First in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mystery series and revolving around Gamache and his sense of what's right. My TakeOh, this was lovely! A cozy contemporary mystery in a village of people pursuing their second careers with many of them artists or lovers of art. Some are longtime friends who have grown up in the village while others have drifted in from elsewhere, seeking a respite from the cares of a colder, more self-absorbed world.The beginning will catch your attention if only because it's so confusing, for Penny has killed off her victim before she's died. I have to wonder if that was its point, to intrigue.I adore Elise's reasoning for accepting Fair Day. Just the kind of attitude we need in so many aspects of life! My adoration was capped off by Olivier's lust for Jane's mudroom. Penny wrote this so well. She made me feel everyone! I could picture it all from the visible to the metaphysical, the characters of the people, the setting, the warmth. Penny described a place where one could feel at home. Preferably without those bows and arrows, though!Oh, lord, going back over my notes, I found a nasty bit of foreshadowing. Subtle, Penny, very subtle.That Yolande...what a piece of work! The scenes with Agent Nichol are amazing. Not at all what you would expect, and yet Penny works them to showcase Gamache's character, his style of working, Nichol's actions and character, and the murder investigation. Talk about multi-purposing! Wait'll you read the mirror scene...oh, LOL. She's so dim. Peter's character had me confused. He's both so patient and so not. And Clara. She's such a nice woman, and with a brain she uses well, for the most part.Interesting bit of colonial history to explain the village's name and the importance of the pine trees. And Penny gets her bit in on the English-Française brangle. I'm with Ben on this one. Although Penny does point out underlying perspectives: the French believe in collective rights which explains the French attitude about keeping their language pure, while the English believe in individual rights. The explanation about the differences in bow-hunting and target shooting as well as the differences in the arrows was also educational.Penny throws out all these possibilities, drags all these red herrings along expected paths, and then throws in the twists. There's an intriguing reference—and well done—to "the fault in our stars" which leads directly to a comment Myrna makes that had an impact on me: "It's not fate, not genetics, not bad luck, and it's definitely not Mom and Dad. Ultimately it's us and our choices...the solution rests with us as well. We're the only ones who can change our lives, turn them around. So all those years waiting for someone else to do it are wasted."Penny does so much so well, that it's a bit flabbergasting when she flubs it as in Gamache's getting his badge and gun back. There are a few other simplistic spots, but this one stood out the most. It's not an obvious miss, it just catches at you, makes you pause momentarily, wondering why it feels wrong.Oh, lord, finding what Jane's been hiding in her house all these years will break your heart. I hate it when a good artist dies. You'll hate even more when you read of Yolande's idea of a good funeral...oh, brother.The StoryIt's the annual art show, Arts Williamsburg, that sets it all in motion, for the jury has accepted Fair Day, the painting Jane submitted. The first time anyone ever will have seen her work.The CharactersMiss Jane Neal is the village's much-loved, former schoolteacher who has finally gotten brave enough to show her paintings. Lucy is her beloved dog. Andreas Selinsky is the lumberjack Jane almost married, who was employed by Kaye Thompson. The shallow, greedy Yolande Fontaine is Jane's niece, who is married to André Malenfant, a miscreant with a record. Their son, Bernard, seems to be his apprentice.Clara Morrow is one of those odd artists, creating art that most people aren't quite sure about. I can relate. She's married to a very successful artist, Peter, only it takes so long to create one of his paintings. The jury for the art show includes Clara and Peter; Elise Jacob is the chairperson, and a former curator at the Musée des Beaux Arts in Ottawa; Henri Lariviere is a quarry worker-turned-sculptor; and, the self-absorbed, petty Irenée Calfat is a potter. Isaac Coy is the caretaker at the gallery.More friends include Ruth Zardo, a curmudgeonly award-winning poet; Olivier Brulé and Gabri, a gay couple who run a bistro and B&B in Three Pines—Olivier adores his antiques while Gabri is an amazing chef for their B&B as well as the local choir director; Ben Hadley, a son-in-waiting, has been Peter's best friend since childhood; and, the black Myrna Landers was a psychologist back in Montreal, now turned bookstore owner.Phillipe Croft, Gus Hennessey, and Claude LaPierre are the little vandals. Matthew Croft, a bow hunter, is Phillipe's father; Suzanne is the wrongly protective mother. Timmer Hadley is Ben's now-deceased mother; she had been one of Jane's best friends. Hanna Parra is their local elected representative. Old Mundin is a young man concerned about Lucy. Nellie and Wayne Robertson. Jacques Beliveau owns the local general store. Maître Norman Stickley claims to be Jane's lawyer. Solange Frenette is a notary who just had a baby.Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is head of Homicide with the Sûreté du Quebec, hovering in place with a stalled career. He's a great believer in mentoring the young officers, and he adores his very flexible wife of thirty-two years, Reine-Marie. Inspector Jean Guy Beauvoir is his second-in-command. Officer Robert Lemieux is the duty officer with the Cowansville Sûreté. Dr. Sharon Harris is the on-site coroner. Agent Isabelle Lacoste has hunches. Inspector Comeau was Gamache's mentor. Maître Brigitte Cohen is the prosecutor.Agent Yvette Nichol has been dying to get on to the Sûreté, and now she has her big chance. Her dad, Ari Nikulas, is feeling guilt over the stories he's told; Angelina is her proud sister. Superintendent Michel Brébeuf is a friend of Gamache's, although neither of them will allow this to prevent their doing what they believe is right. Claude Guimette is with the Guardians Office.The CoverThe cover of the version I read was gorgeous (hardcover, copyright 2005) without the red bar across the top. Buy it in hardcover with a paper jacket just so you can hang the cover! It's so appropriate for this tale, both Still Life as metaphor for the life that has been stilled, ungrowing, as well as a homage to the primary characters and the reason for death. A lonely village road curving between old wooden buildings, leading to a white steepled church, and the whole surrounded by vertical slashes of bright, colorful, cheerful oil paints.
Jane Neal was an eccentric artist. Her mudroom was a museum, her kitchen a shrine. That was as far as anybody was allowed into her home. Even her most dearest friends never made it beyond the kitchen. The status quo would have lingered on forever, if it wasn't for Jane submitting, for the first time in her life, one of her paintings, ' Fair Day', to the Annual Williamsburg Arts Exhibition. It was the only piece of herself that she finally wanted to share with the world. Some judges were horrified, others were delighted. And somewhere in between someone probably got scared. ‘For whatever reason, Fair Day challenges us. It moves us. To anger,’ here Elise acknowledged Irenée, ‘to confusion,’ a brief but meaningful look at Henri who nodded his grizzled head slightly, ‘to …’ a glance at Peter and Clara. ‘Joy,’ said Peter at the very moment Clara said, ‘Sorrow.’ They looked at each other and laughed. ‘Now, I look at it and feel, like Henri, simply confused. The truth is I don’t know whether Fair Day is a brilliant example of naive art, or the pathetic scrawling of a superbly untalented, and delusional, old woman. That’s the tension. And that’s why it must be part of the show. I can guarantee you it’s the one work people will be talking about in the cafes after the vernissage.’Ruth Zardo, a woman who were known to be scarier than a burning building, thought it was hideous.It was suddenly all too clear that Jane did not write a diary. No, she painted her life story, as well as those of the villagers, into canvasses nobody was allowed to ever see. Myrna was saying to Clara. ‘Even the deaths, accidents, funerals, bad crops, even they have a kind of life. She (Jane) made them natural.’Although she was old, Jane was also gentle and kind. And fearless too. When a gay couple were harassed in the small town of Three Pines, south of Québec, Jane not only confronted the three young boys, she also recognized them. The three young assailants fled. One of them, with the orange mask, left behind a laugh so foul it even eclipsed the duck manure they just finished throwing at Olivier and Gabri.However, before Jane Neal could enjoy the triumph of her first exhibition, she was dead. A hunting accident, the sleepy town believed.It would have been accepted as true, if Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Quebec’, with his two assistants, Inspector Jean Guy Beauvoir and Agent Yvette Nichol, was not summoned to the scene. The town hall was packed when he announced his theory. A silence deader than Jane, ascended onto the gathering. 'Even the coughing stopped, miraculously cured by curiosity.' Comments: Like a good murder mystery, the plot is everything, allowing the dedicated reader of this genre to try and solve the mystery before the detective does. For us it is more than just a story. It is a game. We revel in the sleuths, the puzzle, and the resolution of the case at the end of the book. We simply demand those thrills as readers, yes! Still Life did not fall into the trap of getting bogged down in history or back flashes, or going off on a tangent. These elements were present in the book, but never inspired me to skip-read as with many other books in this genre. What better way of spending a winter's weekend, curled up in front of an old-fashioned fire , enveloped in warm blankets and cocooned in a nest of big fluffy soft cushions! In our quest for more murders, clues and suspicious persons, a first novel, such as Still Life honors the thrilling, joyful experience