The Nature of the Beast

'One of the most interesting detectives in crime fiction' THE TIMES 'Penny combines clever plotting with beautifully evocative descriptions' DAILY EXPRESS There is more to solving a crime than following the clues. Welcome to Chief Inspector Gamache's world of facts and feelings. Hardly a day goes by when nine-year-old Laurent Lepage doesn't cry wolf. His boundless sense of adventure and vivid imagination mean he has a tendency to concoct stories so extraordinary and so far-fetched that no one can possibly believe him. But when Laurent disappears, former Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is faced with the possibility that one of his tall tales might have been true. So begins a frantic search for the boy and the truth. And what Gamache uncovers deep in the forest leads back to crimes of the past, betrayal and murder, with more sinister consequences than anyone could have possibly imagined . . . Millions of readers worldwide. One inimitable Chief Inspector Gamache.

Louise Penny is an international award-winning and bestselling author whose books have hit number one on the New York Times, USA Today and Globe and Mail lists. Her Chief Inspector Gamache novels have been translated into thirty-one languages and have sold over 18 million copies worldwide. She has received the Ordre National du Quebec and the Order of Canada for her contributions to Canadian culture. In 2021, she co-authored the standalone thriller State of Terror with Hillary Rodham Clinton. Louise Penny lives in a village south of Montreal.