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Summary
Summary
In this riveting sequel to Martin Walker's internationally acclaimed novel Bruno, Chief of Police, some of France's great pleasures--wine, passion and intrigue--converge in a dark chain of events that threaten the peaceful village of Saint-Denis.
Benoît (Bruno) Courrèges--devoted friend, cuisinier extraordinaire and the town's only municipal policeman--rushes to the scene when a research station for genetically modified crops is burned down outside Saint-Denis. Bruno immediately suspects a group of fervent environmentalists who live nearby, but the fire is only the first in a string of mysteries centering on the region's fertile soil.
Then a bevy of winemakers descends on Saint-Denis, competing for its land and spurring resentment among the villagers. Romances blossom. Hearts are broken. Some of the sensual pleasures of the town--a dinner of a truffle omelette and grilled bécasses, a community grape-crushing--provide an opportunity for both warm friendship and bitter hostilities to form. The town's rivals--Max, an environmentalist who hopes to make organic wi≠ Jacqueline, a flirtatious, newly arrived Québécoise; and Fernando, the heir to an American wine fortune--act increasingly erratically. Events grow ever darker, culminating in two suspicious deaths, and Bruno finds that the problems of the present are never far from those of the past.
A splendid mystery--and a delectable serving of the pleasures of France.
Author Notes
Martin Walker is a senior fellow of the Global Business Policy Council, a private think tank for CEOs of major corporations, based in Washington, D.C.
Walker is also editor in chief emeritus and international affairs columnist at United Press International and the author of the Bruno series.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Age-old French traditions collide with global commerce in Walker's lyrical sequel to Bruno, Chief of Police. When vandals attack a secretive research station hidden in the hills near Saint-Denis, Bruno Courreges, the rural village's only municipal policeman, looks into the matter. Meanwhile, winemaker Francois Cresseil and the young man he has just adopted, Max Vannes, both die of mysterious causes. Max's seductive Canadian girlfriend; the scion of a rich American winery looking to buy up tracts of fertile land; protesting "ecolos"; representatives from a variety of government agencies; and a host of colorful locals all complicate what turns into a murder investigation, which calls on Bruno's tact as well as his shrewdness. Walker evokes his French community's celebrations of wine, food, love, and friendship with obvious affection but without sentimentality. His villagers are no more immune from modern times than the rest of us-they just drink better wine. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Romance, intrigue, and many a fine glass of wine await in Walker's charming second mystery set in idyllic Saint-Denis, in the southwest of France. As the novel opens, Chief of Police Bruno Courreges investigates a fire that's destroyed a research station for genetically modified crops. Local environmentalists top the list of possible perpetrators, but they're only the beginning of Bruno's problems. Fernando Bondino, a wily young American wine magnate, is eyeing Saint-Denis' fertile vineyards. His investment would be a boon for the area, which has had its share of hard economic times. But locals (including Bruno) are dubious with good reason. Bondino has displayed bad behavior, including punching out Max, a likable local lad, over a woman. When Max turns up dead, Bondino is the prime suspect. Alas, Bruno is all too aware of what Bondino could do for his village (his boss, the mayor, sees much promise in the possible influx of funds), so the police chief must tread carefully. Walker serves up wry wit, suspense, and a host of captivating characters, from a comely, manipulative Quebecois to an auburn-haired Brit who captures Bruno's heart. Oenophiles and armchair travelers alike will enjoy spending time in this lovely, lively part of France.--Block, Allison Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
Whenever it seems as if he might be running out of oxen to gore, Carl Hiaasen comes up with fresh victims for his killing wit. In STAR ISLAND (Knopf, $26.95), Florida's most entertainingly indignant social critic is in high dudgeon about those prodigal celebrities who descend on Miami with their uncouth fans and surly entourages, selfishly appropriating South Beach as their personal playground. Bundling up the most outrageous demands and self-indulgent behavior of this egocentric tribe into one over-the-top caricature, Hiaasen presents us with Cherry Pye, a 22-year-old pop star whose every display of narcissistic excess will send a frisson of horrified delight up your spine. When first met, this divine monster is vomiting into a silver-plated ice bucket, en route to Jackson Memorial Hospital after ingesting copious amounts of "vodka, Red Bull, hydrocodone, birdseed and stool softener" in the drug-addled belief that she might be reborn as a cockatoo. But not to worry. Ann DeLusia, Cherry's "undercover stunt double," is already on the job, impersonating the fun-loving star while the genuine article is whisked off to rehab - eluding even Cherry's savvy paparazzo stalker, Bang Abbott, who's counting on her to have a spectacular flame-out before the release of her comeback album, "Skantily Klad." Since Cherry is too spaced out to know she even has a double, it doesn't cramp