As her most famous creation hits the screen, the author talks about the inspiration for Inspector Gamache, her fearless, fine-dining Canadian cop – and remembers how she co-wrote a hit with the presidential hopeful
Louise Penny, bestselling Canadian novelist and creator of the detective Armand Gamache, was sure as far back as 2005, when she published her award-winning debut Still Life, that she wouldn’t be able to go on writing if her husband Michael Whitehead died. Not only was he the inspiration for her wise, kind, clear-sighted detective, but he was also the reason she found the courage to write in the first place.
Whitehead was diagnosed with dementia in 2013, and Penny became his caregiver. After he died in September 2016, she felt that was probably it for her career as a novelist. She was wrong.
