Even casual readers know that a great mystery can make for the perfect literary escape. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of amazing authors in the genre—including Louise Penny. Over the past two decades, the award-winning Canadian novelist has delighted audiences with nearly two dozen titles. But if you’re new to Louise Penny, is there an easy way to read all of her books in order?
Crime fiction fans will be happy to know that all but one of Penny’s novels follows the trail of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, who heads up the homicide department for the provincial police department in Quebec, Canada. Each story follows a different murder set in the francophone province, weaving through a wide cast of characters and providing plenty of twists and turns in a style that has drawn comparisons to legendary murder mystery author Agatha Christie.
However, don’t lose heart if you’ve already jumped around among her titles. “At the risk of appearing to want you to buy more books, let me say that while it's not necessary to read them in order (they're designed to be self-standing), there is a strong character development arc,” Penny writes on her website. “I think of the books as chapters in one longer volume.”
If you’re ready to start up your next page-turner series, here’s the chronological order to read them, according to the author herself.
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The Armand Gamache Series
- Still Life (2005)
- A Fatal Grace (a.k.a Dead Cold, 2007)
- The Cruelest Month (2008)
- A Rule Against Murder (a.k.a. The Murder Stone, 2009)
- The Brutal Telling (2009)
- Bury Your Dead (2010)
- A Trick of the Light (2011)
- The Beautiful Mystery (2012)
- How the Light Gets In (2013)
- The Long Way Home (2014)
- The Nature of the Beast (2015)
- A Great Reckoning (2016)
- Glass Houses (2017)
- Kingdom of the Blind (2018)
- A Better Man (2019)
- All the Devils Are Here (2020)
- The Madness of the Crowds (2021)
- A World of Curiosities (2022)
- The Grey Wolf (coming out on Oct. 29, 2024)
Other Books
- The Hangman (a novella featuring Armand Gamache aimed at young readers, 2011)
- State of Terror (co-authored with Hillary Clinton, 2021)
