CANADA’S QUEEN OF MYSTERY
Busloads of fans turn up in Quebec countryside seeking Three Pines
One of Canada’s most successful mystery writers, Louise Penny, has just released Glass Houses. Her 13th novel in the Inspector Gamache series, the book has already garnered praise (Kirkus: “a meticulously built mystery”).
Penny, a former CBC journalist, has won multiple awards for the series and helped turn Quebec’s Eastern Townships, where the books are set, into tourist attractions. We talked to the author at her home in Knowlton, Que., about the fictional town of Three Pines, fans and her new book: Q Do fans show up on your doorstep?
A Not on the doorstep. People here are very kind and protective. People ask where I live and villagers know. But they don’t tell anyone. But we get them literally by the busloads from the United States, from Australia, from Europe, specifically looking for Three Pines. It’s great for the area, too. It’s fun for me because it means people feel an attachment not just to the characters, but to the setting as well. Three Pines is very much a character, as is Quebec. People come here to get a sense of that. It’s a little unfortunate for me because when people do come here they realize I have no imagination at all! Q For many non-Canadian readers, to whom Canada must seem like just this amorphous mass, this series must be a real introduction to an area of this country they never knew existed. A I think that’s why they are shocked. I think they think I’ve exaggerated it or made up how French it is. You cross the border from Vermont and all the signs are in French. I think they are absolutely stunned that it’s a French territory, with all cuisine, the music, the culture that goes along with it. Q Do people in town see you as just another citizen or as that mystery-writer woman?
A Probably a bit of both. One of the great things about having lived here so long, since before I was “the mystery-writer woman,” is people just see me as Louise. I don’t think people see me as anything different. I go into the IGA and people will chat with me about what’s happening. There’s no sense I’m different from anyone else. That would be very sad, if this success separated me from my neighbours. Q In your new book, a mysterious stranger comes to the fictional town of Three Pines. Where did the idea for this character come from?
A In this case, it centres on a phenomenon that I’d heard about before I’d even started
writing. A friend of my (late) husband’s who worked for the Financial Times in Madrid told us about this thing called a cobrador del frac, that turned out to be this very strange debt collector who never approached anyone, never demanded the money back, never did anything that a normal debt collector here would do. He wore a top hat and tails, very formal, and just followed the person, like this shadow. Followed him home, to work, to lunch. He became the conscience of this person and shamed him into paying his debt. That was so macabre, and in many ways frightening — threatening a person was less effective than shaming them. This idea stuck with me. I ferreted it away for years, knowing eventually I would want to use it. And the time came. This book is about conscience, and the effect that has on all of us. Q Did you have to wait for the completion of that thought or idea before you could use it?
A Yes. How do you use this to illustrate the point of the conscience? Also, we tend to think of the conscience as a good thing, that ennobles us and makes us do things that are heroic. But not always.