Join us for a chat with Canadian author Louise Penny. Wise, personable and funny, Penny regales us with stories of her early life as an introverted, fearful child; how she and her mother enjoyed a mutual love for crime fiction and mystery novels by the likes of Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers; and her years as a young adult in broadcast journalism with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) which led to a dark time of struggling with anxiety and alcoholism.
Penny also shares the fascinating account of how, after kicking her alcohol addiction with help from Alcoholics Anonymous, she met her husband-to-be, Dr. Michael Whitehead, on a blind date. With his support (and after enduring several years of writers’ block) she began to pen her popular Three Pines crime novel series featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, set in Quebec’s beautiful Eastern Townships in the fictional village of Three Pines. Penny’s husband passed away in 2016 after developing dementia. She continues to write her bestselling books, now translated into 31 languages. She also co-wrote State of Terror (Simon and Shuster) with Hilary Clinton, which was published in late 2021.
(Interview by Laura Locke)
Penny has won many prestigious awards, including eight Agatha Awards, and was also made a Member of the Order of Quebec and a Member of the Order of Canada for her contributions to Canadian culture. Louise Penny’s next (and 18th) Three Pines book – A World of Curiosities – will be coming out in late November 2022.
Three Pines, an upcoming British-Canadian streaming television series based on her novels, is now being filmed in Quebec starring Alfred Molina as Chief Inspector Gamache. The series, produced by Left Bank Pictures (which also produced the television series The Crown) is set to premiere on Amazon Prime Video in late 2022 or early 2023.
For more information about Louise Penny’s news, books and events, and to sign up for her newsletter, visit her website.
