Still Life by Louise Penny is a cozy mystery taking place in Three Pines,  a small village in Quebec, Canada.  It would be a great pick for the Sleuthing, First Things First, Noteworthy and Acclaimed as well as It’s all about the Destination categories in the 2018 reading challenge.  

Nothing ever goes wrong in Three Pines.  Until,  the body of a well-loved member of the community is found lying dead in the maple woods.   The community works together to find out how this happened and who is to blame and how this happened to the quaint cozy town of  Three Pines.

With any mystery driven plot line I don’t want to spoil anything.  This is a quick read, not page turning like a thriller but a cozy mystery to curl up with over the weekend.  The story starts around Thanksgiving in case you like reading books that match the current calendar.

This book is the first in a series,  with the caveat that each can be read independently or out of order and the book is contained – but you lose the large arch of the character development when you read as stand-alone books.

The Publisher Says:

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montréal and yet a world away. Jane Neal, a long-time resident of Three Pines, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it’s a tragic hunting accident and nothing more but Gamache smells something foul this holiday season…and is soon certain that Jane died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.

With this award-winning first novel, Louise Penny introduces an engaging hero in Inspector Gamache, who commands his forces—and this series—with power, ingenuity, and charm.

Some of the awards that this book has received as notated on the Goodreads page:

I kept hearing about this book on the Modern Mrs. Darcy podcast and decided to give it a try.    It is well-written, bordering between mystery, women’s fiction and literary fiction.

Here are few variations of the cover.

I gave this book 4 stars.