Three Pines is a Canadian village, populated by engaging individuals who, in many cases, have stumbled across the tiny utopia after suffering stressful decades in big cities. One resident, 76 year-old Jane Neal is a retired school-teacher, and beloved by all. Therefore the villagers are stunned to find her dead on a deer trail, shot through the heart with a hunting arrow that the unknown archer stopped to retrieve. Who would murder Jane?

Since they have no police force, the villagers must send for their version of the state police: the Sûreté du Québec. They get Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, an altruistic and cultured man in his early fifties whose compassion is matched by his deep curiosity about human nature.

(He reminds me a softer, more nurturing version of Rostnikov in the Kaminsky series; I could see Gamache and Rostnikov as best mates.) Gamache, who has not been promoted in twelve years, knows his true calling in life: to mentor the young detectives, and mold them into a collaborative team, which is unusual in the competitive law-enforcement field.

Gamache is about to get some raw material to mold: Yvette Nichol, a manipulative and callow agent. Assigned to her first big case, she picks him up for the long drive from Montreal to Three Pines, and offers his favorite coffee and pastry because she's heard it makes a good impression. Others round out Gamache's team, including intense yet stoic Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and wise-cracking Isabelle Lacoste.

Meanwhile, the Three Pines villagers try to figure who would kill Jane. They remember a recent incident in which three gay-bashing boys in ski-masks threw manure at the bistro run by flamboyant Gabi and his subdued partner Olivier. Jane, recognizing the boys' voices, had yelled their names. Could one of them have murdered her?

Perhaps the homicide has something to do with a bizarre painting called "Fair Day" that Jane, shy about her meager talent, had finally found the courage to enter in the annual art show? Or maybe Jane's death connects to the recent death of her friend Timmer? Or could the killer be Jane's spiteful niece who stands to inherit her house? Jane has never let anyone see the inside of her house, and why is that? Troubling questions, all.

The author has an outstanding ability to dip in and out of characters' thoughts, illuminating several third-person viewpoints per scene. These are vivid characters with strong reactions to things. Some like Myrna and Clara verge on being stock Earth-Mother types, mouthpieces for the author's Psych-101 views on life. But others like the abrasive Ruth Zardo and the ambitious Agent Nichol are brilliantly complex, particularly for minor characters: full of warts and yet many good qualities. The fascinating Agent Nichol subplot does not take the easy way out.

Still Life is a mystery to appeal to almost everyone, but especially to fans of cozy-mysteries. It's not exactly a cozy in that we have Inspector Gamache in charge, and not an amateur sleuth. But it employs some of the best features of the cozy subgenre: a small and colorful setting in the Three Pines village, and a limited pool of highly eccentric suspects. Still Life, which won the Dilys Award for the mystery that independent booksellers most enjoy recommending and selling, really stays in your thoughts after you've read it. It can be found on Amazon through this link: Still Life (Three Pines Mysteries)