Review: THE RESISTANCE MAN, Martin Walker

• format: Amazon (Kindle)
• File Size: 2238 KB
• Print Length: 352 pages
• Publisher: Quercus (June 6, 2013)
• Publication Date: June 6, 2013
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1780870736
• ISBN-13: 978-1780870731
• #6 in the Bruno Chief of Police series

Synopsis (Amazon)

In south-west France, WW2 casts the longest shadow when some rare bank notes are discovered, notes that may have links to the legendary Neuvic train robbery in 1944 in the sixth internationally-bestselling case for Bruno, chief of police

In St Denis, Bruno, chef de police, can't get a moment's rest. Some rare bank notes have come to light that may have links to the legendary Neuvic train robbery in 1944. The investigation is fraught with issues.

Bruno is also dealing with a wave of local burglaries, which have brought his old flame, Isabelle - and their complicated history - back to the town.

Worse is to come. Tasked with piecing together these past crimes, Bruno now finds he has the more pressing matter of a body on his hands. He must now trace the links between past and present to restore peace in St Denis.

My take

This is quite a lengthy series now, and this title comes in about the middle. Once again, as I often do with a series, I recommend that you read the titles in order. There is a development of characters and scenarios that have "history" and you will really get the best out of the book if you know what has gone before.

These are a different sort of "police procedural" simply because the French justice system works differently to that of the UK and the USA.

The books are rich in culture and descriptive recipes, as well as strong character development.

In this one the past meets the present when an elderly resistance fighter dies and an old banknote from a train robbery is found in his possession. Burglary mixes with murder and terrorism giving the plot of very modern flavour.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read
4.6, BRUNO, CHIEF OF POLICE 
4.6, THE DARK VINEYARD
4.6, THE CROWDED GRAVE
BRUNO and LE PERE NOEL: a Christmas Short Story
4.5, THE DEVIL'S CAV

Series

Bruno, Chief of Police Investigation
1. Bruno, Chief of Police (2008)
     aka Death in the Dordogne
2. The Dark Vineyard (2009)
3. Black Diamond (2010)
4. The Crowded Grave (2011)
5. The Devil's Cave (2012)
5.5. Bruno and the Carol Singers (2012)
     aka Bruno and le Pere Noel
6. The Resistance Man (2013)
7. Children of War (2014)
     aka The Children Return
7.5. A Market Tale (2014)
8. The Dying Season (2015)
     aka The Patriarch
9. Fatal Pursuit (2016)
10. Templars' Last Secret (2017)
11. A Taste for Vengeance (2018)

Biography

Former foreign correspondent in USSR, USA, Europe and Africa for the Guardian (UK), author of histories of the Cold War and 20th century USA, and of studies of Gorbachev, Clinton, the extreme right etc.
Now I write mystery stories set in the Perigord region of rural France, home of truffles, foie gras, great cheeses and wonderful wines.
In 2013, I was made a chevalier of foie gras, in the confrerie of pate de Perigueux, and also an honorary Ambassador of the Perigord, which means I get to accompany the traveling exhibition of the Lascaux cave as it goes on display at museums around the world. I also help promote the wines of Bergerac at international wine fairs, and was chairman of the jury for this year's Prix Ragueneau, the international culinary prize,
The hero of my mystery stories is Bruno, a French country policeman and former soldier who was wounded while serving it UN peacekeepers during the siege of Sarajevo. Bruno hunts, cooks, tries never to arrest anyone and, hates to carry his gun (but sometimes must. He loves his basset hound, his horse and a complicated array of firmly independent women.
The Perigord also contains more medieval castles per square kilometre than anywhere else on earth and is home to the prehistoric paintings of the Lascaux cave. Most of what we know of prehistory comes from this valley of the river Vezere, where humans have lived continuously for some 70,000 years or more. Devoted to the area and his adopted home of the small town of St Denis, Bruno instinctively understands why our ancestors chose this spot

Review: THE DEVIL'S CAVE , Martin Walker

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 1071 KB
• Print Length: 385 pages
• Publisher: Quercus (August 2, 2012)
• Publication Date: August 2, 2012
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007C4G0CO

Synopsis  (Amazon)

It is springtime France's P矇rigord, a time of beauty and calm. But not for Bruno, chef de police of the small town of St Denis. A woman's body has been found on a boat, bearing signs of a black magic ritual.

