Start with Still Life, then read the 21 numbered Gamache novels in publication order, ending with Miss Wolcott’s Ghost. At ReadNext, we match series on setting, community and series shape.
Miss Wolcott’s Ghost is number 21 and the latest Three Pines mystery, according to Louise Penny’s site. Kirkus Reviews gives its release date as October 20, 2026. The four read-alikes below are each the first book of a different series, so none of them continues the Gamache books.
Two Starting Points and Four Read-Alikes
The Gamache Series
1. Still Life
Louise Penny
The first Gamache novel, published in 2005, and the place to start the series. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache works for Quebec’s provincial police force. Most of the stories take place in Three Pines, a fictional village in Quebec.
Find it on Amazon
2. Miss Wolcott's Ghost
Louise Penny
Number 21 in the series and the latest Three Pines mystery, published in 2026. Gamache is woken at home in Three Pines by a terrified caller reporting a body in “Lost Nation,” and he must search the surrounding forests for a place that may be a myth. The case also draws in a lost ship, an eccentric Victorian botanist’s papers and a plant not seen in a century.
Find it on AmazonRead-Alikes for Gamache Fans
3. Raven Black
Ann Cleeves
Ann Cleeves wrote the first Shetland mystery, first published in 2006 in the United Kingdom. It opens with the discovery of a 16-year-old girl’s body in a field on New Year’s Day, and Inspector Jimmy Perez leads the local investigation, joined by detectives from Inverness. Like Gamache, its lead is a police inspector working a local case, on an island group off Scotland’s northern coast.
Find it on Amazon
4. Gallows View
Peter Robinson
The first Inspector Alan Banks novel, published in 1987 and set in Eastvale in the Yorkshire Dales. Banks, a Detective Chief Inspector, has recently moved from London to escape city stress, and several crimes run at once: a Peeping Tom frightens local women, two glue-sniffing young thugs break into homes and rob people, and an elderly woman may or may not have been murdered. Like the Gamache books, it is a police series.
Find it on Amazon
5. Death at La Fenice
Donna Leon
The first Commissario Guido Brunetti novel, published in 1992 and the opening book of a series set in Venice. A famous German opera conductor has died at the city’s opera house, and Brunetti investigates what looks like murder with no clear leads at first. Gamache’s stories are mostly set in Three Pines, a village, while this series is set in the city of Venice. Donna Leon is an American who lived in Venice.
Find it on Amazon
6. The Crossing Places
Elly Griffiths
Elly Griffiths’s first Ruth Galloway novel, set in a remote region of Norfolk called the Saltmarsh. Ruth is a forensic archaeologist who lectures at a university in Norfolk. A detective asks her to identify human remains found in a marsh. The investigation reaches back to a childhood kidnapping that has haunted the detective for years, and Publishers Weekly calls the heroine “difficult” and “prickly.”
Find it on AmazonLouise Penny Books in Order
The 21 numbered Gamache novels run from Still Life to Miss Wolcott’s Ghost in publication order. The years below follow Wikipedia’s list of Louise Penny’s published works, and first-edition years can differ by a year between countries, so read each year as approximate.
| No. | Title | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Still Life | 2005 |
| 2 | A Fatal Grace (also published as Dead Cold) | 2007 |
| 3 | The Cruelest Month | 2008 |
| 4 | A Rule Against Murder (published in Canada as The Murder Stone) | 2009 |
| 5 | The Brutal Telling | 2009 |
| 6 | Bury Your Dead | 2010 |
| 7 | A Trick of the Light | 2011 |
| 8 | The Beautiful Mystery | 2012 |
| 9 | How the Light Gets In | 2013 |
| 10 | The Long Way Home | 2014 |
| 11 | The Nature of the Beast | 2015 |
| 12 | A Great Reckoning | 2016 |
| 13 | Glass Houses | 2017 |
| 14 | Kingdom of the Blind | 2018 |
| 15 | A Better Man | 2019 |
| 16 | All the Devils Are Here | 2020 |
| 17 | The Madness of Crowds | 2021 |
| 18 | A World of Curiosities | 2022 |
| 19 | The Grey Wolf | 2024 |
| 20 | The Black Wolf | 2025 |
| 21 | Miss Wolcott’s Ghost | 2026 |
The Hangman is a Gamache novella and is not one of the 21 numbered novels. Wikipedia describes it as “written at a third grade level for emerging adult readers.” Wikipedia places it after A Trick of the Light. Louise Penny’s site lists it between Bury Your Dead and A Trick of the Light. Wikipedia lists it as 2011, but no second source confirms that year and the sources disagree on its place, so no year is listed here. Two novels also carry a second title: A Fatal Grace was published as Dead Cold, and A Rule Against Murder was published in Canada as The Murder Stone.
