I think I started this series with The Beautiful Mystery (#8), but I would recommend starting at the beginning, as there are longer story arcs in addition to the particular mystery that is the focus of each book. I’m going to talk about the series in general, rather than Still Life specifically.

The things I love most about these books are the characters and the rich detail. The main character, Inspector Gamache, is wonderful: kind, reflective, and serious about justice. The other characters are also very varied, very complicated, and very interesting. They have pasts, and often hidden motives.

When I say there is rich detail, I mean not just the descriptions of the setting but the depth of background that becomes relevant to the story and the way the investigation that takes place in one book sometimes ties into a much larger picture.

Humor tends to show up mainly in banter between characters. Murder is a serious business, but these are not dark, grim books. There is goodness in people as well as evil.

There are twists. The reader is not always privy to the full picture.

I’m not sure why these books are sometimes called cozies, since Gamache is anything but an amateur. Probably it is because a great deal takes place in the village of Three Pines, which seems like a cozy village, though it hides some dark secrets. I would not classify these as cozies, owing to the scope of the book and the role of the police.

As a side note, I went to one of Lousie Penny’s author talks. If you have a chance, go! She is wonderfully entertaining.