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!