Happily retired in the village of Three Pines, Armand Gamache, former Chief Inspector of Homicide with the Sûreté du Québec, has found a peace he’d only imagined possible. On warm summer mornings he sits on a bench holding a small book, The Balm in Gilead, in his large hands. "There is a balm in Gilead," his neighbor Clara Morrow reads from the dust jacket, "to make the wounded whole."

While Gamache doesn’t talk about his wounds and his balm, Clara tells him about hers. Peter, her artist husband, has failed to come home. Failed to show up as promised on the first anniversary of their separation. She wants Gamache’s help to find him. Having finally found sanctuary, Gamache feels a near revulsion at the thought of leaving Three Pines. "There’s power enough in Heaven," he finishes the quote as he contemplates the quiet village, "to cure a sin-sick soul." And then he gets up. And joins her.

Together with his former second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and Myrna Landers, they journey deeper and deeper into Québec. And deeper and deeper into the soul of Peter Morrow. A man so desperate to recapture his fame as an artist, he would sell that soul. And may have. The journey takes them further and further from Three Pines, to the very mouth of the great St. Lawrence River. To an area so desolate, so damned, the first mariners called it "the land God gave to Cain." And there they discover the terrible damage done by a sin-sick soul.

LOUISE PENNY, a former CBC radio journalist, is the #1 New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling author of fourteen Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novels. She has been awarded the John Creasey Dagger, Nero, Macavity and Barry Awards, as well as two each of the Arthur Ellis and Dilys Awards. Additionally, Penny has won six Agatha Awards and five Anthony Awards, and has been a finalist for an Edgar Award. She lives in a small village south of Montréal.

Her first Armand Gamache novel, "Still Life" won the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony and Dilys Awards.

Awards:

* Agatha Award: Best Novel

o 2007 – A Fatal Grace – Winner

o 2008 – The Cruelest Month – Winner

o 2009 – The Brutal Telling – Winner

o 2010 – Bury Your Dead – Winner

o 2013 – The Beautiful Mystery – Winner

* Arthur Ellis Award

o 2006 – Still Life – Winner Best First Crime Novel

o 2011 – Bury Your Dead – Winner Best Crime Novel

* Barry Award

o 2007 – Still Life – Best First Novel Winner

* Anthony Award

o 2007 – Still Life – Best First Novel Winner

o 2009 – The Brutal Telling – Best Novel Winner

o 2010 – Bury Your Dead – Best Novel Winner

o 2013 – The Beautiful Mystery – Best Novel Winner

* Macavity Award

o 2011 – Bury Your Dead – Best Mystery Novel Winner

o 2013 – The Beautiful Mystery – Best Mystery Novel Winner

http://us.macmillan.com/author/louise.