Book Review: Still Life by Louise Penny (Chief Inspector Gamache #1)

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Still Life is lovely in so many ways. Though a murder mystery there is hardly anything dark (beyond the obvious) that clings to you on reading about murders and killings. The book is the first where Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec makes his appearance. He is compassionate and cerebral and this fact alone makes him worthy of being followed into every book that Penny has written with him as the central character. It must have been indeed a stellar debut by Louise Penny for it to have fetched her the Anthony Award for the Best First Novel in 2007.

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Three Pines is a small quaint village, a heaven for its residents, which wakes up to the murder of an old beloved school teacher Ms Jane Neal one morning. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec and his team are sent to investigate this death which looks like a hunting accident, after all who would want Jane Neal dead. Gamache, who sees and observes everything (A certain Mr. Holmes would have been very happy to meet him, I am sure) eventually concludes that this death isn't an accident but a well-thought out murder. With this fact and the realisation that the murderer is one amongst them the peace and serenity of the hamlet of Three Pines is disturbed. Penny's mystery which can be easily classified as a Pastoral Mystery, slows you down as the very perceptive Gamache takes in every careless stance and every gesture, every word uttered and weighs it to see if it holds a clue to the mystery.

In some other book, I might have been put off by this fact as I like my mysteries to be pacy and don't have the patience for the atmospherics. But here the atmosphere is though weighed down by sadness at the loss of someone close isn't dark and dreary and so doesn't hinder the pace of the book.

The brilliance of Ms Penny though lies in keeping this work of hers in motion and not letting it stagnate and turn boring by making sure that action is taking place in one or the other sub plots of her book. So, you have a range of interesting and delightful characters flocking the pages of this mystery- form the estranged niece of the dead woman Yolanda to a gay couple Gabri and Olivier, who keep adding pace and freshness to Still Life.

The Canadian author delivers fantastically in this book and I will look forward to read her other
books. Go read it for a detective who isn't hungover and carries a burdened past on his shoulders but believes in polishing members of his team, is receptive and largely a family man who shares everything with his wife. Read it for the calmness that will surround you as you move through the pages where though a murder has been committed yet things aren't falling apart.



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