Reviews

Still Life by Louise Penny

nsmargaretanne's review against another edition

4.0

I took a fiction writing course this year and one of the participants was writing crime fiction. It was funny and human and made me want to try some. . . Started with Louise Penny though I did read others years ago. A pleasure to read and definitely that light summer reading you sometimes want. Just flows along til its over. And then I was sad. Moved right on to the next one.

eatfoodreadbooks's review against another edition

5.0

I am so late to the table on this series but thankful that the new Amazon series has re-introduced me to the brilliance of Armand Gamache and Louise Penny. After watching, I am not gobbling them up, one book at a time.

bethowl's review against another edition

5.0

Wow. I am really impressed. Giving a murder mystery novel five stars? Yes.

This is my first Louise Penny novel, and I promise it won't be my last. Her beautiful attention to detail, her tremendous ability to evoke character, setting, and shifting plot features is just wonderful. With just a perfect sprinkling of humor and grace.

I got really worried that this could go very dark, because her ability to weave the story with microscopic, illuminated precision is spell-binding. If it had, I think I would have been plunged into horror that I might never recover from.

But, thank heavens, no.

While I can't really call it a cozy, the murder itself is mostly offstage, and it does not have grim police procedural forensic minutiae etc. that I can really do without. Just brilliant and even gorgeous.

vulpinewood's review against another edition

lighthearted mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

lauraoften's review against another edition

4.0

I have read of the seven books currently written in this series and I love them all. I think it is hard to take Still Life and review it because I really think they all need to be looked upon together as a series - but I highly recommend them and i can't wait for the 8th one.

Lovely story - great charators and I love Penny's description both of the town and of all the food. Read the first one and then keep reading!!

emmasimone's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed the characters of Inspector Gamache and the residents of Three Pines village. I liked the story so much that I have purchased the next book in the series.

elainesloan's review against another edition

5.0

I enjoy Inspector Gamache's words of wisdom. I love all the characters in all of the series. The series is amazing!

common1's review against another edition

3.0

I've read several of the Inspector Gamache books out of order and decided to back to the beginning. Still Life is a solid first book that introduces several characters that thread their way through other books in the series. Generally, the characters are well developed and interesting, though Yvette Nichol was unnecessarily unpleasant. For someone who has read the later books first, Penny becomes a much better writer with the later novels and the characters become more well-rounded and interesting over time. Generally, I like her writing and would compare her books to those of Ann Cleeves.

nursmadeline's review against another edition

5.0

I loved this mystery. Great cast of characters and detectives with personality. However I don’t understand the role of the new, young detective but that may become clear in future volumes.

sankeym's review against another edition

3.0

This is the inaugural entry in a long running procedural series set in rural Quebec, and grounded by the decent and thoughtful Inspector Gamache, called in to investigate what will become a steady flow of murders in Three Pines, Canada's version of Cabot Cove. Penny is a gentle and humane observer of local eccentrics, lifetime feuds and the realistic workings of tiny, claustrophobic insular places and how they might move someone to murder.