Book #93: Still Life by Louise Penny

I have seen soooo many people talking about Louise Penny's books in the last few months that I decided I just had to see what they were all about. And I am definitely excited to check out some more! This book was the first in a series of 13 SO FAR about Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of murder investigations in Montreal, Quebec. I really liked a lot about this book, particularly the character of Gamache. He is a super nice, decent man, who loves his wife and is super close with her, who speaks kindly to everyone but who isn't afraid to be authoritative when he has to be, who is good at his job but not perfect. This book is solving the murder of an elderly woman, Jane Neal, in the tiny hamlet town of Three Pines. I thought the mystery was really well done, and I loved how Penny kind of skipped over the boring nitty-gritty mundane details about what Gamache had to do to solve the crime (she just would say "they got a warrant and went in" instead of spending half a page having Gamache actually go get the warrant, etc.) and focused more on the conversations he had and observations he made about people in order to give you a sense of what he was seeing. I liked Gamache's relationships he made with his colleagues, particularly Beauvoir, and his trainee, Nichol, who was obnoxious and smug and stubborn and very well written. I loved the side characters as well, and the whole art connection with the story. The town of Three Pines and the people in the town was the best part of the book, though; Penny does a great job of creating an image of the tiny village and life there, and making it seem like such an idyllic, wonderful place with the most interesting cast of characters.

I was pretty pleased with myself though--I figured out who had done it not even halfway through the book, but I think that may have been because I was listening to it and was forced to focus and hear every last word instead of skimming and reading quickly when I got excited, so I don't know if it would have been as obvious to me otherwise. But that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story. I really liked it and am excited to start another one, especially since I just learned that they are all set in the tiny town of Three Pines, which I am intrigued to find out how she does.

I normally don't want to start a 13-book series--yikes, I have so much else I want to read--but since this was an audiobook, I feel like I can manage it. And there are 10 other audiobooks by her in our library catalog, so I can just read the few the library doesn't have and listen to the rest--so I may end up trying to continue the series, since I've enjoyed it.