Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache novels (Three Pines Mysteries) are best read in order
This is one of my all-time favorite mystery series and a heartfelt entry on my Uncommonly Good Mysteries list.
If you haven’t tried the Three Pines/Chief Inspector Armand Gamache detective fiction series yet, you’re in for a treat. The characters become old friends and the village of Three Pines feels like home (a place I’d love to live in).
If you choose to come along for the ride, you’ll meet Quebec Provincial Police Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his wife Reine-Marie, Gamache’s police side-kick Jean-Luc Beauvoir, and the cast of characters who somehow found the tiny village of Three Pines… an enchanting place that doesn’t appear on any map.
Each book adds to the characters’ stories and makes you feel like you’re living “real life” with them. Get to know artists Clara and Peter Morrow, Myrna, the psychologist-turned-bookstore-owner, Ruth the famous (but cranky) poet, and Bistro owners Gabri and Olivier. Each has a story, each evolves or regresses, as Louise tells their tales.
And somewhere in there, crimes are solved, music is made, art is created and people are fed. The place is magical; the people are like family. I want to move there.
Chief Inspector Gamache books listed in order:
You could read the Gamache series out of order if you wished, but the location of Three Pines grows on you with each reading and it’s kind of nice to follow the events of your friends there as they happen.
- Still Life [Read this one first]
- A Fatal Grace
- The Cruelest Month
- A Rule Against Murder
- The Brutal Telling
- Bury Your Dead
- A Trick of the Light
- The Beautiful Mystery
- How the Light Gets In
- The Long Way Home – Read my in-depth review here
- The Nature of the Beast
- A Great Reckoning
- Glass Houses
- Kingdom of the Blind
- A Better Man
- All the Devils Are Here
- The Madness of Crowds (release date 8/24/2021)
