Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Sep 07, 2019 Nadine in NY Jones rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery, audio, detective-mystery

This book came SO highly recommended by many of my reading friends that I had ridiculously high expectations. That rarely ends well. Reading this book is a bit like being repeatedly bashed over the head with a blunt object: you WILL be charmed!!!! over and over. I guess this type of book is “cozy adjacent”? I didn’t know that. I thought this would be a straight up detective mystery with a slightly eccentric detective, a la Fred Vargas’s Chief Inspector Adamsberg. And it sort of is, but with mo This book came SO highly recommended by many of my reading friends that I had ridiculously high expectations. That rarely ends well. Reading this book is a bit like being repeatedly bashed over the head with a blunt object: you WILL be charmed!!!! over and over. I guess this type of book is “cozy adjacent”? I didn’t know that. I thought this would be a straight up detective mystery with a slightly eccentric detective, a la Fred Vargas’s Chief Inspector Adamsberg. And it sort of is, but with moralizing in place of grit. That’s okay, I just didn’t expect it.

I didn’t guess the culprit and the writing was decent with a few turns of phrase that charmed me, so it’s likely I’ll continue with this series, with expectations adjusted.

But there were quite a few things that annoyed me about the investigation. I’m hoping these are just beginner’s mistakes and won’t show up in later books. Much of the first half of the book was tedious, because it was obvious that they were on the wrong path in the investigation. I also found Nicol’s character to be ludicrously overdone, and for no reason. I need to see more nuanced characters, please!
(view spoiler)

And, exactly how much brioche and licorice pipes (WTF is a licorice pipe anyway????) are consumed in Quebec?? I've been to Quebec several times, I guess I missed seeing Mount Brioche?

I probably won’t continue with audiobooks in this series. I see Ralph Cosham reads all of them, and I didn’t like his oddly staccato style, and was often confused thanks to his inability to create different character voices. ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Oct 02, 2014 Sarah rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: whodunnit, book-club, audio

I don't know, you guys. I liked this book but I wanted to love it. I don't know if it was because I was switching between the ebook and the audio, and the ebook had some printing errors, but I kept feeling like I was missing something. Like I was being really dense and not understanding what the author was trying to tell me or not picturing what she was trying to describe. Sometimes I wondered if I'd skipped a whole page. I don't know if it was me or the writing. But I felt like Nichole. Who I c ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 18, 2025 superawesomekt rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: wccls, read-this-year, 52-books-2025

Audiobook

I read this for family book club. I don't usually read murder mysteries, but I had heard good things about the author, and it was quite good. Occasional strong profanity is used. ...more

Like · see review