Penny, Louise  Still Life

Louise Penny has been one of my go-to mystery writers for several years. How I missed Still Life, which was the first Gamache novel and introduced the hamlet of Three Pines and its residents, I don’t know.  But there it was in an unblemished paperback version on a table at the Marion Library book sale for a buck. 

What a treat it was to read and see how this marvelous writer sets the time, the place, and characters, in an orchestra that is still playing in full throat today.  They’re all there Gabri, Olivier, Clara,  Peter, Myrna, Ruth, and Inspector Armand Gamache. Each now familiar character is born here already imbued with spot-on description, color, clarity, and psychological underpinning. They will all be developed over the next years and right now Penny’s fans are waiting, perhaps even pining, for the latest installment. (Sorry about that!   Her newest book is titled The Black Wolf, and will be published this fall.

In Still Life the corpse of a dearly beloved retired school teacher is discovered in the woods. An arrow has slain her through her heart and all signs point to a local resident. But who? Gamache arrives with his detective crew and begins to ferret out the culprit methodically. Along the way, you can also see how the inspector starts to fall in love with this little village where he and his wife will later move. The plot is intricate, as usual, and grounded in long-hidden secrets.  At least two strong false trails will keep you guessing right up to the final unmasking of the villain.  As noted, I don’t know how I missed this one.

Jim De Young

I give it a 5 out of 5