To find out who killed Jane in Still Life, him and his detectives are forced to roll up their sleeves and start digging through the carefully-hidden dirt, to hopefully bring the evil core of it all into the light. The people of Three Pines are generally secretive and tend to look out for each other, cutting Gamache’s work out for him. Most of us are great with change, as long as it was our idea. Though his arrival in the village doesn’t exactly raise any suspicions at first, the little details start to mount one on top of the other, leading the inspector to believe there is something truly dark, sinister and rotten hiding beneath Three Pines’ idyllic veneer, and Jane fell victim to it. These, however, are the conclusions of minds far less observant than Inspector Gamache’s. The locals, while shocked and absorbed in tragedy, don’t think of it as anything other than a hunting accident which could have happened to anyone. The first case we see him working takes him to the remote fictional hamlet of Three Pines, where quaintness is just a front.Ī local fixture of the small hamlet, Jane Neal, has been found dead in the woods after being shot with an arrow. The first book was published all the way back in 2008, titled Still Life, and introduced us to the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec (Quebec’s national police force), as well as his team of investigators generally tasked with the more complicated crimes. Writing a successful mystery series led by the same detective is, in my opinion, a real badge of honour in the realm of literature, and I think Louise Penny deserves one for her Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery series. Though I would argue there are still none who have surpassed Agatha Christie as the queen of murder mystery series, there are many who have come close or even proven themselves equal. Louise Penny gives Gamache his Grand Debut

Louise penny still life synopsis