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Every writer’s style evolves over time. How has Louise Penny’s writing evolved throughout the Gamache series since Still Life? Have you noticed any changes? If so, what are they and how have they impacted the stories and your enjoyment of the books?
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I started to enjoy the books even more from book no 4. The stories get better, the characters are more developed. The sense of belonging to a community one would like to live in grows. The books are never about the murder itself, but about the circumstances, the pain of the past, whether people got stuck there or managed to adapt. I often forget who was murdered and why, but remember lots of other things happening in the books. Unfortunately for me this feeling ended with All The Devils Are here. The three books after this one gradually went into a direction I dislike. Away from Three Pines, problems for Gamache to solve too involved with big-world politics and intrigues. I tried re-reading The Grey Wolf in anticipation of The Black Wolf and I couldn’t read it again. There are so many aspects of the book I find myself hating that I couldn’t finish it. So many improbable twists and turns. In this book Louise lost me completely. I can only hope The Black Wolf comes back within the probable though I fear it won’t. I will read it but am not really looking forward to it.
I am sorry to be so somber, and it has nothing to do with Still Life, but I feel as if a loved one is dying. And that hurts.
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I can understand why Louise Penny would want to expand the universe for Gamache to give him bigger, broader adventures after writing over a dozen books. But it’s fully understandable that moving away from Three Pines has not been something that you’ve enjoyed and there are other readers that feel the same way you do. When I reread Still Life I thought to myself that there are still several supporting characters in Three Pines who haven’t yet had much of a spotlight on them. Wouldn’t it be great to have a story involving Dr. Sharon Harris or Gabri more fully? Having read the description on The Black Wolf it does sound like there will be more going on in our beloved village for the 20th book. So my fingers are crossed for you that you will like it.
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I appreciate your viewpoint, Roeilie. Every person comes to these books with different perspectives and tastes, and that’s OK. What works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for another! Glad you’re still willing to give the next book a try. I hope you find something in it that you find enjoyable.
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I, personally, have found that LP’s writing has continued to evolve, and I’m a fan of it. I appreciate that she takes risks and doesn’t settle for the same old tried and true formula book after book. While I have loved and enjoyed each book in this series, I find the ones that resonate most with me, that stick with me longest, have been the ones where she’s stretched herself and thrown her characters into situations that up the ante, personally and professionally.
I thought her building up of the rift between Armand and Jean-Guy, peaking during How The Light Gets In, to be excruciatingly good, even though it was involving conspiracies that were outside of Three Pines at times. The village and the villagers were never far away, and she did incorporate them in different roles during those episodes and keep them very much a part of the narrative.
After that, the series seemed to have to reinvent itself; what happens after Armand retires and finds his true home in Three Pines? Can he ever be content to just stay there and let the rest of the world take care of itself? That’s when I noticed more change in the writing, trying out different things. The Long Way Home, for example, in essence was less a murder mystery and more a road trip for some of the beloved characters, a travelogue of some beautiful and unique locations, and a perspective of what it takes to find oneself and heal. Some people love this book; others, I know, find it one of their least favorites, for a variety of reasons. It was certainly different, and LP took risks; it’s not my favorite either, but I did appreciate those risks, and still found so much to enjoy in it.
After that, Armand, refreshed and healed, needed to follow his path back to his career, and so did Jean-Guy, and since they are pretty high up in status in their careers, it seemed natural that higher stakes would be needed to fuel the plots, and it also made a good platform to start addressing certain ethical and social issues. With LP’s background as a journalist, I can see why she would want to start incorporating some larger themes into her work. I imagine it would be pretty hard for her to simply look away and not write about it. And while I do think it would be great to get more background stories of the Three Pines characters (there’s a lot more I want to learn about them) and I always want to spend some quality time with them, I think the heart and soul of the stories is always going to be Armand, and by extension, Jean-Guy, and their careers won’t always be centered in Three Pines, so I’m willing to follow them wherever that takes them. I know they’ll always get back to Three Pines somehow, because it’s become so much a part of their lives, and brings the stories full circle; they, and I, need that grounding, even if it at times has to be more superficial than the original stories. I trust LP to love her characters as much as I do, and to do right by them.
As far as LP’s actual writing goes, she has always had a gift for description, humor, and painting a character. I do find over time, she seems to be even more subtle at creating her villains. I noticed, for instance, that Yolande and her family were very blatantly described in terms that made it clear how repulsive they were; the evil laughs, Bernard chewing with his mouth open, the sneers, etc. I even realized, eventually, that their very name, Malenfant, means, in French “bad child.” (I’m sure that’s no surprise to those of you who know French, but I’m just learning, so it was a revelation to me!) In later books, it seems that there’s a bit more finesse in describing the people we probably shouldn’t like; LP often shows the duality of some character’s personalities in even greater depth than in the beginning. It’s often harder and harder to know who is and who isn’t “good” and to be trusted these days (see TGW, for example). It’s done skillfully, and makes me have to work harder to figure out the plot, though plenty of clues have usually been given, if only I can decipher them. I think that’s an example of the maturity and evolution of her writing, and I like it.
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I think Susan captured most of the changes I have seen over time. Once the subplot of the Arnot case and its fall out was (mostly) concluded, I think the stories took a different focus. First Armand is retired and coming to terms with his mentees taking over his role as Chief of Homicide. Once he returns, the story arc follows him up the ladder of the Surete and back down to where he was when we meet him in “Still Life.” I think that provides the opportunity for all of the characters to change, both individually and in relationship to one another.
I find the introduction of historic and current events interesting and find that Louise weaves them very effectively in the story itself. ( I see that same strategy in William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series and he also does it well.) I suspect it is one way to write a different story that includes the same people. I suspect Louise needed to do something like that; there are only so manny people in Three Pines and some of them have to stick around. I remember in one of the subsequent books that Annie and Jean-Guy are talking about Three Pines and Annie refers to murder as a cottage industry there.
In general, I think LP’s plots become more complicated and include more suspects and possibilities. The was surely true of “The Grey Wolf.” I am looking forward to “The Black Wolf” because I still have an “unfinished” feeling about what happened in TGW.
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Susan, your outline of the evolution of Louise’s writing is excellent. Her villains are most definitely more nuanced and complex, which I appreciate, as I found her earlier villains to be almost comical at times. Excellent observations too on how the Gamache/Jean-Guy rift arc was executed so well. I think HTLGI is one of my favourites because so many plot threads came together so well. I was not a fan of Long Way Home, but as you said, I can appreciate she’s willing to take risks and maybe felt a departure was needed after the events in HTLGI. I very much enjoyed Gamache’s Parisian adventure but I know many didn’t like that Three Pines did not play a part. But I think again, this was Louise taking risks. Certainly, her plots, the motivations of her characters, and the relationships in the books have become more complex.
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