Category: mystery

Still Life by Louise Penny In this traditional mystery, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec and his team are called to investigate a suspicious death in the small rural village of Three Pines. Jane Neal, a long-time resident of the town who seems to have been loved by everyone, is found dead in the woods. Although her friends and neighbors hope it is a tragic accident, Gamache believes otherwise. The strength of this book for me was the characters. The town is populated by an interesting group of people  who are fully-developed, with hurts and disappointments, loves and dreams. In a lot of ways, they are examples of people we meet everyday, people who may very well have secrets behind their own doors. Jane herself is a wonderful character, integral to the story even though we never meet her alive. She lives on in the stories her friends tell, the way her dog mourns,  and in her paintings, one of...

Gamache had risen before the sun that morning. His little travel alarm said 5.55. He was always delighted when a digital clock had all the same numbers. (pg. 174-175) It was a tranquil few minutes, and Gamache appreciated every calm moment, pouring rich full bodied café au lait from the thermos into the little metal cup, and burrowing into the paper bag for a flaky croissant, still warm from the oven. (pg. 175) Gamache is the detective in Still Life by Louise Penny. He is a Chief Inspector with the Sûreté du Québec and is in the small town of Three Pines investigating the death of a long time resident. My comments about the book overall should be up in the next couple of days. What struck me about these two short passages is that even in the middle of a murder investigation, he can take the couple minutes to appreciate the little things, like the numbers matching or a delicious fresh croissant....

Vicki of Reading At The Beach hosts A-Z Wednesday. Today's letter is V. This week I've got another from my to-read list. This book won the Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel in 2007. The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard Small Plains, Kansas, January 23, 1987: In the midst of a deadly blizzard, eighteen-year-old Rex Shellenberger scours his father’s pasture, looking for helpless newborn calves. Then he makes a shocking discovery: the naked, frozen body of a teenage girl, her skin as white as the snow around her. Even dead, she is the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen. It is a moment that will forever change his life and the lives of everyone around him. The mysterious dead girl–the “Virgin of Small Plains”–inspires local reverence. In the two decades following her death, strange miracles visit those who faithfully tend to her grave; some even believe that her spirit can cure deadly illnesses. Slowly, word of the legend spreads. But what really...

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins I wanted to read this classic because it is generally considered the first detective novel in the English language, and as a mystery lover, I had to read it, right?  It took me a while to finish but I enjoyed it. The Moonstone is a large yellow diamond stolen from a sacred statue in India by an English officer.  According to legend, three Hindu Brahmins, who have dedicated their lives to recovering it, will stop at nothing to retrieve it. On her eighteenth birthday, Rachel Verinder inherits the diamond and the danger that goes along with owning it. The dying Indian sank to his knees, pointed to the dagger in Hercastle's hand, and said, in his native language:— "The Moonstone will have its vengeance yet on you and yours!" (pg. 14) She wears it to her party, but that night it is stolen from the drawer where she placed it. Suspicion falls on three Indian jugglers who had been in the...