I finally got sucked into the Louise Penny/Inspector Gamachecraze, and this first book for exceeded my expectations. Despite the pretty large cast of characters, the story was easy to follow, and the plot grabbed me from the first minute all the way through. The only thing thing I disliked the strained/weird relationship between inspector Gamache and Agent Nichol. I'm hoping this was just the setup for their relationship further developing. Definitely planning on reading further books in the series. Also highly recommend the audiobook. I thought it was a great read with an excellent narrator, who managed to distinguish the chstacters from each other without overdoing it.

I wanted to like this book. I can say that I did enjoy some aspects of the characters but the story was just okay. It felt long and unnecessarily drug out which gave way to boredom. My biggest issue is that this book was written in 2014 and it is filled with anti-fat, ableist, anti-gay, and racist descriptions of characters. A lot of the them are fat (well the female characters) but not described with that exact word. Instead, other characters wonder how they fit through doors or comment on how much food is on their plates or how much they must've eaten. There is the stereotypical, one dimensional gay couple. Bad metaphors using ableist comparisons. It's ridiculous. I can't believe that people rave about this series based on that alone. It's a shame that the characters and setting are ruined by the author's lazy use of outdated and mean tropes. I will not be continuing this series. 

If you're looking for a much better cozy mystery, check out The Noodle Shop Mystery Series by Vivien Chien. The first one is titled "Death By Dumpling."