I couldn't put this mystery down. I loved the character development and the background of a sleepy Quebec town. I can't wait to read more of Penny's Inspector Gamache series!

3.5 stars

A quiet detective novel, where the clues are found by observation, that got me chuckling at times, rather than a nerve-racking thriller, which was refreshing. I also liked the fact that I got attached to the characters quite quickly. The Three Pines village seems like quaint place.

It was also interesting to get an anglophone's point of view of the Quebecois culture and the French-English relationships in the province. But I have to admit that the many, many mistakes in the little bits of French that are scattered here and there are frustrating and, honestly, disrespectful (it's not like it's very hard to find a French proofreader in the only francophone province in this country...).

I found this book just OK. Not terribly gripping. I MAY try another one as I love a series and heard they get better...but I am not rushing to the next book!

I couldn't put this one down. The characters are all very well done, even the ones that aren't particularly likable. Agent Nichol was a great example of a self-centered terrible person. I sincerely hope she isn't in any of the future books, because I definitely want to read them. I really enjoyed reading about Jane's art though, and I suspect it takes its inspiration from Maud Lewis.

Spoiler

The completely painted interior of the house was definitely similar.

I remember seeing Lewis' house at the Art Gallery in Halifax, and it was very cool.

Entertaining who done it. Loved the town’s cast of characters. However, when I went to read the second of the series, I didn’t want to read about them anymore. I just wanted the inspector. Couldn’t finish # 2 and probably won’t read anymore.

It took me a little while to get into this book, but I enjoyed it as a slightly-darker-than-cozy mystery. Not a difficult mystery for the reader to solve, but a well-developed setting and interesting (and believable) characters.

Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series is an excellent foray into the world of mystery novels. I've always loved mysteries and who-dunnit type TV shows and movies, so it only made sense that I would love a good mystery novel as well. Still Life introduces you to the world of Three Pines and immediately sucks you in. I found the characters a little hard to follow through the first few chapters, but once personalities emerge and develop, you begin to really know them. Louise Penny paints a beautiful picture of this fictional Quebec town, punctuated with murder, deceit and suspicion. Even so, I wish I could move in! Like a good mystery should, you're given enough information to figure out the murder on your own and draw your own conclusions, but I was surprised by the ending.

I accidentally started the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series in the middle, having started with #6, "Bury Your Dead." But I liked it well enough that I went back to start the series from the beginning.

The first novel is rich and layered. Gamache already has backstory before the first page, as do the main characters from Three Pines, where a suspicious death has occurred. I liked what a wonderful observer of human behavior Penney is, and how much art theory and philosophy play into the plotline.

This book is told in third person omniscient, and I'm not always crazy when an author bounces around from head to head in a story, but that is one of my few criticisms. I look forward to reading more in the series!

I enjoyed the setting and setup of this charming mystery. I appreciated how there were not many twists nor "wow" factors, yet the author maintained a level of intrigue and surprise.