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jhbandcats's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I recall that when I read Still Life, the first in Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache series, I didn’t get why everyone loved her books. Since then I’ve watched the Three Pines series on TV - the first two episodes are based on A Fatal Grace - and Alfred Molina makes Gamache such a warm, sad, and sympathetic character that it has changed my perception.
Gamache and most of his team work well together and have a long history that the reader hasn’t (yet) seen. An inexperienced and, frankly, destructive member is foisted onto them, and this is part of a mysterious backstory that’s repeatedly referenced but not spelled out. I kept reading hoping to find out more, but was instead entertained by the mystery in the foreground, the murder of a villager whom everyone hated.
Against this backdrop of tension and distrust, Gamache and his team must solve more than one murder to understand the misery in a family that’s been in Three Pines only a year or so. Seeing the interactions of the quirky villagers is the real delight here - Penny creates a whole system of friends and friendly rivals that expands with each book. We learn more and more about these characters, and about Gamache, and that’s the pleasure of these books.
I really enjoyed this and I hope to read the first one again to see if I like it any better now than I did five years ago.
Gamache and most of his team work well together and have a long history that the reader hasn’t (yet) seen. An inexperienced and, frankly, destructive member is foisted onto them, and this is part of a mysterious backstory that’s repeatedly referenced but not spelled out. I kept reading hoping to find out more, but was instead entertained by the mystery in the foreground, the murder of a villager whom everyone hated.
Against this backdrop of tension and distrust, Gamache and his team must solve more than one murder to understand the misery in a family that’s been in Three Pines only a year or so. Seeing the interactions of the quirky villagers is the real delight here - Penny creates a whole system of friends and friendly rivals that expands with each book. We learn more and more about these characters, and about Gamache, and that’s the pleasure of these books.
I really enjoyed this and I hope to read the first one again to see if I like it any better now than I did five years ago.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Murder, Body shaming, and Bullying
julied's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Body shaming
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