Music-infused ‘The Beautiful Mystery’ is whodunit you can almost hear

One of the greatest gifts a friend can give is to lend me a book and insist I will like it.

Inevitably, I find myself enjoying a new world.

That's how I became hooked on the eight-book series of mysteries by Canadian author Louise Penny, whose latest book "The Beautiful Mystery" launches Aug. 28.

After my vacation to Quebec province in May, I shared in a column that part of my trip was designed to discover places that sparked Penny's imagination for her Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series.

One vacation highlight was interviewing Penny for two hours, questioning the radio journalist-turned-mystery writer.

Shameless plug: There is a more detailed travel piece about my trip, which runs Sunday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal's travel section.

Since May, I've received emails from readers thanking me for recommending her books.

They say they are midway in the series and are enjoying the characters, the quality of her writing and Three Pines, Penny's mythical village in the Eastern Townships, populated by quirky characters and a steady supply of corpses.

Every email like that delights me because sharing pleasurable reads is such a joy.

Penny takes chances with "The Beautiful Mystery." She leaves her comfort zone of Three Pines and takes Gamache and Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir to a monastery where the choir director has been murdered, and all of the suspects are monks.

The music of Gregorian chants mixes with murder to create a whodunit. But as in all her books, the why is the substance.

Despite being flooded with awards and favorable reviews of all her books, Penny is apprehensive about how her fans will respond to "The Beautiful Mystery," her first book without even a mention of Three Pines.

"For the sake of my own creativity and for the sake of character development, this absolutely had to happen," Penny told me.

"I'm nervous because I really like this book, and I want others to like it, too, and not to dismiss it or be disappointed or to have their enjoyment of its colored by whether or not Three Pines is there."

Penny knew she wanted to set one book in a monastery.

The Benedictine monks at the Abbey of Saint-Benoit-du-Lac not far from her home in Sutton helped her understand some of a monastery's inner workings, but she created her own monastic order and her own rituals.

She had read "This Is Your Brain on Music" by neuroscientist Daniel Levitin about the effect of music on the brain and its semi-addictive quality.

"I found that fascinating," she said, "and I thought it would be interesting to take a look at music and the effect it has on the divine, but also how it can perhaps open up other areas that were perhaps best left alone."

Penny, 54, has this soothing, musical voice that served her well during her 18-year career with Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

"I had the great privilege of listening to people as I did the show. ... Nobody ended up on the show because nothing was happening in their lives. They ended up there because of something extreme," she said.

"I remember making some poor widow cry, and that doesn't leave you. And that's not a good thing."

I just finished a review copy of her new book, and because of the continuing focus on how well Gamache listens, combined with the emphasis on the sound of chanting monks, this is book you can almost hear.

"Music makes me a better writer than I actually am, and creates a better book than I could possibly write without it," she blogged recently, calling music her drug of choice.

I can recommend "The Beautiful Mystery" to anyone who enjoys the thoughtful mixed with the thrilling in a spiritual setting, where the love of God is intertwined with the love of music.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call her at 702-383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/Morrison