eBook, 320 pages
English language
Published May 1, 2019 by Minotaur Books.
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.
I love the fact that Louise Penny places her stories in Quebec and I liked the settings in this one. For my taste it was a few characters too many though and I couldn't get myself to care about them. I also had a hard time buying the motive or the murderer. Well. It was her first book, maybe I'll give another one a chance.
my family calls these the "inspector fromage" books. I am not generally a mystery reader but my mom loves these so I'm gonna try them :)
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.
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.
Enjoyable read, I have had this on my list for awhile so I was excited that it was a comfortable and enjoyable read that pleasantly meandered and drew me in, and had a nice ending that was a surprise but yet not too implausible. Looking forward to Louise Penny’s 2nd in this series.
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.
People have been telling me for ages that these are wonderful and I must read them; my usual non-history fare (politics, current events) just doesn’t hold me at present so I decided to give these a shot. I’ve read better mysteries, but I’ve certainly read worse. On to the next one.
This novel offered an interesting plot & characters, wonderful cultural descriptions. This is a worthwhile read by an author I had never read before. I think I'll try another tale of Armand Gamache... ;^)
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.
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 …
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 will go back" shelf. I dropped it for a couple of days but, in the end, wanted to find out why Jane had been killed.
First off, the jumping POVs drove me crazy. Some authors can make it work - I've heard JK Rowling is a head hopper with the Harry Potter series. (No, I've not read them - YET!) I don't remember it being an issue in her Robert Galbraith books or with Casual Vacancy though. Anyway, the head hopping is what ultimately made me put the book away. It still bothered me when I decided to keep going but I did my best to ignore it.
Another thing that bothered me was that some of the clues - particularly toward the end when it seemed pretty obvious how to identify the killer - were completely missed by the detectives. I understand that the reader gets more info than any individual character but it was right there.
So, I'm glad I finished the book but unless the POV switching was eliminated in later books in the series, I don't see myself reading another.
This was a delightful mystery set in the Quebec countryside and peopled with a likable chief, his loyal staff, and a grouchy, arrogant new member of the team that will probably be trouble in later books. It went down smooth and was not particularly graphic, violent, horrid or brutal, it was a nice change from some of the more sordid mysteries. I liked it like the #1 Ladies Detective Agency Series, it is slightly more dark but reading it gave me that same relaxed, curious feeling without evoking any urgency or strong emotions.
