Still Life: (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #1) by Louise Penny was published in 2005 by Macmillan Publishers. The story is set in the fictitious small Canadian village of Three Pines near Montreal. When a body is discovered in the woods, Chief Inspector Gamache of the Surete du Quebec and his homicide team are called in to investigate.
Jane Neal, a 76-year-old retired school teacher, has been found dead. While reviewing the scene, Chief Inspector Gamache finds a small puncture wound in her chest. He determines that Jane's demise came from the most unnatural cause. It seems that Jane was shot with a wooden arrow. Was it a hunting accident? After all, Three Pines is a popular spot for hunting.
Ben Hadley found the body; according to him, Jane was well-liked and respected by everyone in the community. Jane's neighbor and best friend, Clara Morrow, informs Gamache that Jane entered a painting called Fair Day as her submission to a local art gallery opening just before she died. Gamache finds it odd that Jane has never shown her art to anyone before. He also finds it curious that another of Jane's friends, Timmer, died just a few weeks earlier of cancer and that Fair Day was painted at the same time as Timmer's death. What makes things even more curious to Gamache is that during Jane's lifetime, she never let anyone into her house beyond her kitchen. Now that she's dead, Jane's niece Yolande Fontaine will not allow Gamache to go into Jane's house... at all.
What goes on here in this small village? What's happening in Jane's house that seems such a well-guarded secret? Who is Timmer, and how is her death connected to Jane and her painting? Most importantly, who killed Jane... and why?
Still Life is the first novel in the Chief Inspector Gamache Series. Penny's descriptive writing and character development make this book a page-turner. I did not figure out 'whodunit' until the end. It was also the first Louise Penny book that I've read. Fortunately, it won't be the last!
My Personal Review Rating...⭐⭐⭐⭐
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