Reading the Gamache Books in Order
Neither Louise Penny’s site nor Wikipedia says whether the Gamache books must be read in order. Wikipedia’s summary of The Long Way Home refers back to Clara Morrow from A Trick of the Light, so at least some later books refer to earlier ones.
Still Life, the first book, won the New Blood Dagger, the Arthur Ellis Award, the Dilys Award, the Anthony Award and the Barry Award.
Wikipedia calls the books character-driven mysteries focused on relationships. Penny has said A Rule Against Murder, published in Canada as The Murder Stone, “is about love and friendship.” Most of the stories take place in Three Pines, but some are set in Quebec City, the Gaspé Peninsula and northern Quebec.
Jean-Guy Beauvoir is Gamache’s partner and colleague, and Clara Morrow is an artist who is central to A Trick of the Light and The Long Way Home. Penny has also published books outside the Gamache series, including State of Terror (2021), co-written with Hillary Clinton, and The Last Mandarin (2026), co-written with Mellissa Fung. Neither is one of the 21 numbered novels, so neither belongs in the order above.
What to Read After Miss Wolcott’s Ghost
No 22nd Gamache novel is announced in the sources checked, and Louise Penny’s site calls Miss Wolcott’s Ghost the latest Three Pines mystery. Choose the read-alike by the part of the Gamache books you want to keep.
For an island setting with a local investigation, start with Ann Cleeves’s Shetland series. For a police series in the Yorkshire Dales, Peter Robinson’s Inspector Alan Banks series begins in Eastvale. For a city setting, Donna Leon’s Brunetti series starts in Venice. For a remote marsh and a forensic angle, Elly Griffiths’s Ruth Galloway series starts in Norfolk.
Readers who want more series openers can browse mystery books for adults or cozy mystery books.
Gamache on Screen
Still Life was adapted as a 2013 television film with Nathaniel Parker as Gamache, and the streaming series Three Pines starred Alfred Molina in the same role. Three Pines began filming in September 2021 and aired in December 2022, according to Wikipedia.
Kirkus Reviews says the series “ran for one season in 2022.” A TechRadar headline reports that the streaming service cancelled the series. The sources checked give no official reason for the cancellation, so none is stated here. A reader who wants the books before or after a screen version should start with Still Life, the book the 2013 film adapted.
Who These Picks Are Not For
Skip all four if you want Quebec and keep reading the Gamache novels. Each read-alike is set outside Quebec, on the Shetland islands, in the Yorkshire Dales, in Venice or in Norfolk, so none of them keeps Quebec’s provincial police or the Three Pines village.
Readers who need a gentle read should not assume these picks match the Gamache books on that point. For a gentler read, start from the cozy mystery books list linked above. Wikipedia says the Gamache books have little or no sex or violence and quotes one source calling them a “kinder and gentler alternative” to modern crime fiction. No source checked rates the four read-alikes on those points, so none of them is described here as gentler.
Readers who want one book and nothing more should skip all four, since each one is the first book of a series. Raven Black’s series runs to eight novels in two quartets, so starting it commits you to a longer run of reading than a single book.
What Would Change Our Answer
A source stating Louise Penny’s own reading-order advice would change the first answer if that advice differs from publication order. None of the sources checked gives one, so publication order stands for now.
An announced 22nd Gamache novel would change our answer. No 22nd novel is announced in the sources checked, so the four read-alikes stay the answer.
A reader who wants a city instead of a village should move Death at La Fenice to the front, because Venice is a city and Three Pines is a village. Start with Still Life this week, and once you finish the Louise Penny books in order, run the What Should I Read quiz.
