Bruno, Chief of Police: A Bruno Courrèges Investigation
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If a publisher is particularly celebrated for finding really cherishable novels and authors, attention must be paid. So, when the publisher Quercus (for instance) comes up with something new, those in the know are aware that it's usually something special. Is that the case with Martin Walker’s Bruno, Chief of Police?
Martin Walker has a solid journalistic background, and is the author of several acclaimed work of non-fiction, including The Cold War: A History, along with a historical novel,The Caves of Périgord -- but none of this is necessarily a copper-bottomed guarantee of success in the crime fiction genre. Fortunately, Bruno, Chief of Police turns out to be a quietly assured piece of work, full of quirky touches and characterised with real exuberance.
The eponymous Captain Bruno Courrèges is in charge of a modest force in the town of St Debis in the Périgord region of France (allowing Walker, of course, to utilises things he’d gleaned for his previous novel set in the region), and Bruno is not your typical hard-hitting copper: he never carries the gun he owns, and barely needs to arrest people. But suddenly all is turmoil in the town as inspectors from Brussels swoop on the rural market, making many enemies. Bruno is worried by the fact that this phenomenon is invoking memories of the town's ignoble Vichy France past. Then an old man from a North African immigrant family is murdered…
This is quirkily inventive stuff, and Walker‘s Bruno has all the auguries of the becoming a crime fiction favourite. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
The pleasures of life in the Dordogne, some distinctive well-rounded characters and an intriguing mystery are a winning combination in Martin Walker's Bruno, Chief of Police … Walker's relaxed style and good humour help to bring to life his engaging hero and his delightful home and make one of the most enjoyable books I've read in a long time' Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph.
The Alexander McCall Smith of La France Profonde. No one should be allowed to go on holiday to France this summer without a copy' Francis Wheen.
Hugely enjoyable and absolutely gripping… the Maigret of the Dordogne' Antony Beevor.
The Alexander McCall Smith of La France Profonde. No one should be allowed to go on holiday to France this summer without a copy' Francis Wheen.
Hugely enjoyable and absolutely gripping… the Maigret of the Dordogne' Antony Beevor.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Martin Walker's "Bruno, Chief of Police" is a well-crafted mystery which -if not taken too seriously- makes for an agreeable read.
Bruno Courrèges is chief of the police municipale (and indeed the only officer on the local force) in the Périgord town of St Denis. Bruno is an ex-soldier, decorated for bravery in the Balkans. He is manifestly overqualified for his position but he is an orphan and has been struck by tragedy in love. St Denis is his first real home, St Denis' townspeople are his family. " I'm happy here," he tells his more conventionally ambitious lover when she challenges him to seek more from life, "I'm busy, I think I'm useful and I'm certainly not wasted. It's a way of life that pleases me."
St Denis itself is the perfect spot for a Maylesian tradeoff between way of life and the Big World. It is an Englishman's idyllic vision of life in la France profonde. The Sun always shines. Tables are well-stocked with paté ,truffles and cheese. Every Frenchman worth the name has concocted his own vin de noix and believes it without equal. Neighbors help one another build their houses. Expatriate Brits are made to feel at home, even as they commemorate Waterloo day on the eighteenth of June, the same day as the celebration of de Gaulle's Declaration of Free France. Life revolves around festivals, parades, the local tennis and rugby clubs, and, oh yes, the black market. The wily citizens conspire effortlessly to thwart intrusive bureaucrats from Paris and Brussels, even as their well-connected mayor contrives to obtain every conceivable central government and EU grant for local projects. Ah, Toujours Dordogne.
Inevitably, there is a snake in paradise. An elderly Algerian war hero is murdered. Drug runners and neo-nazis appear on the scene. Dark secrets from the War and the Resistance begin to surface. Almost as bad, the powers that be in Paris decide to help. St Denis is flooded with clumsy gendarmes, Police Nationale and a stereotypically ambitious young prosecutor who can barely remember the name of the town he has come to help. Bruno manages to sort all this out with intelligence, wisdom and finesse while at the same time advancing his social life -- not all the visiting inspectrices are unwelcome.
Doubtless, this is an Anglo Saxon version of the Périgord, and perhaps Bruno himself has an English rather than French sensibility. But no matter, the book's world and cast are internally consistent and inviting, its mystery is gripping , its guiding intelligence is acute without being patronizing, weighty topics are introduced without being belabored, and the writing is comfortable and compelling. An agreeable read indeed, and may Chief Bruno appear in a sequel. And, Monsieur Walker, do not leave out those two English women.
