Still Life is the first in the series of detective novels featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Jane Neal, a retired schoolteacher and a kind person, is murdered. At first, it appears to be a hunting accident, but the evidence quickly points to murder. Jane was also an artist, and Inspector Gamache begins to dig into the past of these villagers, trying to find clues related to Jane’s last painting and the history of the village. I was gripped by this book and could not put it down. It is intelligently constructed, keeping the mystery to the end, full of humour and the complex emotions of human beings. It is also imbued with kindness and understanding, even in this context of murder. Inspector Gamache is an amazing character and I will return to his stories.
“Peter was willing the water to boil so he could make tea and then all this would go away. Maybe, said his brain and his upbringing, if you make enough tea and small talk, time reverses and all bad things are undone. But he’d lived too long with Clara to be able to hide in denial. Jane was dead. Killed. And he needed to comfort Clara and somehow make it all right. And he didn’t know how. Rummaging through the cupboard like a wartime surgeon frantically searching for the right bandage, Peter swept aside Yogi Tea and Harmony Herbal Blend, though he hesitated for a second over chamomile. But no. Stay focused, he admonished himself. He knew it was there, that opiate of the Anglos. And his hand clutched the box just as the kettle whistled. Violent death demanded Earl Grey. Glancing out the window as he splashed boiling water into the pot and felt the painful pricks of scalding water bouncing on to his hand, he saw Chief Inspector Gamache sitting alone on the bench on the village green. The inspector appeared to be feeding the birds, but that couldn’t be right. His attention returned to the important task of making tea.”
Read and listened to as an audiobook