Louise Penny's A World of Curiosities reveals Chief Inspector Armand Gamache's origins
Louise Penny is a bestselling writer most known for her mystery series following Chief Inspector Armand Gamache.
The series is up to 19 books, including Still Life, Bury Your Dead, A Trick of the Light, Glass Houses, The Madness of Crowds and now, the latest in the series A World of Curiosities.
In A World of Curiosities, the past and present collide for Armand Gamache as he works to solve another nail-biting mystery.
The Chief Inspector Gamache series of books have sold more than four million copies worldwide and were recently adapted into an Amazon Original eight-episode series called Three Pines. It premiered on Dec. 2, 2022.
Penny won the 2020 Agatha Award for best contemporary novel for the 16th book in the series, All the Devils Are Here.
Penny is a former CBC broadcaster and journalist. In 2013, she was named to the Order of Canada. In 2021, she collaborated with American politician and former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton on the political thriller State of Terror.
The writer and former journalist spoke to The Next Chapter's Shelagh Rogers about A World of Curiosities.
Early on in the novel, you explore the origin story of your wonderful protagonist, Armand Gamache. I wonder if you could share that.
What I have said in previous books is that Armand found Jean-Guy Beauvoir in a basement and picked him essentially out of nowhere to come and join the homicide unit, a surprise to Jean Guy when that happened.
There's a sense that this was an ancient relationship that they had, that it transcended the lifetimes. So, we see that first meeting and what happens and that first case that then, of course, has reverberations into the present case that they're working on.
There's a sense that this was an ancient relationship that they had, that it transcended the lifetimes. So, we see that first meeting and what happens and that first case that then, of course, has reverberations into the present case that they're working on.- Louise Penny
It was really interesting for me because, frankly, when I wrote in previous books that he found Jean-Guy in the basement, I had no idea what that first case was. I didn't have a clue.
So it was fun in this one to be able to explore what it would be and then bring that thread forward into the present day. Then, I decided if we're going to explore that, I also wanted to explore some of Armand's origin story.
What I love about your work is just when you make my heartbeat go up, you throw in a little humour and humanity. It's just so beautiful.
Don't you find that life is like that, though? In the midst of some stress or even some tragedy, something absurd or funny will happen. This struck me during my mother's funeral. We were crying and the minister was there and everybody was there and it was so sad. And then, someone said something funny and we all just started laughing.
Don't you find that life is like that, though? In the midst of some stress or even some tragedy, something absurd or funny will happen.- Louise Penny
How amazing are we as human beings that we can embrace two such apparently diametrically opposed emotions at the same time? This incredible sadness but also genuine humour. I want to bring that into the books: [the idea] that it's possible to laugh even in the midst of sadness.
Early on, in A World of Curiosities, there is a graduation ceremony at École Polytechnique, the site of the Montreal massacre in 1989 where 14 women were killed and 13 injured. You weave that event into this story. You must have had to take great care. How did you navigate it?
I'm trying to remember when it occurred to me to use that episode. I was in Quebec City and I was a young woman journalist, not that much older than the women who were murdered.
I was very aware of it, as we all were, but also aware of some of the mistakes that were made and the politics of it and how it was interpreted and some of the shameful things that were said and done, never mind the murders themselves.
I thought there were two ways I could do it, both of which I incorporated. One is having that event as part of Armand's origin story: he was there when it happened and so we see it through his eyes. He was training in the ambulance service before taking up his post in the Sultanate and he was called out that night.
So, I thought the only way to do that is to get in touch with one of the women who was there and who was injured. That became Nathalie Provost, who was so brave. She survived after being shot four times.- Louise Penny
The struggle is using something that is real and tragic and profoundly affected people's lives as entertainment. I wanted to make sure that that didn't happen, that I honoured the event and the victims. So, I thought the only way to do that is to get in touch with one of the women who was there and who was injured. That became Nathalie Provost, who was so brave. She survived after being shot four times.
She helped me through this and gave me permission to do it. She talked to some of the other survivors and the families to make sure that they were alright with it. Fortunately, she read the books and she understood that I was going to treat it with respect, but it was very, very difficult and even now, I'm struggling to describe how hard it was to write.
I decided to put her in as a character. That was fun. I have to say: she had a blast. She loved the fact that the fictional Nathalie Provost got to have conversations with Armand Gamache.
I would send her the pages as I wrote them. She would send them back saying, "that didn't actually happen. It was more like this."
I told her, "there's gonna be some fictionalization. You have to give me some leeway, but tell me where I've gone too far."
There was a beautiful interview with Louise and Nathalie on As It Happens. Nathalie said the most lovely thing: she's always one book behind because she always wants to know that she has another Armand Gamache book to look forward to.
I think she's probably read this one.
I never use his name and I won't use his name, but when the murderer was in the room and he pointed the gun at her, he said, "I am killing you because you're a feminist." And she said, "but I'm not a feminist. I'm just an engineering student." He shot her anyway.
She said that she wasn't feminist before he pulled the trigger, but the moment he pulled the trigger, she became one.- Louise Penny
She said that she wasn't feminist before he pulled the trigger, but the moment he pulled the trigger, she became one.
You talked about how you were a young CBC journalist and this was something that you had to respond to. You reflect on that in the acknowledgements. What were your feelings that next morning? What were you thinking?
