I’m a new fan. As usual I’m late for the dance and I don’t know the latest steps but the music moves me, in this case, the music is the writing of Canadian crime writer Louise Penny. I started with the lovely and lyrical novel, The Beautiful Mystery set in a monastery outside Quebec. With the murder of a monk and the beautiful mystery of the voice of God and Gregorian chant, Louise Penny weaves together religion, modern skepticism, our personal spiritual quests and our own demons for a yin and yang of good versus evil in the most joyously beautiful rendition of a modern crime novel.
My friend, author Marni Graff started me on my quest to read my first Louise Penny novel as we had plans to see her at McIntyre’s Book Store in Fearington Village Pittsboro, NC March 27th and I wanted to have at least a little idea of whom I was riding three hours (one way) to see. Marni raves about her books and about the lady herself, telling us how kind and gracious she is, having met her several times.
After seeing her at Fearington Village I can understand why the lady beside me came all the way from Alabama to see her. She was charming, funny and intelligent. Even with five hundred people crowded together in the barn she made you feel like you were sitting in her living room talking to her. She was down home friendly, a real small town lady with class and style. If I was not a fan before I met her, I would be by the time I left the barn.
She made me believe in the characters in her books because she believes in them. They aren’t just paper and ink they are real flesh and blood people with heart and soul. Armand Gamache is a man who believes what the Surete de Quebec stands for and he lives to serve. He is a man of honor. When she created the character, she said, she chose someone she could live with even if she never sold a book. She did not realize at first, she’d simply recreated many of the things she loved best in her husband in Armand. What a wonderful tribute.
Launching her newest novel The Long Way Home that circles back to her original novel Still Life, celebrates art and the love of art. If you read nothing else this year, check out Louise Penny’s The Long Way Home, it will fill you will joy.