her wild-child style when Bang mistakenly kidnaps Ann. But everyone else playing on Team Cherry - a roguish company that includes the star's pushy mother and sleazy promoter; cold-blooded twin publicists; and a hulking bodyguard, the freakishly disfigured Chemo - is quick to see the gravity of the situation. Trying to follow the plot, which involves a supporting cast of crooked politicians and predatory developers, is a little like walking a puppy. But the outlandish events soar on the exuberance of Hiaasen's manic style, a canny blend of lunatic farce and savage satire. (Chemo, who wears a prosthetic weed-whacker, shows his superior grasp of comic weaponry by taking a cattle prod to Cherry whenever she uses the words "awesome," "sweet," "sick," "totally" and "hot.") Although South Beach doesn't need saving the way the Everglades do, its loose values make it a natural magnet for the free-booting exploiters who arouse Hiaasen's scorn - and, in Cherry's case, his dumb-founded awe. Martin Walker's bucolic mysteries set in the fruitful Périgord region of France offer a gentle reminder to slow down and smell the grapes. Having captured the area's robust flavor and sleepy pace in "Bruno, Chief of Police," Walker returns to the tiny village of Saint-Denis in THE DARK VINEYARD (Knopf, $23.95) to confound Bruno Courrèges, the local policeman, with a suspicious fire at an agricultural research station experimenting with genetically modified crops. Perhaps coincidentally, an American businessman arrives in the district with a proposal to establish a winery that would alter the face of the countryside. Bruno handles both cases with great discretion, circulating so quietly and tactfully among his neighbors that his interviews are more like friendly visits. It's a wonderful detection method and an even cannier literary strategy, allowing Walker to pursue the plot of his mystery while beguiling the reader with extended scenes of village market days, old-fashioned wine harvests and some exceptionally congenial dinner parties. Since we can't seem to get enough of sleeper spies, let's look in on Louis Morgon, the retired C.I.A. undercover operative who figures in Peter Steiner's sweetly sane novels of international intrigue. In THE TERRORIST (Thomas Dunne/Minotaur, $23.99), Louis, now 71, is still living in the little French town of Saint Leon but making trips to Algiers to visit Zariana Lefort, the son of a colleague killed in Marseilles. In arranging to send the 16-year-old boy to school in Washington, Louis attracts the notice of a rogue agent who figures them both for covert operatives and has Zaharia thrown into a black-ops prison in Tajikistan. Or possibly Uzbekistan. Even as Louis insists that "I'm too old for danger," he flies to Cairo to find a bona fide terrorist to swap for his ward. While it can't be said that any of this is the least bit plausible, Steiner presents us with a reassuring fantasy world in which rash youths bow to the wisdom of their elders, terrorists abort their missions out of compassion for their human targets and the innocent victims of egregious acts of cruelty find it in their hearts to forgive. If exposure to the glories of Florence can elevate the creative output of artists and poets, you'd think the city might give a little boost to the turgid style of a best-selling author like Lorenzo Carcaterra. But no. Although MIDNIGHT ANGELS (Ballantine, $26) does raise the exciting prospect of watching rival teams of art hunters, the Vittoria Society and the Immortals, fighting it out for possession of three lost master-pieces by Michelangelo, this Big Kids Adventure Book turns out to be just another camera-ready thriller. The style veers from flat description, as applied to monuments like the Duomo and the Vasari Corridor (where the sculptures are hidden in a secret room), to pure hyperbole, which works fine in action scenes but pumps up the characters to cartoon dimension. If it weren't for pleasurable incidentals like a vignette of the "vibrant pageantry" of a Sunday morning in the city, we might as well be on a film set. The loose values of South Beach make it a natural magnet for the exploiters who arouse Carl Hiaasen's scorn.
Kirkus Review
Eco-terrorism and big (wine) business threaten to disrupt an idyllic corner of France in a solid second mystery involving Chef de Police Bruno Courreges.Prolific British journalist Walker (Bruno, Chief of Police, 2009, etc.) blends food, wine, community, history, tradition and general love of the Perigord region into a tidy yet thrill-free story. An act of arson ignites the plot, drawing 40-year-old ex-soldier Bruno, now municipal police officer of Saint-Denis, into the secret genetically modified crop experiments of an unauthorized research station. The local green movement attracts not only his suspicion but the attention of increasingly powerful levels of interest from Paris. Additional local upset is provoked by the arrival of American wine entrepreneur Fernando Bondino, keen to buy the land and exploit its water, grapes and potential appellation controlee status. Various attractive women snag loner Bruno's attention, including flirtatious Quebecoise wine student Jacqueline, whose boyfriend Max is Bruno's chief suspect until found drowned in a wine vat. The unraveling of the story's moderate mayhem is done with flat perspicacity, and matters conclude with a gentle au revoir as Bruno embarks on a new romance.A Francophile's workmanlike mystery, prosaic although something of a poem to the region.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
