Louise Penny Fans - Get Ready.

The countdown begins in earnest now. Less than two months before the launch of THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY. This is the eighth Chief Inspector Gamache crime novel, and it comes out in the US, Britain and Canada on August 28th. THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY has been named one of Publishers Weekly top summer reads (before even being published!), and has already earned two starred pre-pub reviews. To read the review in Publishers Weekly and to learn about the audio book, click here.

Publishers Weekly
"Excellent....a captivating whodunit plot, a clever fair-play clue concealed in plain view, and the deft use of humor to lighten the story's dark patches. On a deeper level, the crime provides a means for Penny's unusually empathic, all-too-fallible lead to unearth truths about human passions and weaknesses while avoiding simple answers."

Booklist
"An entire mystery novel centering on Gregorian chants (whose curiously hypnotic allure is called the “beautiful mystery”)? Yes, indeed, and in the hands of the masterful Penny, the topic proves every bit as able to transfix readers as the chants do their listeners. It begins when the choir director of a monastery in a remote corner of Quebec is murdered, his skull bashed in with a rock. Outsiders are not allowed inside the monastery’s walls, where 24 cloistered monks pray, make chocolate, and sing—though a few years earlier, a homemade recording of their chants was released and created a sensation, helped along by the inaccessibility of the artists. Now, with the murder, the doors of the monastery are opened to Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir, charged with finding a killer among a group of largely silent monks, who, it quickly becomes apparent, are engaged in a civil war over their music, but one “fought with glances and small gestures”—until now, when rocks have been added to the arsenal. P. D. James, of course, has made a career out of taking her sleuth, Adam Dalgliesh, into closed worlds to investigate murders, and while Penny follows that formula, she layers her plots more intricately than does James, this time adding an entire contrapuntal plot concerning Gamache, Beauvoir, their relationship, the secrets each conceals, and the demons each continues to fight. “The deepest passions could appear dispassionate, the face a smooth plain while something mammoth roiled away underneath,” Gamache thinks, expressing not only his frustration with the case but, inadvertently, the coming crisis in his relationship with Beauvoir. Of course, there is always something mammoth roiling away beneath the surface of Penny’s novels—but this time the roiling is set against the serenity of the chanting, producing a melody of uncommon complexity and beauty."

Audio book
For those of you interested in the audio book, Ralph Cosham has just finished the recording. He wrote this email to me on the day he completed it:

Dear Louise,

You really are a naughty person. You have created the literary equivalent of OxyContin. There I was, working my way to what I thought would be a dramatic denouement, and BAM, you drop the….It's not fair. Seriously though, it is a beautiful book and I hope I did it justice.

All the best,

Ralph

Louise replies...

Yes - I edited the letter!!! Don't want to give it all away. You'll just have to read the book. Mwahaha.

And believe me, Ralph has done THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY justice.