Book review: Still Life by Louise Penny

Louise Penny is one of my favourite mystery authors and Still Life is her first published book in her award-winning Armand Gamache series of murder mysteries. 

 Photo by Leanne 

 creative assistance provided by my friend David

I was excited to find this copy in my favourite consignment store. 

Publisher:  First published in paperback in 2006 by Headline Publishing Group

Book blurb:  

As the early morning mist clears on Thanksgiving Sunday, the homes of Three Pines come to life -- all except one...

To locals, the village is a safe haven. So they are bewildered when a well-loved member of the community is found dead in the maple woods. Surely it was an accident -- a hunter's arrow gone astray. Who could want Jane Neal dead?

In a long and distinguished career with the Surete du Quebec, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has learned to look for snakes in Eden. Gamache knows something dark is lurking behind the white picket fences, and if he watches closely enough, Three Pines will being to give up its secrets...

What did Ms. Penny have to learn and what came naturally to her?

What did Ms. Penny have to learn?

Craft

Dialogue tags...
For example, I found identifying the speaker in group difficult. This difficulty may be overcome by using more dialogue tags or by associating the speaker with an action. 

I.e. Simon reached for the steaming cup of coffee. "Boy, is it cold outside." 

Transition...
And transitions could be more clearly defined. One minute the characters are in a shop or a restaurant and the next the characters are in a car. 

What do I like about Ms. Penny's writing?

One of the reasons Louise Penny is one of my favourite mystery authors is that we share the same passion for rural life.

The only reason doors were locked was to prevent neighbors from dropping off baskets of zucchini at harvest time. (p. 5)

Life was far from harried here. But neither was it still. (p. 402)

Thought provoking...

"[F]our things lead to wisdom... I don't know. I need help. I'm sorry." (p. 106)

"I know at the end of a day I'll look at my work and think it's great, then next morning look at it and think it's crap. The work didn't change, but I did." (p. 353 - 354) 

After her murder Jane's friends find her art. This has convinced me that before I die I will set fire to all my unpublished work--I want to spare my loved ones that unpleasant discovery.

Turn of phrase...

She threw great logs of 'I'm right, you're an unfeeling bastard' on to the fire and felt secure and comforted. (p. 214)

Ruth's normally flinty voice was now as hard as the Canadian shield. (p. 220 - 221)

Photo by Leanne Dyck

Sharing my author journey...

September was a productive month I...

How writing short stories can improve your writing by Leanne Dyck

(What is housed in this tent? And why is it good news for my writing?
For the answer, stroll down to the very end of this post.)

'An ordinary day--but with a suitcase it in. -Arleen Pare (Leaving Now)

'There is a story always ahead of you.' -Michael Ondaatje (The Cat's Table)

'They would always go home; they belonged to the place they came from. Other people were destined to keep leaving, over and over again.' -Alix Ohlin (Inside)

'She swung the thick, strong rope of her voice round the words, coming down hard on them, cinching them together. Then she flung the notes bold up in the air, high and hornlike.' -Esi Edugyan (Half Blood Blues)

'It was a wisp of a dream, like trying to catch wind in your hand.' -Will Ferguson (419)

'It was like walking into joy.' -Louise Penny (The Beautiful Mystery)

How do you learn to write like this?

Perhaps by learning how to pick the right word.

And how do you do that?

By chiseling away at your writing so that plot; character development--nothing matters but the words. By writing flash fiction... 

Flash fiction:  a self-contained short story (meaning the story has a beginning, middle, end) with a limited word count (usually under 1,000 words).

As you can imagine, such a reduced word count is extremely limiting. You are limited to one moment in time. Such writing relies on the author's ability to choose the correct word. You don't have the luxury of padding. It's challenging but very enjoyable. And many authors find it to be the perfect counterbalance for working on longer work.

'The challenge of flash fiction is to tell a complete story in which every word is absolutely essential.' -Jason Gurley

For sale:  baby shoes, never worn.
This six word story by Ernest Hemingway's is an extreme example of flash fiction.
More about this story

Here is one of my attempts at extreme flash fiction...

One sunny day a worm went for a wiggle. He meets a robin.

1,500...1,000...500...20...6? How low will you go?

More tips...

Stories in your pocket:  how to write flash fiction



Sharing my author journey...

What do you feed a writer?
Good books, of course.
Where do you get good books at a price a writer who is establishing