Still Life: Chief Inspector Gamache, Book 1

Once I got beyond the first few chapters and began to sort through the characters, this resolved into an enjoyable small town murder mystery in a slightly foreign setting (Canadian border town) mostly manifested in the odd French word or Quebecois cultural reference. I liked the perceptive and humane Inspector Gamache and his subordinate Beauvoir. My problems with the book manifested at the beginning with two pet peeves: too many characters introduced too quickly to keep track of (but whose relationships were of course important to the solution of the mystery) and the shifting point of view. In third person narration, I don’t mind getting inside the head of a few main characters, but the shifts happened abruptly, sometimes from one sentence to the next, occasionally leading to some confusion as to who was thinking these particular thoughts!This all made for a tangled web where I kept thinking I needed a browser to figure out when a given character had first appeared and what had been mentioned about them at the time.Probably the only character that aroused my emotions (very negatively!) was Nicole, to the point where I was more interested in seeing this rude, clueless and self-important young inspector get her comeuppance than I was in solving the murder.And also, did so many intelligent characters have be so behind the curve at the end? You just don’t confront the murderer with “I knew it was you” in a dark house in a hurricane!Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book enough that I will probably read the series. The writer’s skills became evident after the initial sorting out, and it’s rare enough to find a book written with both moral grace and intelligence that I’m glad to end the search for awhile.

I'm enjoying this mystery novel very much! Penney has an ease to her writing, with wonderful descriptive passages that bring the village of Three Pines in Quebec to life for the reader. I love the characters, their interior dialogue and thought processes, and there's an interesting plot line. Still haven't figured out the culprit, but I have 80 pages to go!

This looks like it will be a good series to follow. You get to learn some literature from the past. I do not care for Ruth's poetry and that is a disappointment.

I have used cozy mystery books as a sort of refuge since I was in middle school. I read most of Nancy Drew and then moved on to Jenny McGrady mysteries. From there I desperately sought out any kind of fireside mystery read I could find. I found a lot of stuff I did not like, but the ones I found, I have saved for rainy days. This long backstory all to say After finishing Still Life I realized that I just found a cozy mystery series with 16 books and I'm not sure I'm going to he able to hoarde these books away and savor them slowly the way I usually do!Still Life takes place in a small town in Quebec Canada where a 76 year old woman dies in what first appears to be a hunting accident, but when no one comes forward to confess their mistake, it is evident that this was no hunting accident. This town is like that song in Beauty and the Beast where all the town people yell "bonjour" directly into Belle's face while swapping loaves of bread for eggs. It is really that quaint and idyllic.A suspicious murder in a small town means they need the very best! Enter Chief Inspector Armand Gamache! An experienced Detective, and truly the reason why this book felt so different from everything I have read in this genre.Most of the mystery novels I have encountered are either about a first-time-on-the-job detective learning alongside a more experienced detective, or an experienced detective jaded by years of seeing the absolute worst in humankind.Gamache is compassionate, empathetic and at times even emotional. He is a keen observer of people, but unlike the jaded detective trope, Gamache sees the worst in humankind but doesn't allow that to dictate the way he treats people. He comes on the scene ready to listen with no preconceived biases. He just watches and listens until he gets to the bottom of things.Because the leading narrative voice is mostly Gamache, the characterization of this novel has a beautiful uniqueness."The curtains struck him as odd, then he noticed she'd put the pattern on both sides, so it showed outside as well as in the home. He'd never seen that before, but he wasn't surprised. Yolande Fontaine only really existed with an audience. She was like this novelty lamps that came on when you clapped your hands. She switched to life with applause, or the sharp clap of rebuke. Any reaction, as long as it was directed at her, was sufficient. Silence and solitude drained her of life"There are loads of these little paragraphs where he and his equally observant partner see someone so completely as they are and sum them up in a couple poignant sentences.If you are unfamiliar with "Cozy Mysteries" and are more used to suspenseful page turners, this might seem slow in pace. My favorite thing about cozy mysteries is the slow but carefully crafted characterizations and the way the murder is there, but is never the only theme the author has for readers.It comforted me, it entertained me, and I will be reading every book in this series!

All the characters are fleshed out to become believable and familiar. The setting is unique and concrete. This first book in the series leads one to start to delve into the second. And then maybe the third ?

I find this first book of Inspector Gamache very well written and conceived. The writing is great with humor, a light perspective and some fondness for this peculiar quebecois policeman. The plot is not bad at all for being the first of a series and I am curious to read more to find out whether the author evolved in something even better. What I find very enjoyable is the environment that brings you into the heart of Quebec, its language and way of thinking. This is indeed literature and the author is a fine writer.

