CYNTHIA D. BERTELSEN

Reading Martin Walker’s Bruno, Chief of Police Novels

It’s interesting how synchronicity works.

My current, long-term writing project involves France – actually Paris – during World War II. However, there’re are only so many words about that time I can take in at once. So when I discovered a series of novels set in the idyllic Dordorgne, I sank deeply into their feel-good atmosphere. But, as luck would have it, the very first novel in the series of seventeen novels included allusions to WWII!

Nonetheless, I was hooked. And I think many of you francophiles will be, as well. Heck, you don’t even have to be a francophile to love these books set in a part of France 550 miles away from Paris, a completely different world.

My memories of the Dordogne in southwest France revolve primarily around a cave where thousands of champignons de Paris grew in the dark and damp of a limestone cave. One of the poorer yet more beautiful regions of France, the Dordogne is home to scores of prehistoric art dating to between 18,000 and 20,000 years ago. The most famous of these is Lascaux.

Lascaux Painting (Wikipedia)

Villages in the Dordogne often resemble storybook towns with castles and turrets and stone walls. And that, combined with the pleasant weather, explains why many people call the region Dordogneshire, populated as it with a goodly number of English people. Immigrants.

One of those English citizens – Martin Walker – writes this delightful series of mysteries featuring a charming French police chief named Benoît Courrèges, but who prefers to be called simply Bruno. Bruno lives in a shepherd’s hut he restored himself and tends a large potager, or kitchen garden. Of course, he’s a fabulous cook and knows everybody in his jurisdiction. Pages of each book include paragraphs about Bruno’s cooking, so detailed the reader really doesn’t need a cookbook.

Yes, there IS a Bruno’s cookbook, filled with recipes featuring the cooking of the Dordogne. (There’s also Paula Wolfert’s The Cooking of Southwest France.)

Martin Walker spent many years as a journalist, so the writing in these books veers toward excellence.

Martin Walker (Wikipedia)

Walker is an incredibly adept storyteller, too. Along the way, he provides nuggets of information about the cooking, the history, and the terrain of the Dordogne.

It’s best to read the books in order and follow along as the characters develop.

Cover of the first book in the series

Here’s a brief excerpt from the beginning of the first book:

“On a bright May morning, so early that the last of the mist was still lingering low over a bend in the Vézère River, a white van drew to a halt on the ridge that overlooked the small French town. A man climbed out, strode to the edge of the road and stretched mightily as he admired the familiar view of St. Denis. The town emerged from the lush green of the trees and meadows like a tumbled heap of treasure; the golden stone of the buildings, the ruby red tiles of the rooftops and the silver curve of the river running through it. The houses clustered down the slope and around the main square of the Hôtel de Ville where the council chamber, its Mairie, and the office of the town’s own policeman perched above the thick stone columns that framed the covered market. The grime of three centuries only lately scrubbed away, its honey-colored stone glowed richly in the morning sun.

On the far side of the square stood the venerable church, its thick walls and squat tower a reminder of the ages past when churches, too, were part of the town’s defenses, guarding the river crossing and the approach to the great stone bridge. A great “N” carved into the rock above the central of the three arches asserted that the bridge had been rebuilt on the orders of Napoleon himself. This did not greatly impress the town’s inhabitants, who knew that the upstart emperor had but restored a bridge their ancestors had first built five centuries earlier. And now it had been established that the first bridge over their river dated from Roman times. Across the river stretched the new part of town, the Crédit Agricole bank and its parking lot, the supermarket and the rugby stadium discreetly shaded by tall oaks and thick belts of walnut trees.

The man enjoying this familiar sight was evidently fit enough to be dapper and brisk in his movements, but as he relaxed he was sufficiently concerned about his love of food to tap his waist, gingerly probing for any sign of plumpness, always a threat in this springtime period between his last game of the rugby season and the start of serious hunting. He wore a uniform of sorts, a neatly ironed blue shirt with epaulettes but no tie, navy blue trousers and black boots. His thick, dark hair was crisply cut, his warm brown eyes had a twinkle, and his generous mouth seemed ready to break into a smile. On a badge on his chest, and on the side of his van, were the words POLICE MUNICIPALE. A peaked cap lay on the passenger seat.

In the back of the van were a crowbar, a tangle of battery cables, one basket containing newly laid eggs from his own hens, and another with his garden’s first spring peas. Two tennis rackets, a pair of rugby boots, sneakers, and a large bag with various kinds of sports attire and a spare line from a fishing rod added to the jumble. Tucked neatly to one side were a first-aid kit, a small tool chest, a blanket, and a picnic hamper with plates and glasses, salt and pepper, a head of garlic and a Laguiole pocketknife with a horn handle and a corkscrew. Tucked under the front seat was a bottle of not-quite-legal eau-de-vie from a friendly farmer. He would use this to make his private stock of vin de noix when the green walnuts were ready on the feast of St. Catherine. Benoît Courrèges, chief of police for the small commune of St. Denis and its 2,900 souls, and universally known as Bruno, was always very well prepared.”

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The books in the Bruno, