Louise Penny with Hillary Clinton

What, you might wonder, do these two fabulous women have in common? Well last night at a Zoom presentation from local independent bookstore Politics and Prose we found out. It seems that, during Hillary's campaign for president back in 2016, her husband Bill was interviewed and mentioned that Hillary loves mysteries and that she was currently reading Louise Penny. The Twitterverse went into overdrive and soon Hillary's best friend Betsy was meeting with Louise at a book conference in Chicago. They became fast friends according to Louise and Betsy then told Hillary that she had to meet Louise.


Those of us who have followed Louise Penny for years remember how she cared for her beloved husband Michael through a long bout of Alzheimer's disease and when he died, Hillary took time from her rigorous campaign to write a very personal note of sympathy that Louise told us said everything about the real Hillary Rodham Clinton, a woman with empathy to spare.


And so it was that the two women discussed the latest in the Inspector

Gamache series, "All the Devils are Here," without giving too much away. I ordered my copy from the bookstore and it will be mailed out today and I can't wait to delve right in. I hope that readers won't be disappointed that this book is set in Paris rather than in Three Pines but Louise told us that she really felt the need to do something a little new to keep from becoming formulaic. Hell, maybe she just wanted an excuse to go live in Paris for a while. Who wouldn't? The two talked about their favorite neighborhoods and Hillary specifically waxed nostalgic about spending time there in her twenties.


But what I found most interesting about the talk was the emphasis on Penny's theme, which actually runs through all of her books, about good and evil, the light and the dark, and about the choices that we all are faced with throughout our lives to lean one way or the other. They spoke about the pain of addiction, Louise's struggles with alcoholism mirrored in Jean-Guy's reliance on pills after suffering a life threatening injury in a previous novel. They touched on leadership and the ways a good leader can inspire and a bad one can create chaos. And then, oh yes, they turned to politics. You can imagine how that went!


Over twenty-one hundred fans from the United States and Canada zoomed in to the hour long presentation with Louise speaking from London, Hillary from Chappaqua, and the moderator from her home in the DC area. Is it any wonder that Zoom's profits are over the top? Tomorrow at 4, Politics and Prose https://www.politics-prose.com/will host a writer, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, whose book gorgeously titled, "A Girl is a Body of Water," I reviewed recently for Library Journal. It is definitely in contention for one of my top ten of the year. My review is printed in full at Barnes and Noble. Just scroll down. https://bit.ly/3bl0dIh Anyone can register for these fabulous author booktalks. Enjoy!