クラシカルな雰囲気のミステリーです。アガサ・クリスティーの推理小説を現代に移したらこんな感じになるのではないでしょうか。 舞台はカナダの絵葉書のように美しい村。DNAなどの科学捜査も出てきますが、老練な刑事による緻密な人間観察をメインに真犯人に迫ります。

*You can find this review in English below.*Las de tres estrellas son siempre las reseñas más difíciles de escribir, al menos para mí. Significa que la historia no ha estado mal del todo pero que tampoco me ha gustado, no ha sido nada remarcable, y es complicado escribir sobre cosas que no son remarcables…Esta historia me ha dejado confundida. Por un lado está el inmenso elenco de personajes que hasta mediados de la historia no me han sido familiares, pero eso suele pasar en los primeros libros de las series, las introducciones son interminables. Por otro lado está la descripción de los mismos, que me ha dado la sensación, ha querido ser algo profundo, especial y original pero se ha quedado en una serie de clichés que no ha conseguido pasar de la superficie de los personajes. Tan sólo Gamache, el detective protagonista, ha conseguido ser algo más tridimensional que sus compañeros. Los demás, en mayor o menor medida, han sido un compendio de tópicos manidos…:Están la pareja de gays que, como no, regentan un B&B, donde la segunda B viene de Brunch, porque ellos son así de gays…Está la vieja amargada y amargante que vive para hacer un infierno la vida de los demás sin motivo aparente. No me explico cómo es aceptada en esa comunidad tan cerrada. La autora tampoco lo explica.Está la exitosa psicóloga afroamericana que deja la gran ciudad quemada por su trabajo y abre una librería en el pueblo donde da consejos y perlas de sabiduría gratis. Aunque ella tampoco lo vio venir…Están la pareja de artistas, pobres como las ratas, pero felices por vivir de su arte y tan encerrados en sí mismo que apenas ven lo que pasa a su alrededor, aunque ellos no son conscientes de ello, claro. A pesar de su "egolatría" son queridos y apreciados por todos.Está la muerta. Santificada ya antes de morir, con una vida de mártir a sus espaldas y ni un solo enemigo.Y así con todos…Y luego está la agente Nichols… papel que también se ha quedado a medido cocinar. Yo tengo claro que la chica (ver spoiler) pero la autora lo ha dejado en tal punto que, con un par de explicaciones y situaciones adecuadamente pensadas, podría dejarme "con el cul* al aire". Veremos pues qué ocurre en los próximos capítulos.Y después tenemos el misterio "plagado-de-necesarias-coincidencias". Es lo que menos me gusta en un suspense o misterio, las coincidencias necesarias para que todo cuadre. A expensas de quedar de listilla sabelotodo, me voy a arriesgar a decir que yo no vi venir la solución del misterio pero creo que nadie pudo verlo venir tampoco. Este ha sido uno de esos casos en los que la autora no ha dejado pistas para seguir, simplemente ha amoldado personajes y trama para "acomodar" el final. Que por cierto ha llegado sin pena ni gloria. Nada ha quedado cerrado, ni finiquitado ni ha dejado esa sensación de paz mental por un caso bien resuelto y archivado, quizás las repercusiones se verán en próximos capítulos o quizás no.La sensación general es que podría haber estado mejor. Había material para que hubiese estado mejor pero se ha quedado en la superficie… pero este es uno de esos casos en los que bien podría ser yo y no tú…*SPOILER*sufre un trastorno psicopático de la personalidad.***Three star reviews are always the hardest ones to write, at least for me. It means that the story has not been bad at all but I did not love it either, it has not been anything remarkable, and it's so complicated to write about unremarkable things...The story has left me confused. On the one hand we have the immense cast of characters that until halfway through the story have not become familiar to me, but that usually happens in the first books of the series, the introductions are endless. On the other hand we have their descriptions, which it seems they were meant to be something profound, special and original but in the end they come of as series of clichés that has not managed to pass the characters' surface. Only Gamache, the MC, has managed to be more three-dimensional than his "fellows sufferer". The others, to a greater or lesser extent, have been a compendium of overused topics...:There are the gay couple who, of course, run a B & B, the second B goes by Bruch, because they are as gay as that ...There is the bitter and embittered old woman who lives to make a hell out of the lifes of others for no apparent reason. I can't explain how she can get accepted in such a closed community. The author does not explain it either.There is too the successful African-American psychologist who leaves the big city burned out from her work and opens a bookstore in the village where she gives advice and pearls of wisdom for free. But neither she saw it coming.There are the married artists, poor as rats, but happy to live off their art and so locked in themselves that they hardly see what is happening around them, although they are not aware of it, of course. In spite of their "egotism" they are loved and appreciated by all the villagers.There is the dead, Jane. Sanctified already before dying, living a martyr's life and without a single enemy.And so on...And then there is agent Nichols ... role that has also been left unfinished. I'm sure that the woman (ver spoiler) but the author has left that a such a point that, with a couple of explanations and situations properly thought out, could leave me "high and dry". We will see what happens in the next installment.And then we have the plagued-of-necessary-coincidences mystery. This is what I like least in my suspense and mysteries, the necessary coincidences so that everything squares. At the expense of look like a smarty-pants, I'm going to take a risk saying that I did not see the mystery "dénouement" coming, but I don't think anyone could see it either. This has been one of those cases in which the author has left no clues to follow, has simply shaped characters and plot to "accommodate" the ending which, by the way, has come without a fuss. Nothing has felt like it had been closed or finalized. It hadn't left that sense of peace of mind for a case resolved and filed away, maybe the repercussions will be seen in the next installment, or maybe not.The general feeling is that it could have been better. There was raw material to make a superb mystery but the end felt flat ... but this is one of those cases where it could "be me, not you"...*SPOILER*suffers a psychopathic personality disorder.

First book by this author and not the last. Good characters and interaction between them. Good story line. Would like to know what happened to Agent Nicholl