Amazon's 'Three Pines' To Premiere in December

British mystery series are some of the most popular shows among anglophiles, even if some of them, like, say, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries or Frankie Drake, are set in countries other than the U.K. Amazon Prime Video's latest, Three Pines, is in the same category as the latter, a Canadian mystery series, based on the top-rated Chief Inspector Armand Gamache book series, written by Louise Penny. Starring Olivier winner Alfred Molina as the show's lead detective, the new show is heading to Amazon before the end of 2022.

Produced by Left Bank, the same outfit that brought Netflix The Crown, Amazon first announced the series in the spring of 2020. At the time, with no one tied to the lead role, the show went from being titled after the titular detective to calling itself after the fictional French Canadian village in which he operates, not unlike The Sidney Chambers Mysteries became Grantchester.) When the show began filming, Molina's casting as Inspector Gamache was announced in September 2021. It was noted "the French-speaking detective probes crimes in his Quebec community" and that "among his quirks is speaking English in an English accent thanks to his Cambridge education."

The initial Gamache novel, 2005's Still Life, was a runaway bestseller and massive award-winning hit; it has thus far spawned 17 more installments, with 2022's A World of Curiosities arriving early this summer. The series has garnered five Agatha Awards so far and counting. It is unclear if the eight-episode series is planned as a mystery of the week series or if it will be one mystery per season, giving the show 17 more to choose from should it get renewed.