A pleasant little visit to a small town in Quebec... well, except for the murder and all

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	• Still Life (Three Pines Mysteries) Louise Penny St. Martin's Minotaur, 2006 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 38 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A smart small town mystery

"This is what comes of trust and friendship, loyalty and love. Betrayed...wounded so deeply you can barely breathe and sometimes it kills you."

Something killed Jane Neal, and it wasn't natural causes. But was it trust or even friendship? She certainly had a lot of both. A gentle soul, Jane lived contentedly among the villagers of Three Pines, Quebec. The little town, a few miles from Montreal, is shocked at the loss of one of its oldest residents and mourns her passing deeply. Once a beloved schoolteacher, Jane had been retired many years and long numbered among the myriad artists living in Three Pines. However, there was only one time that she entered one of her paintings in the Arts Williamsburg show. Shortly thereafter, she was dead. Her art seemed harmless enough, almost simplistic some would say. What could possibly have led anyone to murder over Jane Neal's picture? Maybe it was just coincidence.

And maybe it wasn't murder. It could have been an accident. Certainly, L'Inspecteur Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec starts with that assumption in mind. Three Pines is, after all, a bucolic village worlds away from the big city troubles of Quebec. The mere thought that any of the townfolk could be capable of a cold-blooded murder goes against his grain in the midst of the peace and beauty of the tiny community.

The many very charming --- and a few not so charming --- people who knew Miss Jane Neal step up to assist L'Inspecteur Gamache with their personal theories, most of them pretty wild and unrealistic. But Clara, one of Jane's dearest friends and a gifted artist in her own right, provides Gamache and his team with some excellent food for thought. Clara's insights are astute and her intimate knowledge of the dead woman seems invaluable. As they all work to unravel the mystery of Jane's death, formerly buried secrets of some Three Pines' residents are revealed, and they are real doozies.

Author Louise Penny is a master of creating delightful characters --- frankly, even the most evil among them, for they are delightfully horrid. STILL LIFE is a great slice of small town life, with a thorny mystery driving a solid, uncomplicated plot.

--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers

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A pleasant little visit to a small town in Quebec... well, except for the murder and all

Though I usually go in for tough police thrillers, I sometimes mix things up by reading a light, funny mystery or- like this book- a quiet, thoughtful mystery set in a small town (a "cozy", I believe this type of mystery novel is called). "Still Life" nicely combines the easygoing attributes of a "cozy" mystery- quirky, eccentric characters, a small-town setting, pretty much no violence- with a little modernity, in the form of occasional well-placed profanity (though not much) and modern demographics (a gay couple is included among the main characters).

The main detective character, intelligent and interesting, owes a little to Christie's Hercule Poirot, but not everything. The mystery itself is pretty interesting, too, though some aspects of its solution are a little broad and clunky, as are some of the explanations of why ultimately cleared characters were acting suspicious for a time. Any shortcomings are quibbles, however, and shouldn't deter one from trying out this nicely done mystery story set in a quiet little corner of Quebec.

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A first mystery of rare quality

Why would anyone murder sweet, elderly Jane Neal, lifelong resident of the village of Three Pines in Quebec? Her friend and neighbor Clara Morrow is devastated by her death; many villagers are stunned and bewildered. Still others, though, have different feelings, feelings they dare not share and secrets they dare not tell. Soon Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his team from the Surete du Quebec are on the scene, enmeshed in an investigation that is turning out to be far more baffling than they thought it would be.

In Still Life, Louise Penny has taken the template of the cozy mystery and raised the form to new literary heights. Her compassionate portrait of souls in anguish is deeply moving. Her graceful writing is laced with wit and sadness. The entire time I was reading this book, I was shaking my head in amazement that a first novel could be so wonderful.

A triumph; I can hardly wait for the next one!

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incredibly good writing

this is an amazing, beautifully written first novel. not only is the plot first rate, the characters are drawn with a rare degree of perception and even compassion. the relationships are realistic and change as the investigation proceeds and when the murderer is caught. the dialogue is natural, and reflects the personality of the character speaking.

there is also wonderful humor in the descriptions and the dialogue.

this is the mystery to lend the friends who think mysteries are shallow, formulaic and generally not worth wasting time on. this is the book to lend to friends who love good writing.

i can't wait for the next.

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"The rules of normal life are suspended when there's a violent death"

The bucolic, rustic village of Three Pines, in the Southern region of Quebec is last place where you'd think murder would be committed. It's the sort of town where the only reason the doors are locked is to prevent neighbors from dropping off baskets of zucchini at harvest time. But this quaint community of artists, writers and retirees is shaken to its very core when one of their most beloved residents Jane Neal is found brutally murdered in the local forest.

Most devastated is local painter Clara Morrow, who together with her husband Peter was Jane's closest friend and confidante. Both are mystified at why someone would want to kill this kindly and gentile seventy-six year old woman, who was an ex-school teacher, tended roses, and was active in the community running the Anglican Church Women, and supporting the various art clubs.

Enter author Louise Penny's main protagonist, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec, a man of formidable talents who is enlisted with the task of hunting down Jane's killer. With the help of his deputy Jean Guy Beavior, Gamache begins his investigation, steadily unraveling the clues and long buried secrets that still haunt the inhabitants of this small town.

It is soon discovered that an arrow had pierced poor Jane's heart. Coincidently it is bow-hunting season, so initially Jane's death could have been an accident. But therein lies the problem, Gamache and Beavior can't find the murder weapon and no one has bothered to come forward. As the pall of grief settles on the community, the detectives discover that Jane died just as her painting Fair Day, was accepted for the local art show, much to the chagrin of some of the committee members.

As fragments of the crime begin to materialize, Gamache is blindsided by the Croft family, their teenage son truculent Phillippe becoming a likely suspect as he had a run-in with Jane and was also an experienced marksman. Gamache, however, becomes caught up in a certainty he cannot prove, there's no motive for the crime. As the picture becomes more distinct, Gamache is convinced that is it Jane's angry and materialistic niece Yolande Fontaine, who is responsible; this cold and bitter woman is absolutely frantic to take over her aunt's house.

The clues eventually come back to Jane's Fair Day painting, where what is most peculiar is that all the people of the village although still recognizable, were painted as stick figures. Gamache is also sure that in this case the act of murder was committed decades before the actual action, something had happened in this community and it had lead inexorably to Jane's death many years later. This doesn't help Clara; Jane was her mentor and her life and now she has to face a world suddenly and violently without her best friend, without the touch comfort and kindness.

The author creates an eclectic cast of characters, all of them very endemic and characteristic of this small, insular and like-minded community: there's Peter's grieving and emotionally shut off friend Ben Hadley who harbors a secret desires for Clara and conceals a difficult past; there's also the town's only gay couple Olivier and Gabri, who run the local bed and breakfast, selling antiques on the side.

There's Ruth, an embittered poet was once friendly with Jane, and suspicion momentarily falls on her, as she has suspicious motives tied to the death of a mutual friend of hers and Jane's. Penny keeps the plot moving as the unhurried, unperturbed and unstoppable Gamache and his team of crack detectives, including the insecure and arrogant young Yvette Nichol, navigates an intricate web of deception, where art runs in the family and where everyone around treats it like law.

Still Life's Armand Gamache signifies the debut of a fresh face on the Canadian crime fiction circuit; there's no doubt that he's an appealing and multi-talented hero. As Armand gets the heart of Jane's murder and the secrets are revealed, he finds himself almost falling in love with all these townsfolk, where their long-lived peace has been threatened in this old and bucolic village that "hasn't become old without knowing grief." Mike Leonard October 06.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, page 7, 8

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