Still Life
Large Print - 2012
1410448975


Opinion
From Library Staff
Police procedural mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series). Read Canadian. Louise Penny's CI Gamache books are definite fan favourites. Penny is a multi-award-winning author and a member of the Order of Canada.
Miss Jane Neal met her maker in the early morning mist of Thanksgiving Sunday. It was pretty much a surprise all round," Still Life begins, the first of Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache mysteries. While not necessarily about Thanksgiving, Still Life is set during that very specific time of y... Read More »
From the critics

Community Activity
Quotes
Add a Quote'When my death us do part
Then shall forgiven and forgiving meet
again,
Or will it be, as always was, too late?

We choose our thoughts, we choose our perceptions, we choose our attitudes. We may not think so. We may not believe it, but we do.
"What do you see?" Elise asked Peter. (about of the art piece "Fair Day")
"Honestly, I don't know. But I know we need to accept it." p 11
"Now, can I interest you in a glass of wine, or perhaps a chandelier?"
Summary
Add a SummaryJane Neal, an artist in the town of Three Pines, is shot with an arrow and dies. At the end of the mystery her home is revealed to have walls covered with her most amazing paintings.
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his team investigate a suspicious death in rural Montreal. Instead of a tragic hunting accident it turns out to be murder.

Comment
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I feel like I'm the last person to jump on the Louise Penny train, but I am so glad that I did.
I loved this book--I loved the town of Three Pines, I loved Inspector Gamache, and I loved that I did not figure this mystery out! I mean, I thought I had. However, my guess came late in the book and I was blindsided when the reveal was made. That will make nearly any book a winner for me.
I have read a number of comments that this book was slow. That was not my experience. Granted, it may be because I was so taken by the world that Penny creates. However, the fact that Penny took the time to walk through all the steps and bits of this mystery. The necessary clues are there, but you probably won't see them without some hindsight.
Anyway, count me in as a Penny fan. I'm off the read all of her other books now.
My book club just loves Louise Penny. I thought it was intriguing and complicated at the very end. But they solved the crime. On to the 2nd book.
An easy read - pretty standard murder mystery. Jane has used her house as her palette to record all the events in a Canadian town. Her death reveals all of the secrets of the town including her killer.
I have read all her books. I love them mostly because I don't know Whodunnit until the end. Hope she keeps it up. The movie wasn't very good but it was nice to see the town and the people but the man who played Gamache wasn't right. Still everyone was good, especially the one in the monastery.
The first two pages were promising. Then it went downhill. I was told that it had great characters- well, after 30 pages all I had were a bunch of names and useless descriptions. And a small town in which, apparently, everyone is a successful artist/antique dealer/bookseller... yet there aren't very many tourists. How is that supposed to work?
Is this what modern fiction is like? Maybe that's why I don't read much of it...
The first in a series of Canadian mysteries. They share many similarities with gentle mysteries, but have a bit more bite. There’s definitely a murder, but nothing too extravagant or gory in the details. And while Inspector Gamache is definitely a seasoned investigator, his calm and soothing manner reflect the atmosphere of the books. An excellent book for those who want a who-dunnit without a lot of violence and gore.
The detective series that Louise Penny begins with Still Life is one of my favorites. The novels have an interesting set of characters that continue from one novel to the next, including a detective more interested in morality than personal success. The focus on morality over law reminds me a lot of the Cadfael series by Edith Pargeter.
Love her books but I find the audio books by far the best way to enjoy the series
I found Still Life to be moderately interesting, at least enough that I will move on to read book 2 in the series.