The Landscape of Canadian Women's Crime Fiction

Tag: Louise Penny

  • Joy and Pleasure

    Crime fiction gives its readers much pleasure; Louise Penny’s work, in particular, is attentive to the moments in life when we are “Surprised by Joy.” Penny put out a call in her January newsletter for life advice that’s worth sharing, and her assistant Linda Lyall, working from Scotland, responded with alacrity to the bromide I…

  • Three Pines: Adapting Louise Penny’s Gamache Novels

    Adaptations of Canadian mystery fiction are sometimes ephemeral or short-lived. I’ve been unable to track down copies of the series of TV films based on Gail Bowen’s Joanne Kilbourn novels, although it sounds like there were significant changes. For instance, IMDB describes the character in The Wandering Soul Murders–one of Bowen’s grimmest novels, featuring a…

  • Baguette et Chocolat: Reconsidering Louise Penny’s Bury Your Dead as Trauma Literature

    This morning I am breakfasting on the traditional after-school snack of the French schoolchild: squares of chocolate tucked in to a crispy baguette so that they will melt into the hot bread. A kind of DIY chocolate spread. Louise Penny’s Bury Your Dead is one of her more complex novels, following multiple story and time-lines.…