Louise Penny: A World of Curiosities

Just before Christmas, Harper Collins published a beautiful special edition hardback of Agatha Christie’s masterpiece The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. The introduction was written by the bestselling Canadian writer, Louise Penny. Penny, the author of 18 novels set mainly in the fictional village of Three Pines, which are focused on the character of Armand Gamache, wrote of her love of Christie’s great novel, and added that...

‘…[anyone] who considers Agatha Christie’s books ‘cozies’ might not be paying close enough attention. True, there are no gruesome descriptions of the slayings, but they crackle with malevolence and are often far darker than they might first appear’

You would go a long way to find a better description of Penny’s own novels.
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The latest instalment in the Armand Gamache series, published on 29 November 2022, is titled A World of Curiosities and, intriguingly, rivals The Nature of the Beast as one of the darkest and most thrilling of the Three Pines novels. In a move reminiscent of The Brutal Telling (2009) with the cabin full of curiosities, Penny focuses much of the narrative around a work of art which is discovered in an attic room in the village. The painting, a replica of The Paston Treasure becomes a focal point in the story, and points to the potential return of a destructive force in Gamache’s life which he had thought was long buried. Fascinatingly, we get a flashback sequence which shows us the origin of the working relationship and deep friendship between Gamache and his second in command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir.

Penny’s novels are loved by her readers for the sense of warmth and comfort conveyed by the village of Three Pines and its inhabitants. Food is an important presence in the novel (never read a Louise Penny novel when you are hungry) both for the solace to be gained from a hot chocolate or a warm baguette, and for the companionship of shared dinners and meals at the Bistro.

Three Pines is a tiny village, not on any maps, which Penny repeatedly emphasises is a metaphor for a state of mind. In an Author’s Note to Glass Houses (2017) she writes: ‘Three Pines is a state of Mind. When we choose tolerance over hate. Kindness over cruelty. Goodness over bullying. When we choose to be hopeful, not cynical. Then we live in Three Pines.’
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That state of mind is embodied in the figure of Armand Gamache, Head of Homicide for the Sûreté du Québec, and the central character in the novels. Gamache, frequently mistaken for a professor, is given to quoting poetry at length, and a man who radiates kindness and decency at every turn. It is a shock in the latest novel to see him pushed to the limits of his kindness; it is a book which explores the theme of forgiveness, and whether it is always possible. There is a level of threat to Gamache, his family, and the dynamic in Three Pines which is rarely seen. As readers, we know to trust Gamache himself and the refrain that runs through the books, however dark they seem: Ça va bien aller. All will be well. 
 
Works Cited
Christie, Agatha. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Harper Collins, 2022.
Penny, Louise. The Brutal Telling. Minotaur Books, 2009.
--- Glass Houses. Minotaur Books, 2017.
--- A World of Curiosities. Minotaur Books, 2022.

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Author Biography
Mary O'Connell is Lecturer in 19th century literature at the School of English and Digital Humanities, University College Cork and is the author of Byron and John Murray: A Poet and His Publisher (Liverpool UP, 2015). She teaches a final year seminar entitled 'Five Great Detectives: An Introduction to Crime Fiction'.