Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is the main character in a series of mystery novels written by Canadian author Louise Penny.

The series is set around the life of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police force for Quebec.

She entered the first book of the series, Still Life, in the "Debut Dagger" competition in the United Kingdom, placing second out of 800 entries.

[6] The stories take place usually in the village of Three Pines, with Gamache investigating the murders of various people in each novel.

In the first book Still Life, he is said to have learned English while he was an undergraduate at Christ's College, Cambridge,[7] where according to A Great Reckoning he read for a degree in history.

[1] The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache book series contains little or no sex or violence and has been referred to as a kinder and gentler alternative to modern crime fiction.

[10] In many of the books from Still Life onwards Gamache tells new detectives joining his team "four sayings that can lead to wisdom": "I was wrong.

This does not form part of the series and was written as a simple story for adults learning to read English.

[13] Gamache also appears briefly as a minor character in State of Terror (2021), a political thriller co-written with Hillary Clinton.

When a mysterious figure appears in Three Pines one cold November day, Armand Gamache and the rest of the villagers are at first curious.

From the moment its shadow falls over the village, Gamache, now Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté du Québec, suspects the creature has deep roots and a dark purpose.

When a peculiar letter arrives inviting Armand Gamache to an abandoned farmhouse, the former head of the Sûreté du Québec discovers that a complete stranger has named him one of the executors of her will.

Still on suspension, and frankly curious, Gamache accepts and soon learns that the other two executors are Myrna Landers, the bookseller from Three Pines, and a young builder.

They learn that Three Pines nearby Sûreté agent Bob Cameron had threatened Vivienne's abusive husband, Carl Tracey a week earlier.

On their first night in Paris, the Gamaches gather as a family for a bistro dinner with Armand's godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz.

Walking home together after the meal, they watch in horror as Stephen is knocked down and critically injured in what Gamache knows is no accident, but a deliberate attempt on the elderly man's life.

When a strange key is found in Stephen's possession it sends Armand, his wife Reine-Marie, and his former second-in-command at the Sûreté, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, from the top of the Tour d'Eiffel, to the bowels of the Paris Archives, from luxury hotels to odd, coded, works of art.

A gruesome discovery in Stephen's Paris apartment makes it clear the secrets are more rancid, the danger far greater and more imminent, than they realized.

While the residents of the Québec village of Three Pines take advantage of the deep snow to ski and toboggan, to drink hot chocolate in the bistro and share meals together, the Chief Inspector finds his holiday with his family interrupted by a simple request.

That is until Gamache starts looking into Professor Abigail Robinson and discovers an agenda so repulsive he begs the university to cancel the lecture.

As the villagers prepare for a special celebration, Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir find themselves increasingly worried.

A young man and woman have reappeared in the Sûreté du Québec investigators' lives after many years.

As Chief Inspector Gamache works to uncover answers, his alarm grows when a letter written by a long dead stone mason is discovered.

[30] Still Life was adapted as a film for CBC Television in 2013, with Gamache being played by British actor Nathaniel Parker.

[31] Alfred Molina plays Gamache in the Amazon Prime series Three Pines, which began filming in September 2021[32] and aired in December 2022.