Still Life (2005) by Louise Penny

🎨 Still Life is the first book in Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, a crime mystery series penned by Louise Penny. It introduces us to Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and some of his team of Surete du Quebec provincial police force. Gamache and his colleagues were summoned to investigate the death of a local artist called Jane Neal. We were provided a little opportunity to know Jane shortly before her death. She was a teacher with gentle, affectionate manner - the kind that is usually loved by the students. Hence, her death shocked most of the inhabitants of Three Pines, a small peaceful village - so peaceful that they don't have any local police force. Jane Neal was pierced by a hunting arrow near the deer trail. The question arises, whether it's an innocent accident or a deliberate murder.

🎨 I don't usually like mystery with too many characters, but it somehow fits nicely in this one. The police force itself has several characters. Jean Guy Beauvoir is Gamache's sidekick, with opposite personality from Gamache. Then there are a few other agents, and Yvette Nichol, a rookie agent in the Surete whose first assignment is to work under Gamache's command. She tends to show off her knowledge, which leads usually to blunders instead of appreciation. Near the end of the case Nichol is finally sent back to Montreal by Gamache, after he has been patient enough to try to guide her without avail. Her appearance in the mystery offers more of hilarious moments than anything else, and as her faith isn't conclusive, I am hoping that she will return in the next cases.

🎨 The more the case progresses, the more we get acquainted with the characters and the village itself. In the end, I even feel like visiting it myself. I can picture myself staying at the B&B owned by a gay couple Olivier Brulé and Gabriel (Gabri) Dubeau. They are charming chatty-duo, the foods are scrumptious, and the B&B itself seems a jolly place to stay. My favorite character is Clara, Jane's most intimate friend, who's an artist, just like her husband Peter. Jane was actually murdered (of course it turns out to be murder) just after she invited her friends to her house - where hitherto no one had ever been farther than the kitchen and mudroom (why had she been secretive of her inside house; what had she been hiding?) Gamache soon realizes that the key to the murder is in Jane's painting titled Fair Day, which is going to be exhibited at the gallery. The painting is depicting the end of a fair day, the day her friend, Timmer Hadley, died of a longtime illness. Was Jane's murder related to that other death? Or was it triggered by an assault aimed to the gay couple, in which Jane scolded the perpetrators?
🎨 I loved it that the murder is all about art and artists. I have a little suspicions of that from the title: Still Life. Armand Gamache is your perfect chief inspector too; they way he led his subordinates is exemplary. I guessed the murderer correctly - I think it's quite clear after Gamache settled that the murder is all about the painting. There was a red herring, but I know instantly it's a false trail. All in all, it's a nice mystery with a little suspenseful action in the end. I might like to continue down the series, if not to appease my curiosity over agent Nichol's future, then to read more of the eloquent Chief Inspector Armand Gamache (I love the sound of his name too!)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