; they have gathered for a family reunion. As expected, one of the Finneys is killed so Gamache and his team investigate. The story has the feel of a locked-room mystery because the murderer is certainly one of the guests or staff. What is particularly unusual is the method used to kill; it is even more of a mystery than the identity and motive of the killer.

In some ways it was a relief to have the book set outside of Three Pines because after the first three books, it felt like Cabot Cove. For those missing the idyllic village, there is a visit where some of the residents make an appearance. Clara and Peter Morrow once again are central figures. The character of Peter has always troubled me to some extent, especially his jealousy, and this book does go a long way to explaining the reasons for his personality.

There is a truly dysfunctional family in this book. There is little to like about the Finneys; they are totally obnoxious, always making nasty comments to each other. They hold grudges and resentments. Behaviours that they adopted as children, as they competed for their father’s love and attention, continue into adulthood. There are some attempts to show some positive qualities, but I found them unconvincing. A loving father would be angry with his daughter when some graffiti defames and degrades her? Why wouldn’t Irene Finney tell her adult children about her chronic pain that made even touch painful? Surely saying something loving wouldn’t increase that pain? And Marianne Finney is so intelligent and creative and successful, but names her child Bean so a grandmother won’t know her grandchild’s gender?

There are other weak justifications for behaviour. The killer’s motive is unconvincing since the victim is totally innocent and merely an expedient scapegoat. And the method of murder takes days to execute so is it supposed to be a premeditated crime or a crime of passion? And as in A Fatal Grace, there are so many variables that the killer could not control (like ensuring that the victim would be in a particular spot during a storm) so had to have a great deal of luck.

Readers of Penny’s novels will find it easy to find the usual Penny touches. There’s the detailed description of food, an overweight character, and the Agatha Christie gathering at the end. I did find the tea party before the killer is taken into custody a bit over-the-top. Gamache, again, is almost sanctified. The climactic scene which also equates him as a Burgher of Calais willing to sacrifice himself for others is a bit much. Attempts to give him flaws are weak because he always recognizes and admits his errors.

Everything – except Bean’s gender – is tied up nicely at the end. Since this book explains much about Peter Morrow, I am wondering whether further books in the series will delve into the backstories of other Three Pines characters. I think other village residents probably have interesting histories as well.

Note: Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/DCYakabuski).
… (mere)
 
Markeret
Schatje | 161 andre anmeldelser | Mar 22, 2024 |
Oh, how I love the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. I just want to up and move to Three Pines. This one, How the Light Gets In has got to be my favorite so far. Comeuppance come!

I just found out that the narrator Ralph Cosham passed away back in 2014 and only got to narrate the first 10 books in the series. So I am saddened that the next book in the series, # 10, The Long Way Home, was his final embodiment of Armand Gamache.
 
Markeret
deslivres5 | 172 andre anmeldelser | Mar 19, 2024 |

Lister

Canada (1)

Hæderspriser

Måske også interessante?

Associated Authors

Otto Penzler Series editor
Michael Connelly Contributor
John M. Floyd Contributor
Alan Orloff Contributor
Joyce Carol Oates Contributor
Paul D. Marks Contributor
Rob Hart Contributor
Martin Limón Contributor
Andrew Bourelle Contributor
Louis Bayard Contributor
T.C. Boyle Contributor
Michael Bracken Contributor
Brian Silverman Contributor
Charlaine Harris Contributor
James Lee Burke Contributor
Andrew Klavan Contributor
Lee Child Contributor
Ralph Cosham Narrator
Laura Wilson Producer
Andrea Stumpf Translator
Gabriele Werbeck Translator
Kiyomi Nagano Translator
Louise Chabalier Translator
Lorelei King Producer & director, Producer & direcctor, Director
Margo Goody Package designer, cover design adapter
Claire Chabalier Translator
Will Lee Cover designer, Cover artist
Raimo Salminen Translator
Rhys Davies Illustrator
Astrid Eggesvik Translator
Titia Ram Translator
Edwin Tse Cover designer
Ede Kõrgvee Translator
Gary Matthews Author photo
Tong-yun Yi Translator
Maya Denneman Translator
Chrysa Bania Translator
Ian Crysler Author photo
Jon Shireman Cover photo
Shutterstock Cover image
Danielle Cover photo
Adam Sims Narrator
iStock/Thinkstock Cover image
Besterhu Cover photo
D. Burke Cover photo of ice
lobster Cover photo of water
MacMillan Audio Publisher
Ally Coxon Cover image
Danny McAuley Postscript
Wayne Shanahan Postscript

Statistikker

Værker
37
Also by
5
Medlemmer
49,665
Popularitet
#310
Vurdering
4.0
Anmeldelser
3,100
ISBN
827
Sprog
21
Udvalgt
134

Diagrammer og grafer