Episode 30: Louise Penny LoveFest
Summary: Louise Penny is one of Canada’s most prolific and successful authors - she writes dark, heart wrenching murders that somehow pair well with a quiet town with quaint bed and breakfasts and bistros with some of the best food ever described. Holly and Devin fell in love with the Armand Gamache detective series years ago, and today they finally get to gush about Louise and her writing for the podcast! Check out a spoiler-free LoveFest to learn why both Holly and Devin cannot get enough of these murder mysteries!
Topics Discussed:
Plots (6:28):
The mysteries themselves are unusual and ultimately a bit odd - no one is ever taken out by a gun in front of a security camera. This makes the books super fresh and unlike other mystery novels.
Penny intends to leave the reader off-balance, and her masterful writing is intended to keep us guessing without ever making us question plausibility.
The books must be read in order because there are multi-book plotlines that investigate larger issues than each murder - corruption, racism, drug trafficking, and infrastructure neglect to name a few.
Characters (15:15):
Every character, recurring or not, is flawed and therefore deeply human. As a reader, it becomes easy to empathize even with Ruth, a mean old crone alcoholic and poet (Devin’s car is named Ruth after her).
The series centers around the citizens of Three Pines, a fictitious Québec town that acts as a microcosm of community everywhere.
We follow a core group of characters as they grow, evolve, live and die in Three Pines; the ultimate feeling for the reader is that they are journeying through life with friends they care about deeply.
Writing (21:12):
Part of the magic of Penny is that she writes about each character as if she is in their head; if they are confident they are right, only time and the advancing plot will show us. This adds a propulsive and immersive element to the story where you as the reader feel like you’re experiencing it with them as things evolve, versus being told a story.
Louise Penny may as well have been a psychologist (and one of the Three Pines residents, Myrna, actually is!) for how deeply she understands the human condition and infuses that deep compassion into her writing.
Themes (27:20):
Motivation: there are deep emotional and psychological motivations for all characters which drives both good and bad decisions across the series. Grief plays an especially large role, unveiling the long-term impacts of death and trauma.
Art: there is art all over this series! Ruth is a poet, Armand quotes poetry and literature freely while they investigate murder, Clara and Peter are visual artists, music features heavily throughout.
Justice: While Armand is of course a detective, the series also interrogates the true meaning of justice as a concept, pitting Armand and his team multiple times against various power structures and corrupt systems that force them to make decisions - doing what is right, what is easy, and sometimes, what is technically illegal.
Community: Yes, these are murder mystery books, but all 18 books are united by a compelling and heartwarming sense of community. The characters care about each other, about their place in the world, and about how their decisions impact others.
Details (33:56):
The food!! We could talk for two hours about the food alone. Penny enlists the help of all five senses to create a vivid world that grounds the reader and makes Three Pines come to life, one croissant at a time.
Each book tends to be quite seasonal, centered on a specific time of year that adds to the tension, plot, and sense that we are experiencing life as it happens for the characters.
The police investigations are not glossed over and have many nitpicky details that brings the reader more deeply into the often confusion, dead-end exploring world of detective Gamache as he and his team solve murders.
Favorite Books (40:16):
Holly: The Beautiful Mystery (Book 8)
Devin: How the Light Gets In (Book 9)
Hot On the Shelf (49:14):
What’s Making Our Hearts Race (51:04):
Holly: Andor on Disney+
Devin: Paul T. Goldman on Peacock
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