eBook, 320 pages

English language

Published May 1, 2019 by Minotaur Books.

ISBN:
978-1-4299-6723-5
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4 stars (43 reviews)

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it's a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.

Still Life introduces not only an engaging series hero in Inspector Gamache, who commands his forces---and this series---with integrity and quiet courage, but also a winning and talented new writer of traditional mysteries in the person of Louise Penny.

2 editions

reviewed Still Life by Louise Penny (Chief Inspector Gamache, #1)

A cozy police procedural

4 stars

Still Life combines elements of a cozy (small intimate community, violence occurring off stage) with a police procedural (the detective is a genial detective from out of town). The community secrets are a bit too abstractly complicated for me to really love the mystery, but it's good enough to be interesting.

Review of 'Still Life (A Three Pines Mystery)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Intriguing though a little bit confusing; I found the and confusing, but probably, if I reread it, it will clear itself up. I like the characters who are well developed and, for the most part, believable (see my comment about being confused at the end). This strikes me as a new series to explore more fully. Although familiarity with art and painting probably have been useful, it clearly is not necessary.

Review of 'Still Life (A Three Pines Mystery)' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

3.5 rounded down because I expected better but it's not bad--first of a series and I'm going on to the second but it reads like it was written way before 2007, maybe back when "human bean" was still a new joke. The Nicole character didn't seem to belong in the story. Maybe she shows up in future books and her introduction wasn't a mistake.

It had some 4 star observations and the characters were mostly amusing. I didn't guess "who done it" in advanced, so good enough plotting, though the murderer trying to kill an important character while the police were desperately looking for her has been done way too often and should be against the law.

Review of 'Still Life (A Three Pines Mystery)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I read this on the recommendation of my supervisor at the library I work at, and was surprisingly entertained. I don't normally read novels in this genre, but something about the writing style, plot, and characters appealed to me. The backstories (of which there were many) were fleshed out, and left me feeling like I knew everybody from Three Pines like family. I look forward to reading the other books in this particular series.

Review of 'Still Life (A Three Pines Mystery)' on 'Storygraph'

2 stars

2.5 rounded down.

I had heard good things about this book so when the audio version came available at the library, I nabbed it. Unfortunately, my experience wasn't nearly as positive as many reviews had promised.

Before going into why it didn't work for me, I want to say that I enjoyed the narration. Lots of French in this book so I appreciated being able to hear proper pronunciations and a nice accent. I also found myself connecting with some of the characters and chuckling here and there or feeling some empathy for them. The mystery, itself, was sort of fun to follow. Even though I pegged the killer very early on, I didn't have much evidence. But to be fair, there wasn't much evidence to go on for that person.

Now for the things that made me groan and, at one point, move the book to my "quit but …

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Subjects

  • Police
  • Victims of violent crimes
  • Fiction