Louise Penny

Literary career Penny left the CBC in 1996 to take up writing. the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best First Novel in the United States.

Penny continues to write, garnering major crime novel award nominations for almost every one of her novels and subsequently winning several of those awards. The novels are set in the province of Quebec but feature many hallmarks of the British whodunit genre, including murders by unconventional means, bucolic villages, large casts of suspects, red herrings, and a dramatic disclosure of the murderer in the last few pages of the book.

In 2009, Penny helped to launch a new award for aspiring Canadian mystery writers, the Unhanged Arthur for Best Unpublished First Novel. A frequent visitor and the library’s most-borrowed author, she criticized the measures as an attack on cultural institutions and donated to help fund a new Canadian entrance. Originally scheduled to launch at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the book’s release was instead moved to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, where tickets sold out within hours.

Personal life At the start of her broadcasting career, Penny took postings at locations far from friends and family, and to help deal with feelings of loneliness and isolation, she increasingly turned to alcohol. At the age of 35, she admitted to an alcohol problem and has been sober since. Shortly afterwards, she met her future husband, Michael Whitehead, head of hematology at Montreal Children's Hospital, on a blind date. He died on September 18, 2016.

Honours In 2013, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada "for her contributions to Canadian culture as an author shining a spotlight on the Eastern Townships of Quebec". In 2017 she was made a Member of the Order of Quebec. In 2017, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Literature from Carleton University.

Adaptations For several years, Penny resisted selling the TV or movie rights to her books, afraid of losing creative control of her characters. However, when approached by PDM Entertainment and Attraction Images and offered a position as executive producer during film production, she changed her mind and agreed to sell them the rights to her first two novels. The series was distributed by Prime Video and generally received positive praise from audiences and critics. Despite this, the series was cancelled after the first season due to Left Bank Pictures and Prime Video being unable to reach an agreement on how to move forward for a second season.

Awards Year !! Work !! Award !! Category !! Result !! Ref

2020

The Cruelest Month (2008) – Winner of the 2008 Agatha Award; The Brutal Telling (2009) – Winner of the 2009 Agatha Award, and the 2010 Anthony Award Bury Your Dead (2010) – Winner of the 2010 Agatha Award, the 2011 Anthony Award, the 2011 Macavity Award, the 2011 Arthur Ellis Award, and the 2011 Nero Award A Trick of the Light (2011) – Nominated for a Macavity, an Anthony Award, and an Agatha Award The Hangman (2011) – A novella in the Inspector Gamache series, written at a third grade level for emerging adult readers. The Beautiful Mystery (2012) – Winner of the 2013 Macavity Award for Best Mystery How the Light Gets In (2013) – Nominated for an Edgar Award and an Agatha Award The Madness of Crowds (2021) - Navigating hot-button political polarization within the familiar backdrop of Three Pines, Gamache and Beauvoir face personal complications in this mystery. A World of Curiosities (2022) - Incorporating codes and embedded messages in art, this novel explores the impact of the past on the present with layers of meaning and the power of forgiveness. The Grey Wolf (2024) - Mystery and intrigue on a global level, as compassion struggles against rage. Long-standing tensions between Gamache and his son Daniel come to the fore in this intense battle against a terrorism plot. The Black Wolf (2025) Other works State of Terror (2021), co-written with Hillary Clinton