You put on your journalist hat and you have to try to get the facts and not to be emotionally engaged. You're chasing people. You're trying to track down the politicians and the police officers and any family members or survivors who are willing to talk. You're using your left brain, the rational part of the brain.
It wasn't until a couple of days later, frankly, that I realized how wrong I was, how far off I was. It was a shame that I carried for a long time and I talked to Nathalie about it. I allowed politicians and analysts and some journalists who we were talking to frame it as a mental health issue. It's just one madman with a gun; it wasn't about them being feminists. It was essentially immaterial that they were women; it wasn't a femicide.
It was Nathalie, who gave an interview from her hospital bed, who described the fact that it wasn't just that they were women, it was that they were women in a man's world, right. This was about feminism.
It was Nathalie, who gave an interview from her hospital bed, who described the fact that it wasn't just that they were women, it was that they were women in a man's world- Louise Penny
Nothing is in isolation. It was also about mental health. It was about all sorts of other things. But, it was about a society where he felt that this was a reasonable response.
LISTEN | Louise Penny and Nathalie Provost discuss A World of Curiosities:
There's a quote that you have from W.H. Auden in the book that goes, "evil is unspectacular and always human." Before you began to write the Three Pines books, did you think a lot about the nature of evil?
The books were always going to be about duality, about what we think and what we say: the gap between our public face and our inner thoughts. Three Pines is that: it's the beautiful village and you don't know what's happening behind closed doors.
The quote goes on to say: "and shares our bed and eats at our own table" and it goes on to talk about goodness and "goodness has a name like Billy and we meet him in drawing rooms amid of a crowd of faults." Isn't that wonderful? That's the laughter and the tears together.
We meet goodness amid a crowd of faults.
We do have some truly awful people in this story. Where do you go to get into their heads to create those characters?
That's an interesting question. I'm not going to say anything that I haven't said before, but I don't actually talk about it a lot. I'm an alcoholic in recovery and I've been in recovery now and sober for almost 30 years.
The reason I mention that is that it comes with this idea of evil, goodness and venality. The reason I can write truly vile human beings is that I have been one. I have had really awful thoughts and I have done things I am deeply ashamed of. I'm not blaming the drink. It's not necessarily because of the drink, but, in getting sober, we have to face that.
We have to be rigorously honest and we have to look deep inside ourselves and own the things that we have done, especially the things that we are deeply ashamed of.
We have to be rigorously honest and we have to look deep inside ourselves and own the things that we have done.- Louise Penny
I didn't do anything that most people haven't done, but it gave me an awareness of it and an awareness that it didn't make me a bad person, but what I did was not so good. So, I could describe why someone would behave the way they have behaved and try to really get into their heads in a real way and not in a caricature way or a two-dimensional way.
In the process of getting sober, it talks about humility and humility isn't putting yourself down. It's actually having a good sense of where you have gone wrong, but also where you've gone right. Own that. Own your grace, own your goodness. I try to bring that to the book.
I just want to ask you about the cover. It's really beautiful.
I knew the themes that I wanted to explore in the books because it takes me a year to write a book. A book cannot be about murder because murder is not a theme. Murder is an act and it's vile, but it doesn't interest me. What interests me is what propels and what happens in someone's mind that they believe that is the answer to whatever the question is.
I knew what the themes were, but I needed a vehicle that would allow Armand and the others to get there.
I was in London when I was reading the Guardian. They have a weekly column where they ask a prominent person to describe their favourite work of art. One person described The Paston Treasure at the the Norfolk Museum. It turns out it was found in someone's back room in Norfolk in the 1950s because they were cleaning it out.
They left it on the stairs of the Norfolk Museum with a note attached to it saying, "this is of absolutely no artistic value, but we don't want it anymore. Maybe you can make use of it or sell it and make a couple of pounds."
The museum cleaned it up. It turns out, the painting is a masterwork. Not only artistically is it a masterwork by a Dutch Renaissance painter from the 1600s, but as a study, as a historical document, it's fascinating.
It's the painting of the Paston family treasures. It's like a photograph of this one moment in time. But it's known as a world of curiosities because it itself is a mystery. Why this fascination with timepieces? Who are the people in the background because their faces are hidden all throughout this thing. Who are these people? Who painted it? It's not signed.
Why would someone spend months painting what is clearly a masterwork and not sign it?
They still don't know. There have been books written about this because it itself is a mystery. So, that becomes a vehicle for Armand to explore these other issues.
I do want to ask you about the theme of forgiveness that runs through many of your books, but particularly this book. I wonder what you're thinking about and what it is you want to look at about forgiveness.
In the As It Happens interview with Nathalie Provost, she was asked, "how do you let it go?"
This book is in many ways a meditation on being able to forgive and what happens when you can't forgive.- Louise Penny
She said, "you have to forgive. Not for the murderer's sake, but for yourself. You have to let it go in order to move forward, but never forget. It's like a rowboat. You're looking backward, but you're always moving forward and you do that by forgiving."
This book is in many ways a meditation on being able to forgive and what happens when you can't forgive.
WATCH | Louise Penny and Hillary Clinton wrote a thriller together:
Penny's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
Interview produced by Lisa Mathews, Shelagh Rogers and Jacqueline Kirke.
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