Recommendations based on How the Light Gets Inby Louise Penny

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. The Beautiful Mystery

    by Louise Penny
    A priest and a nun join forces to solve a murder shrouded in secrets within a cloistered Quebec monastery.

    No outsiders are ever admitted to the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, hidden deep in the wilderness of Québec, where two dozen cloistered monks live in peace and prayer. Ironically, for a ... (Goodreads)

  2. A Trick of the Light

    by Louise Penny
    A murder mystery set in a small Quebec village, as a young detective uncovers secrets of the past.

    "Hearts are broken," Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. "Sweet relationships are dead." But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow's garden ... (Goodreads)

  3. The Long Way Home

    by Louise Penny
    Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns to Three Pines to solve a murder and confront his past.

    Happily retired in the village of Three Pines, Armand Gamache, former Chief Inspector of Homicide with the Sûreté du Québec, has found a peace he’d only imagined possible. On warm summer mornings he ... (Goodreads)

  4. The Invention of Wings

    by Sue Monk Kidd
    A powerful story about a girl's journey to freedom, despite the limitations of slavery.

    Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world—and it is now ... (Goodreads)

  5. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

    by Gabrielle Zevin
    Life of an isolated bookseller is transformed when an unexpected visitor brings unexpected joy.

    “Marvelously optimistic about the future of books and bookstores and the people who love both.”—, The Washington Post, A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. He lives alone, his ... (Barnes & Noble)

  6. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

    by Alexander McCall Smith
    An empowering story of female friendship, courage, and detective work in Botswana.

    Precious Ramotswe has only just set up shop as Botswana's No.1 (and only) lady detective when she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. However, ... (Goodreads)

  7. A Week in Winter

    by Maeve Binchy
    A tale of friendship, love, and unexpected connections in a small Irish village.

    Stoneybridge is a small town on the west coast of Ireland where all the families know one another. When Chicky Starr decides to take an old, decaying mansion set high on the cliffs overlooking the ... (Goodreads)

  8. Leaving Everything Most Loved

    by Jacqueline Winspear
    Detective Maisie Dobbs unravels a murder case in 1920s London, uncovering secrets along the way.

    London, 1933. Two months after Usha Pramal's body is discovered in the waters of a city canal, her brother, newly arrived in England, turns to Maisie Dobbs for help. Not only has Scotland Yard made ... (Barnes & Noble)

  9. Life After Life

    by Kate Atkinson
    A woman lives multiple lives, reflecting on choices and consequences and the power of love.

    The novel has an unusual structure, repeatedly looping back in time to describe alternative possible lives for its central character, Ursula Todd, who is born on 11 February 1910 to an ... (Wikipedia)

  10. As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust

    by Alan Bradley
    An orphaned girl's adventure of solving a decades-old murder at the mysterious Miss Bodycote's Female Academy.

    NEW YORK TIMES, BESTSELLER,Flavia de Luce—“part Harriet the Spy, part Violet Baudelaire from Lemony Snicket’s, A Series of Unfortunate Events,” (,The New York Times Book Review,)—takes her remarkable ... (Goodreads)

  11. Station Eleven

    by Emily St. John Mandel
    Post-apocalyptic exploration of a world drastically changed after a pandemic.

    An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse,, Station Eleven, tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of ... (Barnes & Noble)

  12. The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches

    by Alan Bradley
    Amateur detective Flavia de Luce investigates mysterious murder in an English village.

    On a spring morning in 1951, eleven-year-old chemist and aspiring detective Flavia de Luce gathers with her family at the railway station, awaiting the return of her long-lost mother, Harriet. Yet ... (Goodreads)

  13. The Storyteller

    by Jodi Picoult
    A storyteller's quest to restore faith in the power of storytelling and to mend the wounds of her past.

    25-year-old Sage Singer lives in the small town of Westerbrook, New Hampshire . , A couple of years before the story began, Sage and her mother were in a car accident while Sage was driving. Sage's ... (Wikipedia)

  14. Cutting for Stone

    by Abraham Verghese
    A sweeping journey of two twin brothers and their search for identity, belonging and family.

    The story is told by the protagonist, Marion Stone. He and his conjoined twin Shiva are born at Mission Hospital (called "Missing" in accordance with the local pronunciation), Addis Ababa , in ... (Wikipedia)

  15. Career of Evil

    by Robert Galbraith
    Private detective investigates a series of mysterious and violent cases linked to a deranged criminal.

    After murdering a woman, an unidentified man stalks Robin Ellacott, whom he sees as part of his plan to exact revenge against private investigator Cormoran Strike. Robin, having worked for Strike for ... (Wikipedia)

  16. The Book of Life

    by Deborah Harkness
    A journey of magic and science to unlock the secrets of eternal life.