Bruno has too much on his plate as it is - mediating a domestic abuse case that needs careful handling and a dodgy local development proposal that seems just too good to be true.

But a murder case must take precedent and the roots of this one lie buried deep in the past - linked to a chateau above a bend in the river, to the reclusive old woman who lives there, and to the secret hidden in the Devil's Cave.

My Take

I have read a number of this series (see the list below) and really had them mentally categorized as cosies. But in THE DEVIL'S CAVE the action is grittier and the novel becomes quite a tense thriller.

The action starts off with a naked female body floating down the river in an old boat. It appears that she may have committed suicide, but may also have participated in some Satanic rites. Around the thread of identifying this woman Bruno's normal work continues on. Some developers want to build holiday villas but a number of the residents are opposed, including the assistant bank manager, despite the fact that his bank is participating in the project. Then there is the farmer who has beaten up his wife in a drunken rage, and the young girl who has gone missing.

I do like way Martin Walker has populated the town and surrounds with persistent characters, while at the same time the plot of a new novel introduces some ones and some new issues to keep the mix fresh.

These are police procedurals, but the way things are done in St. Denis is refreshingly different from both British and American ones. Bruno is a well developed and fascinating character too.

If you haven't yet tried this series, you are missing a treat.

My rating: 4.5

I've also reviewed
4.6, BRUNO, CHIEF OF POLICE 
4.6, THE DARK VINEYARD
4.6, THE CROWDED GRAVE
BRUNO and LE PERE NOEL: a Christmas Short Story

Review: THE CROWDED GRAVE, Martin Walker

• Published by Quercus 2011
• ISBN 978-1-84916-321-7
• 358 pages
• Source: my local library
• #4 in the Bruno Courreges series

Synopsis (Amazon)

Life in south-west rural France is not the sleepy idyll you might suppose. Local duck and goose farms are being attacked by animal rights protestors attempting to halt the production of foie gras.

A senior policeman has been shot by terrorists believed to be the Basque Separatists of ETA. And if that weren't enough, a group of students have just unearthed a 'modern' skeleton during a dig at one of the ancient sites of this famous region and home to pre-historic man - a dig that has brought an influx of foreigners to the Dordogne.

It is up to Chief of Police Bruno Courr癡ges to get to the bottom of these seemingly unrelated events. Martin Walker spins a surprising and compelling mystery, laced with charm and a deep knowledge and love of France, past and present. It is a combination that will win him many fans.

My Take

Once again Martin Walker has delivered a very readable mystery.
Bruno's quiet locale of St. Denis faces mayhem when archaeologists discover a twenty year old skeleton in the excavation pit of a Neanderthal grave. And then animal rights protesters attack farms involved in the production of foie gras. On top of it all, government ministers from both France and Spain have decided to have a summit locally and Bruno is in charge of making the area secure.

So the pleasant domesticity of Bruno's usually peaceful life is disrupted. Former lover Isabelle comes back to deal with security arrangements and Bruno's English lady friend Pamela is conveniently needed in Scotland to take care of her mother who has had a stroke.

In many ways this is a very complex plot - there are so many things going on. The various plot lines intertwine again and again and unexpected connexions surface. All is skilfully done. Bruno's character is developed a little more and we learn a few new things about him.

If it wasn't for some of the violence towards the end of the book, you'd probably call THE CROWDED GRAVE a cozy.  There's much of the English village mystery about it and then it just occasionally flips into thriller mode, action set against a background of Basque Separationism.

My rating: 4.6

Read another review on EuroCrime.

Other Martin Walker titles reviewed on MiP
4.6, BRUNO, CHIEF OF POLICE  (#1)
4.6, THE DARK VINEYARD (#2)

Review: BRUNO, CHIEF OF POLICE, Martin Walker

• Publisher: Quercus 2008
• 342 pages
• ISBN 978-1-84724-598-4
• Source: my local library

Publisher's Blurb (from Quercus)

Captain Bruno Courreges goes by the grand title of Chief of Police, though in truth he’s the only municipal policeman on staff in the small town of St Denis in the beautiful Perigord region of south west France. Bruno sees his job as protecting St Denis from its enemies, and these include the capital’s bureaucrats and their EU counterparts in Brussels.

