Early life and career with the CBC
Penny was born in Toronto, Canada, [2] on July 1, 1958. [1] [3] Her mother was an avid reader of both fiction and non-fiction, with a particular liking for crime fiction, [4] and Louise grew up reading mystery writers such as Agatha Christie, Georges Simenon, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Michael Innes. [4]
Penny earned a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Radio and Television) from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Toronto Metropolitan University) in 1979. [5] After graduation, aged 21, she embarked on an 18-year career as a radio host and journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). [6]
Literary career
Penny left the CBC in 1996 to take up writing. [7] She started a historical novel but had difficulty finishing it and eventually switched to mystery writing. [7] She entered her first novel, Still Life, in the "Debut Dagger" competition in the United Kingdom, placing second out of 800 entries. [7] The novel won other awards, including the "New Blood" Dagger award in the United Kingdom, the Arthur Ellis Award in Canada for best first crime novel, the Dilys Award, [8] the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best First Novel in the United States.
Penny continues to write, garnering major crime novel award nominations for almost every one of her novels and subsequently winning several of those awards. [8]
Her work features Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, head of the homicide department of the Sûreté du Québec. [9] The novels are set in the province of Quebec but feature many hallmarks of the British whodunit genre, including murders by unconventional means, bucolic villages, large casts of suspects, red herrings, and a dramatic disclosure of the murderer in the last few pages of the book. [10]
In 2009, Penny helped to launch a new award for aspiring Canadian mystery writers, the Unhanged Arthur for Best Unpublished First Novel. [7]
In 2025, Penny publicly supported the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, which straddles the Canada–U.S. border, after new American restrictions threatened Canadian access to the building. [11] A frequent visitor and the library’s most-borrowed author, she criticized the measures as an attack on cultural institutions and donated C$50,000 to help fund a new Canadian entrance. [11] Penny also announced that she would not tour the United States to promote The Black Wolf, the 20th novel in her Chief Inspector Gamache series, citing opposition to Donald Trump’s tariff threats against Canada and his appointment as chair of the Kennedy Center board. [12] Originally scheduled to launch at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the book’s release was instead moved to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, where tickets sold out within hours. [12] It marked the first time in two decades that one of her publicity tours did not include stops in the United States. [12]
Personal life
At the start of her broadcasting career, Penny took postings at locations far from friends and family, and to help deal with feelings of loneliness and isolation, she increasingly turned to alcohol. At the age of 35, she admitted to an alcohol problem and has been sober since. [7] Shortly afterwards, she met her future husband, Michael Whitehead, head of hematology at Montreal Children's Hospital, [13] on a blind date. [7] Whitehead was diagnosed with dementia in 2013 and Penny took on the role as his primary caregiver. [14] He died on September 18, 2016. [15]
Adaptations
For several years, Penny resisted selling the TV or movie rights to her books, afraid of losing creative control of her characters. [19] However, when approached by PDM Entertainment and Attraction Images and offered a position as executive producer during film production, she changed her mind and agreed to sell them the rights to her first two novels. [19] Still Life went into production in the fall of 2012, with British actor Nathaniel Parker cast as Chief Inspector Gamache. [19] The movie aired on CBC TV in 2013. [19]
In September 2021, production of Three Pines began in Montreal and rural Quebec, starring Alfred Molina. [20] The series was distributed by Prime Video and generally received positive praise from audiences and critics. Despite this, the series was cancelled after the first season due to Left Bank Pictures and Prime Video being unable to reach an agreement on how to move forward for a second season. [21]
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