I like quaint murder mystery books, and this is that. This book sets up a lot of surface level characters who you will be seeing in the rest of the series (and they will hopefully develop more in those books). A lot of the events in this book (especially the ending) were somewhat over the top improbable. This book was slow for my taste but I liked the setting so I'm going to pick up more in this series and hope Louise Penny sorts that issue out as she progresses.