Some novelists are enigmas, shadows behind their work. Others have well-known life stories as compelling as the tales they tell.

Louise Penny is definitely of the second kind. Her internationally best-selling series of mystery novels, set in Quebec’s Eastern Townships and starring the refined Chief Insp. Armand Gamache, has won critical acclaim and a slew of honours since the first installment appeared in 2005. Yet, as her fans know, all this came after Penny spent years in the grip of an increasingly destructive alcohol problem while working as a CBC Radio host and journalist.

It was only once she reached her mid 40s—and had not only pulled herself from the spiral but endured a long bout of writer’s block—that Gamache arrived in her imagination, and the mystery novel revealed itself as her natural medium.

It’s a story of courage and second chances that continues to inspire even as Penny brings her 11^th Gamache title, The Nature of the Beast, to an event this Monday (August 24) at the Vancouver Playhouse, sponsored by the Vancouver Writers Fest and Minotaur Books.

Appropriately enough, she’ll use the moment to speak about another matter at the heart of her life: her husband Michael’s diagnosis with Alzheimer’s. In fact, all proceeds from book sales that evening will go to Paul’s Club, a local day program for people with early-onset dementia.

See the Vancouver Writers Fest website for details.