Today is market day in the ancient town. Inspectors from Brussels have been swooping on France’s markets, attempting to enforce EU hygiene rules. The locals call the Brussels’ bureaucrats ‘Gestapo’ and Bruno supports their resistance. What’s more, here in what was Vichy France, words like ‘Gestapo’ and ‘resistance’ still carry a profound resonance.

When an old man, head of an immigrant North African family, is found murdered, suspicion falls on the son of the local doctor, found in flagrante playing sex games surrounded by Nazi paraphernalia. But Bruno isn’t convinced, and suspects this crime may have its roots in that most tortured period of recent French history - the Second World War, a time of terror and betrayal that set brother against brother.

My take

When I reviewed THE DARK VINEYARD recently, I was really determined to read the first in the series, and I'm glad to say that it has lived up to my expectations of being an excellent read.

In these days of large city living and policing that seems super organised, rationalised, and even institutionalised, it seems nice to believe there is, somewhere in the world, the sort of rural policing that happens with Bruno, the Chief of Police in St. Denis. Bruno is what you would like every policeman to be, part of his community, aware of its members, a human being who just happens to be a policeman.

Bruno is devoted to "his little corner of paradise." He ensures that his community recognises its past, respects its elders, welcomes incomers, and encourages its young people. That's why it is such a shock to think that the death of elderly Hamid al-Bakr could possibly be a racist killing. In working out what has happened, at the same time as tamping down possible flare-ups, Bruno show his real worth as a policeman. We get glimpses too of Bruno's personal and social life, of the way he contributes to the whole social fabric. In solving the crime Bruno demonstrates what a good detective he really is.

This is an excellent start to the series and I recommend it to you particularly if you like cozies.
I kept thinking of what, in my reading past, the story reminds me of - perhaps a combination of Miss Read, Don Camillo, and Miss Marple?

My rating: 4.6

Review on EuroCrime by Maxine Clarke

Martin Walker's Bruno, Chief of Police site is delightful too.

Bruno, Chief of Police
1. Bruno, Chief of Police (2008)
2. The Dark Vineyard (2009)
3. Black Diamond (2010)
4. The Crowded Grave (2011)

Review: THE DARK VINEYARD, Martin Walker

• Publisher: Quercus, 2009
• ISBN 978-1-84724-915-9
• 309 pages
• Source: my local library

Publisher's Blurb (from Fantastic Fiction)
Beno簾t (Bruno) Courr癡ges - 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 b矇casses, 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 wine; Jacqueline, a flirtatious, newly arrived Qu矇b矇coise; 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.

My take

I very much regret that I haven't read the first in this series, BRUNO CHIEF OF POLICE. I'm going to remedy that as quickly as possible. Fortunately my library has a copy.

Just recently we've spent hours each night watching television coverage of the Tour de France and consequently my reading of THE DARK VINEYARD has gone rather slowly. But I don't think that has been a bad thing as it really is a book to savour. It goes much deeper than crime fiction. In fact at times crime takes a back seat as Bruno does all the other things that it seems the lone policeman in a small French town must take care of - attending to the Mayor's wishes, being a fire fighter, a rugby coach, arranging funerals, and keeping the peace in general.

When the deaths come, about half way through the book, it is a bit of a shock, and I was beginning to wonder whether anything was going to happen, more than the arson attack on the research station which occurs right at the beginning.

The setting is rich with characters and local customs and struck me as having considerable similarity to Louise Penny's village of Three Pines, except that Bruno is an insider and has a lot more local knowledge and acceptance than Penny's Inspector Gamache has. The canvas of Bruno's town of St. Denis seems heavily populated with vibrant and cosmopolitan characters. Bruno himself is happy living there, in a house he has built, although his recent friend Isabelle has moved to Paris and is trying to tempt Bruno into moving too.

The book deals thoughtfully with other issues too - genetically modified crops, multinational companies seeking to expand at the expense of local industries, the role of local governments in providing for their residents, the importance of keeping traditions alive.

You'll see from the tags I am using that I have decided I can call THE DARK VINEYARD a cozy although of course it is also a police procedural.

My rating: 4.6

Other reviews to check

• Books to the Ceiling

Bruno, Chief of Police
1. Bruno, Chief of Police (2008)
2. The Dark Vineyard (2009)
3. Black Diamond (2010)
4. The Crowded Grave (2011)

There's a lot of interesting background about Bruno and the Perigord region on his site: Bruno, Chief of Police including a blog