The book has a wonderful sense of place, bringing the region and its people vividly to life. I hope Walker can resist the temptation to make this potential love triangle a recurring feature of future books and the way he shipped Pamela off to the UK to the bedside of her elderly mother was a ruse faintly reminiscent of the way authors of children's books so often used to deal with the inconvenient presence of parents. I can't help feeling that Walker is struggling to provide a convincing love interest for his main character and here Bruno is again trying to come to terms with his feelings both for independent Englishwoman, Pamela, with Isabelle, a police inspector on the Brigadier's staff, brought in to help with the summit, even though she is still recovering from injuries sustained in the line of duty when she last worked with Bruno. She gets off on the wrong foot in St Denis and appears to be little more than a convenient plot device to provide some local tension but it was surprisingly easy to warm to her as the book progressed and I suspect Bruno may well have more dealings with her in future stories. She's young, vegetarian and has little sympathy with the plight of the small farmers who rely for their living on raising birds for an industry that she thoroughly disapproves of. Perhaps the closest he comes to a stereotype is in the depiction of new magistrate, Annette Meraillon. In addition, archaeologists working on a prehistoric site in the area find startling evidence of a more recent burial, with a bullet hole in the skull providing a very obvious clue that the most recent inhabitant of the somewhat crowded grave didn't die of natural causes.ĭespite the idyllic setting and sumptuous descriptions of the local food and wine, Walker never reduces the inhabitants of his small towns and villages to caricatures in the lamentable manner of some writers. He also has to deal with the problems of animal rights activists targeting the local farmers who make a living rearing ducks and geese for the production the local delicacy, foie gras, whilst also contending with the arrival of a new magistrate who doesn't exactly see eye to eye with the locals on such matters. The summit isn't the only problem Bruno has to contend with. Afterwards, Bruno learns that a French/Spanish summit is to be held in the local chateau and his employer, the mayor, has agreed to a request for Bruno's assistance from the Brigadier, a shadowy figure in French Intelligence, who invariably complicates Bruno's life whenever their paths cross. ETA, the Basque separatist group has assassinated a senior French policeman and the villagers are gathering the square to honour his memory. Denis, just north of the Dordogne, is carrying a gun, but fortunately only for ceremonial purposes. For once, Inspector Bruno Courrèges, the Chef de Police in the small French town of St.
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