The Madness of Crowds is Louise Penny’s 17th novel in her series, which is based in the fictional village of Three Pines, patterned on Knowlton, Quebec.

About 300 people packed the event in a tent in the park by the library. It attracted a wide audience. A woman stood up to say she had flown from Florida to New York, then driven across the border. It turns out there were others who didn’t pass the COVID border rules.

The re-opening of the border means there are more tourists coming north, not just for the launch, but to visit the site of the fictional village.

The book moved quickly to the the number one spot, both fiction and non-fiction, on the New York Times and the Toronto Globe and Mail best sellers list. Sales of the book are going well locally. “We’ve sold close to a thousand copies of her latest book,” says Danny McAuley of Brome Lake Books. And an eight-part Three Pines television series is being shot and will appear on the Amazon Prime service. However it is being shot in nearby St. Armand, Quebec, as well as Montreal. The series is being produced by Left Bank Pictures, the firm that produced The Crown.