Louise Penny book news

From CBC News --

Quebec's Louise Penny shortlisted for Agatha mystery award --

February 20, 2010 --

The Brutal Telling by Canadian mystery writer Louise Penny has been nominated for an Agatha Award in the U.S. for best novel of 2009.

The latest murder thriller by the Toronto-born journalist debuted in the top 20 on the New York Times bestseller list and remained there for three weeks.

The Agatha Awards, to be handed out May 1 at a ceremony in the U.S., honour works that typify those written by British author Agatha Christie. The novels must not contain explicit sex or violence.

Penny, who now lives in a village south of Montreal, is a favourite of the American prizes, which honoured her with a best novel accolade in 2007 for Dead Cold and then the next year for The Cruelest Month.

Her mysteries revolve around Chief Insp. Armand Gamache, head of the homicide department of the Sûreté du Québec, and murders that occur in the bucolic Quebec countryside.

Penny, who once worked for the CBC before leaving to write her mystery novels, burst onto the mystery scene with her first Insp. Gamache book, Still Life, in 2005.

The debut novel garnered several prizes including the New Blood Dagger award in the U.K. and the Arthur Ellis Award in Canada for best first crime novel.

The Brutal Telling — her fifth book, which concerns the murder of a new inn owner in the fictional Quebec village of Three Pines — is up against:

Swan for the Money, Donna Andrews.
Bookplate Special, Lorna Barrett.
Royal Flush, Rhys Bowen.
Air Time, Hank Phillippi Ryan.

Other prizes for best short story and best children's/young adult fiction will also be handed out.

Five new mysteries to end your year, and fill out your wish list, on a thrilling note (Louise Penny)

From Cleveland's The Plain Dealer --

Five new mysteries to end your year, and fill out your wish list, on a thrilling note --

By Michele Ross. Special to The Plain Dealer. --

December 02, 2009 --

The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny

Fans who have followed this seductive series from its 2006 beginning with "Still Life" -- and if you aren't yet a fan you should be -- will be in for more than the usual share of surprises in "The Brutal Telling," as gentlemanly, shrewd Montreal Inspector Gamache once again explores murder in the quaint village of Three Pines, just inside the Canadian border.

This time a body is found in the village bistro, and the village regulars, whose surprisingly original personalities elevate these books, cope with fear, hope and suspicion.

Grade: A

Louise Penny pays homage to Agatha Christie

From Chicago Tribune --

Louise Penny pays homage to Agatha Christie --

MCT News Service --
November 4, 2009 --

"The Brutal Telling" by Louise Penny; Minotaur (372 pages, $24.99)


Canadian author Louise Penny's gentle series about insightful Chief Inspector Armand Gamache continues to be an homage to the traditional mysteries of Agatha Christie as well as a riff on those novels.

Penny continues her high standards in this fifth installment. "The Brutal Telling" is laden with dry wit, an involving plot and detailed perspectives about the human condition. Penny knows that mysteries set in quaint little villages run the risk of succumbing to Christie's St. Mary Mead syndrome an unrealistic amount of crime for such a small place.

But Penny uses the limited surroundings in this case the Quebec village of Three Pines to her advantage while poking fun at this genre tenet. "Three Pines had no police force, no traffic lights, no sidewalks ... The place didn't even have crime. Except murder. The only criminal thing that ever happened in this village was the worst possible crime."

The disarmingly charming Gamache is again called to Three Pines when the body of a stranger turns up in the successful bistro run by the popular Oliver Brule. That no one had seen the man, even passing through, is odd for Three Pines. What's even odder is that the body had been moved at least twice. Gamache and his savvy team's instincts lead to a cabin in the woods where the stranger lived for years undetected except for visits from someone who regularly brought supplies. Gamache's investigation leads to the past of some of Three Pines' most prominent residents.

"The Brutal Telling" has frequent laugh-out loud passages coupled with realistic plot twists. Penny avoids loading Three Pines with eccentric residents. Even when a few characters are over the top, the author supplies a veneer of believability such as a cantankerous poet who keeps a pet duck, husband and wife artists jealous of each other's talents and a couple renovating an old home into spa.

While Penny puts Gamache at the center of "The Brutal Telling," she also uses an ensemble cast of characters. Each of Gamache's team is thoughtfully shaped as individuals. And many of Three Pines residents show signs of sticking around for upcoming novels we hope.

The award-winning Penny again shows her skillful storytelling in "The Brutal Telling."

Book Review: The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny

From Blogcritics --

Book Review: The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny --

Author: Warren Kelly –-
Published: Nov 17, 2009 --

"All of them? Even the children?" The fireplace sputtered and cackled and swallowed his gasp. "Slaughtered?"

Any time a book starts with that paragraph, you know it's going to be a fascinating, suspenseful ride. And The Brutal Telling is that, and more. It's an exploration of the human condition.

The Brutal Telling is the latest of Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache novels. Penny brings the reader back to Three Pines, a quiet, isolated village in the woods. Inspector Gamache has been called back to solve another murder, but it's going to take a lot of detective work and intuition to peel back the layers of lies covering the truth behind the shocking murder of an unknown hermit.

We know some of the lies from the beginning; Olivier, who finds the hermit's body lying on the floor of his own bistro, says he doesn't know the man, even though we know that he does. In a normal murder mystery, that would be enough for me to say without a doubt that he did it. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Penny doesn't make things so easy on the reader. With the introduction of every new character, we see someone who may have been able to do it. Penny has woven subtext, red herring, and truth together into a plot as rich as any tapestry hanging on the wall, and even at the end of the book, I wondered if the police really arrested the right person; in spite of all the physical evidence, I really thought there was something missing, some way that the police could have been wrong.

The Brutal Telling isn't a typical murder mystery. All the traditional elements are there, of course, but there are elements that are present that seem to have nothing to do with the actual murder investigation, except peripherally. There is a sub-plot involving a talented artist and her husband, and her desire to have her works shown in a major gallery. It seemed to me at the time that the only reason this plot was there was to introduce an art expert or two to the book, which plays a somewhat important role in the investigation.

But it was more than that, and I didn't realize it until the end. Penny presents us with a picture of humanity, and what we are capable of. But more importantly, we see what we fear the most. The fear of consequences — the fear that what we do has ramifications that we will have to face, if not immediately, then certainly in the future. And consequences have a way of catching up with us.

The characterization in the book is rich; it feels like Penny has written full biographies of each character in the book, along with details of how they interact with other characters. I really felt that these were real people, could picture them in my mind as they interacted and worked, trying to solve this mystery that confronted them. These are people I cared about almost immediately, just because of the way they were written. There was clearly backstory that I didn't know about from previous books, but nothing that wasn't explained was important to the plot or my enjoyment of the book.

The Brutal Telling is highly recommended. It's not a "beach book," and it's not light reading. But it's an outstanding mystery, and I look forward to reading more about Chief Inspector Gamache and the people of Three Pines. The last time I was this impressed with a mystery was when I first read Jaqueline Winspear's Maisy Dobbs books. Of course, now I need to make some time to head to the library to read the rest of the series, before the next one is published.