Still Life (Inspector Gamache 1)

Travel Guide

Sadly Three Pines, the lovely quiet and at first unassuming town is sadly fictional town based on many places in the eastern townships such as Knowlton, Sutton, North Hatley, Georgeville.

“Three Pines wasn’t on any tourist map. Like Narnia it was found unexpectedly and with a degree of surprise that such an elderly village should have been hiding in the valley all along.”

Inspector Gamache has to be one of the most unique inspectors we’ve ever met –  a mixture of French and French Canadian with a huge dose of Gamache uniqueness,  liked him and his relationships with his colleagues. He likes to impart wisdom and often says “Tell me what you know”, which is rather old school and makes him stand out from the more brash literary detectives.

There is also the exciting mix of Anglophones versus Francophones which could only be written about in Quebec given the unique dual linguistic environment there. Great for language enthusiasts!

You can definitely visit fictional Three Pines in detail here and get to explore the landscape and follow in the footsteps of the characters  – why not stay at the B&B on the Commons and drink chamomile tea at Olivier’s Bistro?. The people you meet in Three Pines are very interesting characters. The booktrail shows the places which the author says have inspired her to write and create Three Pines.