Monday, October 19, 2015

Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #1)

Author – Louise Penny
Genre – Detective, Police Procedural, Mystery, Village Mystery
Source - Audiobook
Rating - 4
Read - October 2015

This is my first Louise Penny, and the first of the Armand Gamache series. It's an excellent book, comparable with (and in some ways similar to) Val McDermid. But while I read McDermid after the best of Flynn and Higashino, I read this after (excellent) non-fiction. And loved it more. Armand Gamache is just what a superb fictional detective should be, but often isn't. He is more a Byomkesh than a Holmes. More a Miss Marple than a Poirot. He is not quirky, but is sage and calm. and dignified. And a detective does not have to be quirky to be compelling. Gamache is proof. Superb insight into Francophone Quebec too. Complaint? The ending would read better than it sounds, I think. Good, satisfactory, but I have read better.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

100 Best Mystery Novels - The Mystery Writers' Association (MWA) 1995


Okay, here's another list to target.The Mystery Writers' Association (MWA)'s 1995 list of best mystery novels.


5.   Scott TurowPresumed Innocent (1987)
7.   Wilkie CollinsThe Moonstone (1868)
9.   Daphne du MaurierRebecca (1938)
15. Mario PuzoThe Godfather (1969)
27. Thomas HarrisRed Dragon (1981)
29. Gregory McdonaldFletch (1974)
42. John GrishamThe Firm (1991)
44. Vera CasparyLaura (1942)
67. Elmore LeonardStick (1983)
70. Bram StokerDracula (1897)
90. Josephine TeyBrat Farrar (1950)
91. Ross MacdonaldThe Chill (1963)
100.  Ellis PetersA Morbid Taste for Bones (1977) and Ira LevinRosemary's Baby (1967) (tie)