A Taste for Vengeance

April 1, 2018

In his 11th outing (after The Templars' Last Secret), Benoit "Bruno" Courreges has just been promoted to chief of police for his region in southwestern France and must supervise two new colleagues, Juliette and Louis, as well as learn the scope of his new position. At the same time, he is asked to help locate a client who has failed to turn up for a friend's cooking school course. Soon it is discovered that the missing British woman is a victim of what appears to be a murder-suicide. However the investigation takes a twist when it becomes a double homicide and the second victim was a former soldier living under a false name. Bruno gets caught up in a complex case reaching back decades to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Reoccurring series characters add depth to the story and draw readers into the small, countryside community of St. Denis. VERDICT Vivid descriptions of the Perigord region and French cooking are an added treat for Francophiles. Recommended for fans of the series as well as readers of Donna Leon, Louise Penny, and anyone who enjoys cozy mysteries set in foreign locales. [See Prepub Alert, 12/11/17.]--Jean King, West Hempstead P.L., NY

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 2, 2018
Bruno Courrèges, the police chief of the Dordogne village of St. Denis, goes looking for English tourist Monika Felder after she fails to show up for a cooking class in Walker’s entertaining 11th series mystery (after 2017’s The Templars’ Last Secret). Bruno learns that Monika, who left her husband back in England, was traveling with Patrick McBride, an Irishman with a house in the area. Monika turns up at the house, fatally stabbed in the bathroom; McBride’s body is found hanging from a tree in the nearby woods. What at first appears to be a murder-suicide proves to be a double homicide involving more than one killer and with links to a multimillion-dollar theft in Iraq and the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The efficient Bruno also manages to help one of the women’s rugby players he’s coached since childhood sort out some serious problems, run through some favorite Dordogne recipes while teaching a cooking class, and continue his on-again, off-again romance with a former colleague. Walker’s formula for regional crime fiction still appeals, though this outing’s global elements are something of a stretch. Agent: Stephanie Cabot, Felicity Bryan Associates.

April 1, 2018
A promotion comes with a host of challenges for the Périgord region's Bruno Courrèges (The Templar's Last Secret, 2017, etc.).As chief of police for the tiny Dordogne village of St. Denis, Bruno used to serve more as a town policeman, going to the square on market days to kiss the babies and chat with their grandmères. He even had time to coach the local women's rugby team. But now that he's been promoted to chief of police of the entire Vézère Valley, he's facing the challenges that come with greater responsibility. He needs to ride herd on Louis, the town policeman in Montignac, who spends too much time in the local bars, and to mentor young, ambitious Juliette Robard, who just replaced the sole policewoman in Les Eyzies. He also needs to negotiate the unorthodox chain of command in rural France. Prunier, the commissaire de police for the Dordogne département, thinks that Bruno now works for him, but the Mayor of St. Denis is convinced that Bruno is still his subordinate. Bruno's delicate calculations about whom he reports to and who reports to him become all the more stressful when an Englishwoman is found dead in Lalinde, definitely outside his old remit in St. Denis. Monika Felder left Gatwick for France to take a cooking course offered by Bruno's friends Pamela and Miranda but never arrived. Her body is discovered in a cabin belonging to Patrick James McBride, a mysterious Irishman who owns a local vineyard and whose travels to Amsterdam, Florence, and Dubai suggest that he's not a typical French winemaker. And if adjusting to his new role and solving his latest case weren't enough, Bruno finds out that Paulette, a star of his rugby team with a decent shot at making the national squad, is unexpectedly pregnant.Walker's latest is replete with incident, but like the frequent dinners his hero prepares for friends, paying guests, and the occasional visiting FBI agent, its abundance seems just one more testimony to the richness of the region.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from May 1, 2018
Setting and cuisine far outshine plot in Walker's to-die-for atmospheric mysteries set in the Dordogne region of France. Some of the novels in this series are subtitled Mysteries of the French Countryside, more fitting than the Bruno, Chief of Police Novel used for others. In each, Walker's descriptions of the region's caves (and the new Lascaux cave re-creation), vineyards, farmhouses, gardens, and ch�teaus, along with his sensually detailed accounts of lovingly created meals paired with the region's wines, take center stage. Readers should come for the atmosphere, with the action serving as appetizer. And Bruno Courr�ges, the police chief of St. Denis (and now the V�z�re Valley), is wonderful to watch as he makes his daily rounds of horseback riding, dining out with friends in villages, and cooking. (At one point here, Bruno meets police colleagues for a working picnic on the grounds of a ch�teau.) This time, a British woman, late for a cooking vacation hosted by one of Bruno's ex-lovers, turns up dead in a picturesque farmhouse, her traveling companion found hanged in a tree outside. Police conjectures expand from murder-suicide to double murder and a plot involving intelligence and scandal. Fans of the late Robert B. Parker's Spenser series (where love of cooking infused each mystery) will find a new home with the gourmand Bruno.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

April 1, 2018
A promotion comes with a host of challenges for the P�rigord region's Bruno Courr�ges (The Templar's Last Secret, 2017, etc.).As chief of police for the tiny Dordogne village of St. Denis, Bruno used to serve more as a town policeman, going to the square on market days to kiss the babies and chat with their grandm�res. He even had time to coach the local women's rugby team. But now that he's been promoted to chief of police of the entire V�z�re Valley, he's facing the challenges that come with greater responsibility. He needs to ride herd on Louis, the town policeman in Montignac, who spends too much time in the local bars, and to mentor young, ambitious Juliette Robard, who just replaced the sole policewoman in Les Eyzies. He also needs to negotiate the unorthodox chain of command in rural France. Prunier, the commissaire de police for the Dordogne d�partement, thinks that Bruno now works for him, but the Mayor of St. Denis is convinced that Bruno is still his subordinate. Bruno's delicate calculations about whom he reports to and who reports to him become all the more stressful when an Englishwoman is found dead in Lalinde, definitely outside his old remit in St. Denis. Monika Felder left Gatwick for France to take a cooking course offered by Bruno's friends Pamela and Miranda but never arrived. Her body is discovered in a cabin belonging to Patrick James McBride, a mysterious Irishman who owns a local vineyard and whose travels to Amsterdam, Florence, and Dubai suggest that he's not a typical French winemaker. And if adjusting to his new role and solving his latest case weren't enough, Bruno finds out that Paulette, a star of his rugby team with a decent shot at making the national squad, is unexpectedly pregnant.Walker's latest is replete with incident, but like the frequent dinners his hero prepares for friends, paying guests, and the occasional visiting FBI agent, its abundance seems just one more testimony to the richness of the region.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.