How the Light Gets In: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel (55 page)

AUTHOR’S NOTE

As a Canadian, I was raised on lore of the famous Dionne quintuplets, born in Callander, Ontario, in 1934. They were a phenomenon and a sensation. Many of you might have recognized them in my Ouellet Quints, and the truth is, the fictional Ouellets were certainly inspired by the Dionne girls. But in researching
How the Light Gets In,
I was careful not to delve into the real lives of the Dionne quintuplets. I felt it would be both an intrusion on them, and far too limiting for me. I honestly didn’t want to know what life was really like for the Dionnes. That freed me up to create whatever life I wanted and needed for
my
Quints.

There are clearly similarities—how could there not be? But the Ouellets are fictional, and their struggles not real. The Dionnes are real. The fact that both families are quints is where the similarity ends. I felt I owed you, and certainly the surviving Dionne Quints, this acknowledgment. They were a wonderful inspiration.

ALSO BY LOUISE PENNY

The Beautiful Mystery

A Trick of the Light

Bury Your Dead

The Brutal Telling

A Rule Against Murder

The Cruelest Month

A Fatal Grace

Still Life

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

LOUISE PENNY
is the
New York Times
and
Globe
and Mail
bestselling author of eight 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, Louise has won five Agatha Awards and four Anthony Awards. Her most recent novel,
The Beautiful Mystery,
debuted at #2 on the
New York Times
bestseller list. She lives in a small village south of Montréal with her husband, Michael.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN.
Copyright © 2013 by Three Pines Creations, Inc. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.minotaurbooks.com

Excerpt from “Anthem” in
Stranger Music
by Leonard Cohen. Copyright © 1993 by Leonard Cohen. Reprinted by permission of McClelland & Stewart.

Excerpts from
Vapour Trails
by Marylyn Plessner (2000). Used by permission of Stephen Jarislowsky.

Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein

Cover photograph by Calvin W. Hall/
DesignPics.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Penny, Louise.

    How the light gets in: Chief Inspector Gamache novel / Louise Penny.—First Minotaur Books edition.

        pages cm

    ISBN 978-0-312-65547-1 (hardcover)

    ISBN 978-1-4668-3470-5 (e-book)

    1.  Gamache, Armand (Fictitious character)—Fiction.   2.  Police—Québec (Province)—Fiction.   3.  Missing persons—Fiction.   I.  Title.

    PR9199.4.P464H69 2013

    813'.6—dc23

2013013622

    eISBN 9781466834705

First Edition: September 2013