Louise Penny books in order

Louise Penny (born 1 July 1958) is a Canadian crime novelist, author of the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mysteries set in the fictional Quebec village of Three Pines, beginning with Still Life (2005).

Born in Toronto, Penny graduated in radio and television arts from Ryerson in 1979 and spent about 18 years as a CBC radio host and journalist before leaving in 1996 to write. Her manuscript of Still Life came second, out of some 800 entries, in the British Debut Dagger competition, and publishing deals soon followed: St. Martin's took the book in the United States and Headline bought the UK and Commonwealth rights.

Still Life won the Anthony Award for best first novel, among other prizes. The next four Gamache novels, A Fatal Grace, The Cruelest Month, The Brutal Telling and Bury Your Dead, each won the Agatha Award, as did All the Devils Are Here in 2020. The series now runs to some twenty novels. She co-wrote the thriller State of Terror (2021) with Hillary Clinton. The television series Three Pines, starring Alfred Molina, was filmed in Montreal and rural Quebec for Prime Video but was cancelled after one season. Her husband, Michael Whitehead, a haematologist at Montreal Children's Hospital, died in 2016.

For collectors

Still Life is the key Penny book. Wikipedia records the St. Martin's Paperbacks edition of 1 July 2005, while a trade report of March 2005 announced Headline's UK and Commonwealth deal with the book due in British shops that October. As the American and British editions came from different houses, identify a copy by publisher and date.