    The #1, New York Times, bestselling series finale and sequel to, A Discovery of Witches, and, Shadow of Night, Bringing the magic and suspense of the All Souls Trilogy to a deeply satisfying ... (Goodreads)

  17. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

    by Rachel Joyce
    An elderly man's unexpected quest of faith, discovering the power of hope and love.

    Harold Fry, 65, has cut the lawn outside his home at Kingsbridge on the south coast of Devon when he receives a letter. A colleague of twenty years ago, Queenie Hennessy, has cancer and is in a ... (Wikipedia)

  18. Written in My Own Heart's Blood

    by Diana Gabaldon
    Epic tale of romance, adventure and intrigue set during the American Revolutionary War.

    It is June 1778, and the world seems to be turning upside-down. The British Army is withdrawing from Philadelphia, with George Washington in pursuit, and for the first time, it looks as if the rebels ... (Goodreads)

  19. Lethal White

    by Robert Galbraith
    Private detective Cormoran Strike and his partner Robin investigate a blackmail case involving a government minister.

    At Robin Ellacott's marriage to Matthew Cunliffe, Cormoran Strike's capture of the Shacklewell Ripper the night before is already widely known, except by Robin. When Strike tells her that he had been ... (Wikipedia)

  20. Crocodile on the Sandbank

    by Elizabeth Peters
    An intrepid female archaeologist uses her wits to solve a mysterious murder in the Nile Valley.

    Amelia Peabody is left a wealthy orphan after the death of her studious father, who has left her everything in his will because she is the only one of his children who shared his interests, namely ... (Wikipedia)

  21. The Light Between Oceans

    by M.L. Stedman
    A lighthouse keeper and his wife make a heartbreaking decision that has lifelong repercussions.

    Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found, here, Australia, 1926. After four harrowing years fighting on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns home to take a job as the lighthouse ... (Goodreads)

  22. Speaking from Among the Bones

    by Alan Bradley
    A young detective investigates the mystery of a decades-old murder in a small English village.

    From award-winning author Alan Bradley comes the next cozy British mystery starring intrepid young sleuth Flavia de Luce, hailed by USA Today as “one of the most remarkable creations in recent ... (Goodreads)

  23. The Underground Railroad

    by Colson Whitehead
    An escaped slave's daring escape to freedom, fighting against the brutality of slavery.

    The story is told in the third person, focusing mainly on Cora. Scattered single chapters also focus on Cora's mother Mabel, the slavecatcher Ridgeway, a reluctant slave sympathizer named Ethel, and ... (Wikipedia)

  24. Betsy-Tacy

    by Maud Hart Lovelace
    The adventures of two best friends, Betsy and Tacy, growing up in a small town in the early 1900s.

    Best Friends Forever There are lots of children on Hill Street, but no little girls Betsy's age. So when a new family moves into the house across the street, Betsy hopes they will have a little girl ... (Goodreads)

  25. The Beekeeper's Apprentice

    by Laurie R. King
    A young girl’s journey to becoming a detective apprentice, uncovering crime and solving mysteries.

    After losing her family in a tragic motor accident in California, fifteen-year-old Mary Russell goes to live with her aunt in Sussex, England. Wandering the Sussex Downs in April 1915, she literally ... (Wikipedia)

  26. Flight Behavior

    by Barbara Kingsolver
    A woman's struggle to reconcile her faith and environmentalism as she faces a mysterious ecological disaster.

    Dellarobia Turnbow is a 28-year-old discontented housewife living with her poor family on a farm in Appalachia . On a hike to begin an affair with a telephone repairman, Turnbow finds millions of ... (Wikipedia)

  27. A Spool of Blue Thread

    by Anne Tyler
    A family's history is revealed through the stories of four generations of its members.

    A freshly observed, joyful and wrenching, funny and true new novel from Anne Tyler "It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon." This is how Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how ... (Goodreads)

  28. The Silkworm

    by Robert Galbraith
    Detective investigates the murder of a novelist, uncovering shocking secrets.

    Several months after solving the Lula Landry case , Cormoran Strike is asked by Leonora Quine to locate her novelist husband Owen, a former literary genius whose attempts to recreate his past success ... (Wikipedia)

  29. The Round House

    by Louise Erdrich
    A teenage boy seeks justice for a crime committed against his mother in a Native American community.

    The novel opens with Joe Coutts and his father, Judge Bazil Coutts, pulling out saplings from their house's garden and foundation. They realize Joe's mother and Bazil's wife, Geraldine Coutts, has ... (Wikipedia)

  30. Fall of Giants

    by Ken Follett
    Epic historical fiction recounting the tumultuous events of World War I and its aftermath.

    The novel begins with the thirteen-year-old Billy Williams, nicknamed 'Billy With Jesus', going to work his first day in the coal mine underneath the fictional Welsh town of Aberowen in 1911. Three ... (Wikipedia)