of classic authors such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Julien Barnes, Eric Ambler, Dorothy Slayers, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Agatha Christie to name but a few. As a first novel, it was perfect. The plot point was plausible, keeping the action moving, the murder was believable; the culprit was able to commit the crime; the researched was very well done; the ending was unpredictable enough. Of course the addition of unexpected twists to throw us off the scent, was applied, and the detectives themselves got tricked! The gentle, laid-back style worked for me. It was more than a murder mystery. It was a multi-layered tale of human relationships within a warm, close-knit community. Dignity and grace comes to mind. Sometimes we want to be strapped to a chair, gagged and scared to death! Sometimes we just want a good ole inspector Morse, or Hercule Poirot and the all-time famous Sherlock Holmes to entertain us. Nothing beats the combination of good detective work, scientific solutions and the use of plain common sense to grace our imaginations. This multiple-award winning book is one of those. I was mesmerized and thrilled to read it, and ultimately sad to close the book. I loved being part of the Three Pines community. I felt like leaving behind my own friends. And that, in my humble opinion, makes this book a winner in its own right! It is the first book in a series. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
What do You think about Still Life (2007)?
One of my co-workers listens to a lot of audio, so when I asked her for some favorites, she exclusively spoke on the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. She said she only goes to another author if there isn't a new title to listen to, and sometimes even goes back to relisten. I don't read a lot of mystery novels so I decided to have a brief diversion and give it a try.It is a typical cozy mystery with a cast of quirky characters but I enjoyed it. After all, I usually find I read mysteries not for the mystery but for the setting and the people. In audio it was hard to keep track of them at first but it got better, and if the series continues with the same people that will help (I'm not sure if it is just the inspector who is consistent or everyone.)If you like northeast Canada, and a mystery novel, you will probably like this.Discussed on Episode 037 of the Reading Envy podcast.
—Jenny (Reading Envy)
NO SPOILERS. Her debut, entertaining, well written and deserving of its literary awards. A traditional detective novel, the murder unraveled by careful observation - felt like a breath of fresh air after my normal diet of forensics mysteries. A murder disrupts the peace in Quebec’s heartland where "The only reason doors were locked was to prevent neighbors from dropping off baskets of zucchini at harvest time". A rural setting, quiet pace and lack of gore has some pegging this as a cozy mystery, disagree. On the surface seems just a pleasant story placed in a picturesque artsy community but there's depth. Undercurrents of homophobia, the tension between Anglo & Francophone’s. Atmospheric without being gloomy, nice change from the Canadian novels I’ve read lately. Fascinating characters, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache a standout. What? A detective who’s respectful and loves his wife, brilliant without a drop of arrogance – appealingly flawed, if anything overly compassionate? Refreshing..."He always felt a pang when looking at the hands of the newly dead, imagining all the objects and people those hands had held. The food, the faces, the doorknobs. " Tension provided courtesy of a smug young rookie agent, Yvette Nichol. As her mentor Gamache tries to stem her arrogance by teaching her humility, the power of "I’m sorry, I don’t know, I need help, I was wrong." Plan on reading the next in the series just to see if she smartens up. Loved the role the painting ‘Fair Day’ plays in the mystery. Didn’t figure out the murderer but that’s no surprise, I rarely do. For it’s genre a solid 4.5 stars. And in case you’re wondering if places like this actually exist - the answer is yes:)Cons: Way too many characters and while the majority are well fleshed out a few are ridiculously exaggerated. No one is as superficial as Yolande Fontaine, as smug as Agent Yvette Nichol – couldn’t take either of them seriously.“A fire had been laid and lit, outside the storm moaned and called the leaves from the trees.”
—Florence (Lefty) MacIntosh
Thoroughly enjoyable mystery set in a village near Quebec. My friend JK has been after me forever to read this series and I am so glad I finally started it! This is a cozy read and I loved being immersed in the lives of the characters- it reminded me much of the BBC series Doc Martin: village life, quirky character's with complicated and enmeshed histories, a beautiful setting, and good storytelling. I look forward to reading more about this village and getting to know more about the charcters. p.s. This is really a 3-3.5 star mystery but I rounded up. The mystery and reveal were almost secondary to the setting and interesting characters.
—Elizabeth
