Canadian author Penny’s first novel, Still Life, won rave reviews, the the Arthur Ellis Award for best first crime novel in Canada and the Barry Award for Best First Novel in the United States. Since then she has written new novels at the rate of about one per year, each garnering more fans and more awards, including the Agatha award for the best mystery of the year in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. The novels are set in and around the Quebec village of Three Pines and feature Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec, a large, quiet man in his mid-fifties, who likes nothing more than walking through Parc Mont Royal with his beloved wife Reine-Marie and his dog. Penny writes classic British mysteries, complete with red herrings, a large cast of suspects, and a dramatic final revelation. Jean Guy Beauvoir is Gamache’s loyal deputy. Fans will be happy to hear that on June 13, 2012 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation announced plans to make a movie of Still Life. Penny’s newest book, The Beautiful Mystery (Minotaur, 8/2012) finds Gamache and Beauvoir at the isolated monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, famous for its Gregorian chants.  Unfortunately, its choirmaster, Frere Mathieu, has been murdered.

–posted  8/7/2012