Louise Penny continues her series, threading in little tidbits from Still Life. Where art and painting formed the motif of Still Life, with the murder victim's art work at the center of the story, the murder victim's obsession with creating a "life-style" philosophy resonates at the center of A Fatal Grace. Penny is definitely evolving as a mystery writer in this book, which I found created much more distinctive characters than her first book. CC de Poitiers (the victim), her brow-beaten husband, Richard Lyons, and their cowed daughter, Crie, are very clear in my mind.
The rest of the book contains the usual cast of characters, Three Pines, and lots of good food, with hints toward a larger political scandal at police HQ. As others have noted, the characterizations definitely start to become kind of cardboard after a while (maybe because I'm binging her books right now). That being said, if you want comfortable, binge-worthy books, without too much drama or darkness and lots of good food, then Bon Appetit!