Still Life
by Louise Penny
I was recently recommended this series by one of our
Friends of the Library. I’ve heard of Louise Penny books. I’ve had readers call
the library for them on many occasions. I was not disappointed.
This is book one in a long running series featuring Chief
Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Quebec, a family man, in his
mid-fifties, and the head of homicide. He is called to the village of Three Pines
when a woman is found dead in the woods, possibly due to an arrow, though the
arrow is gone.
“People don’t see it coming, because the murderer is a
master at image, at the false front, at presenting a reasonable, even placid
exterior. But it masked a horror underneath. And that’s why the expression he saw
most on the faces of victims wasn’t fear, wasn’t anger. It was surprise.”
This is a police procedural and the reader is taken along
for every step of the way, from Gamache sitting in the village square watching
life go on around them, to meetings with his staff.
“Three Pines wasn’t on any tourist map, being too far
off any main or even secondary road. Like Narnia, it was generally found
unexpectedly and with a degree of surprise that such an elderly village should
have been hiding in this valley all along. Anyone fortunate enough to find it
once usually found their way back.” It’s a fanciful description, but I can
picture it. I’ve been through some villages like that in the Catskills of
Upstate New York. The details really put me there.
The authors characterization and detail is excellent. “One
of the boys laughed… not a funny laugh… It’s the sound boys make when they’re hurting
something and enjoying it. Jane shivered at the recollection…”
The characters may be, to some extent, types but they
seem very unique and well differentiated to me. I had no trouble keeping track
of who was who and how they fit into the story.
I enjoyed the subtle humor. Gamache is called away and
his wife goes to a baptism on her own. “She was almost certain she was at the
right baptism, though she didn’t recognize all that many people.”
And there are wonderful bits, like when Peter is
comforting his wife Clara after her friend Jane has died. “And he realized that,
had he died in the woods, Clara would have had Jane to comfort her. And Jane would have known what to do. In that
instant a door opened for Peter. For the first time in his life, he asked what
someone else would do. What would Jane do if she was here and he was dead? And
he had his answer. Silently he lay down beside Clara and wrapped himself around
her. And for the first time since getting the news, her heart and mind calmed.”
I found that just beautiful. It is the author’s insight and observations that
make this book so lovely to read.
I always appreciate it when characters perceptions of
someone else, or a situation, change over the course of the story. They find out
they were wrong about something. That plays a big part in this story.
My one criticism involves a slightly odd and one-dimensional
depiction of a young female officer who seemingly can’t get over herself.
Nothing is her fault and people just can’t see how brilliant she is. I suppose
there are people like that out there, but I’ve seen far more people with a lack
of confidence at that age than this attitude. It just didn’t ring true for me.
It seemed to be an artifice, a simplistic foil for the magnificence of the
great Armand Gamache, to show us how saintly he is. I really don’t think it was
necessary.
For example, “Nichol pledged to keep her opinions to
herself if that was the thanks she got for having the courage to say what
everyone was thinking. When asked directly she’d answer in monosyllables. So
there.”
The “So there” is a shade too far. It turns the
character into a childish caricature instead of someone simply a little bit too
egotistical. Thankfully, it only intrudes on an otherwise nearly perfect murder
mystery at a few points in the story.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I’ll
definitely be reading more in this series.
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