Bruno Courrèges is chief of the police municipale (and indeed the only officer on the local force) in the Périgord town of St Denis. Bruno is an ex-soldier, decorated for bravery in the Balkans. He is manifestly overqualified for his position but he is an orphan and has been struck by tragedy in love. St Denis is his first real home, St Denis' townspeople are his family. " I'm happy here," he tells his more conventionally ambitious lover when she challenges him to seek more from life, "I'm busy, I think I'm useful and I'm certainly not wasted. It's a way of life that pleases me."
St Denis itself is the perfect spot for a Maylesian tradeoff between way of life and the Big World. It is an Englishman's idyllic vision of life in la France profonde. The Sun always shines. Tables are well-stocked with paté ,truffles and cheese. Every Frenchman worth the name has concocted his own vin de noix and believes it without equal. Neighbors help one another build their houses. Expatriate Brits are made to feel at home, even as they commemorate Waterloo day on the eighteenth of June, the same day as the celebration of de Gaulle's Declaration of Free France. Life revolves around festivals, parades, the local tennis and rugby clubs, and, oh yes, the black market. The wily citizens conspire effortlessly to thwart intrusive bureaucrats from Paris and Brussels, even as their well-connected mayor contrives to obtain every conceivable central government and EU grant for local projects. Ah, Toujours Dordogne.
Inevitably, there is a snake in paradise. An elderly Algerian war hero is murdered. Drug runners and neo-nazis appear on the scene. Dark secrets from the War and the Resistance begin to surface. Almost as bad, the powers that be in Paris decide to help. St Denis is flooded with clumsy gendarmes, Police Nationale and a stereotypically ambitious young prosecutor who can barely remember the name of the town he has come to help. Bruno manages to sort all this out with intelligence, wisdom and finesse while at the same time advancing his social life -- not all the visiting inspectrices are unwelcome.
Doubtless, this is an Anglo Saxon version of the Périgord, and perhaps Bruno himself has an English rather than French sensibility. But no matter, the book's world and cast are internally consistent and inviting, its mystery is gripping , its guiding intelligence is acute without being patronizing, weighty topics are introduced without being belabored, and the writing is comfortable and compelling. An agreeable read indeed, and may Chief Bruno appear in a sequel. And, Monsieur Walker, do not leave out those two English women.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A thoroughly absorbing, original and satisfying read, redolent of the sights and smells of rural France. I found it more atmospheric and enjoyable than the Maigret novels I have read, prizing as I do the local atmosphere of a book as much as the actual mystery itself. I found the central thread of the story very credible, rooted as it is in France's colourful history. The townspeople's quiet determination to defend their kitchen sink economy against the snoopers from Brussels seemed as believable as it is amusing. Bring on the next one!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I enjoyed this book very much, do take it along if going on a french holiday. I substracted one star because Bruno's dog is called "Gitane", a quintessentially female dog name for us french people..and the dog is male! A french novelist would not have made the mistake, but then again, he might not have produced a charming book like " bruno"
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Ode to the Perigord
It only takes a chapter or so of "Bruno, Chief of Police" to understand that author Martin Walker has written as much a loving chronicle of life in a small French town as a murder... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Blue in Washington
Reminded me of Clochemerle
I've read the negative reviews here and can see a few valid points but I loved it. I didn't see the characters as one dimensional and if there were a few places where a translation... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Damp squib
No challenge to Donna Leon's crown here!
This is a book that would have benefited from editing. The language is repetitive and boring. The plot is predictable and plodding. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Isabella Lambert
Bruno Chief of Police, Dark Vineyard
Martin Walker writes well so the books are a pleasant enough read, but not very plausible if one knows that part of rural France. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Nandita Menon
pleasant and undemanding ; interesting plotline
This is an enjoyable book. Bruno, Chief of Police in St. Denis in the Dordogne, is faced with the brutal murder of an elderly Frenchman of Arab extraction, a decorated war hero. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mr. Ian A. Macfarlane
So bad
I love Maigret so when I read the blurb for this book I grabbed it for a read. How disappointed was I! Read more
Published 23 months ago by liveenl
I got through it
A decent enough mystery, if not that believable, but this book was spoiled for me by the interminable descriptions that attempted to detail every aspect of Bruno's life. Read more
Published on 28 May 2010 by SJJones
Great start for a new series.
Martin Walker's first-in-a-series mystery is set in a small French town in the Dordogne area of south-west France. Read more
Published on 13 Mar 2010 by Jill Meyer
What a waste of time - mine and the authors
I was so disappointed with this book. There is so much descriptive prose in it but the characters still came over as two-dimensional. Read more
Published on 29 Jan 2010 by Reader
FANTASTIQUE
Very engaging, evocative and empathic - life in make believe St Denis is the Perigord at its most romantic,
punctuated by a brutal exclamation mark . . .
punctuated by a brutal exclamation mark . . .
Published on 8 Oct 2009 by P. Fraser
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