Meet Benoît Courrèges, chief of police in the small town of Saint Denis in the Dordogne. At first I thought this story would prove to be by some Brit anxious to display how well he was integrated into French life - it was a bit of slow burn at first. In fact this is a good story, well told and with entirely believable surprises towards the end. Walker does show a real understanding of and sympathy for community life in rural southern France, and paints a rounded picture. It's readable and enjoyable, and pleasantly intriguing, despite its being a murder mystery. I'll read more books featuring Benoît Courrèges. ( )

A gentle, slow pace for a murder mystery. Gorgeous locale and food. ( )

Bruno is a sweet character and this was a fun, light read. It was enjoyable enough that I'm looking forward to reading other books in the series. ( )

Having read one of the later books in this series, I found the premise intriguing and, as one of my friends suggested, I sought out the first book in the series. And it was a charming as I hoped it would be.

Bruno generally has little serious crime to deal with in the small village of St. Denis in the Dordogne Valley where he is the local policeman. For those of us who aren't familiar with the French justice system there are actually three police systems in the country. The Police Nationale is under the Interior Ministry; the Gendarmerie is in the Defence Ministry; and then there are the municipal police which is Bruno's system. He was appointed by the Mayor and, as we come to learn in this book, his relationship with the Mayor goes back to his military service. The municipal police work with the Police Nationale and the Gendarmerie to prevent and solve crimes. So, when a local man, who fought with the French army in the later parts of World War II was brutally killed in his cottage and a swastika carved into his chest, Bruno calls the Police Nationale. Hamid Mustafa al-Bakr was born in Algeria but came to France during the war. For his services he was awarded the Croix de Guerre and worked as a caretaker at a military college for many years after. His son and grandchildren live in St. Denis so he retired there to be close to his family. Suspicion comes to rest on the son of the local doctor after Bruno and the PN detectives, including newly hired Parisian Isabella, find the boy and a local rich girl in bed surrounded by Nazi paraphernalia. But, of course, the obvious suspect wouldn't be the one who ends up being the actual perpetrator. The investigation throws Bruno and Isabella together and eventually, after Isabella saves Bruno during a riot in front of the Mairie, into bed. There is also a lighter storyline about the EU food inspectors coming to check the locals at the farmers' market in the town square. Bruno does his best to make sure the unpasteurized cheeses are not on display when they arrive since he is a gourmet cook.

This book does give a lot of background that will, no doubt, help understanding later books in the series but I really think they pretty much stand on their own. ( )

audiobook, crime-fiction, France, small-town, local-law-enforcement, local-politics, local-gossip, foodie, immigrants, anger, resentment, murder, murder-investigation, due-diligence, mysteries, war-hero, first-in-series, historical-places-events, historical-research, history-and-culture, cooperation*****

I actually got halfway through a later book in the series and stopped to begin a kind of binge-read starting with number 1. That was not because the later one was iffy but because I was dying to know more backstory.
This one sets everything up and explains about the divisions in French law enforcement and just where Bruno and his town fit in. The murder is a mutilation of a reclusive man with an honorable family who have all emigrated from North Africa. It then gets into politics and hatreds that are not unlike those of today. The plot moves along quickly and has some diabolical misdirections, but the massive twist at the end blew me away.
Voice actor Robert Ian MacKenzie is excellent and is great for pronunciations I don't know. ( )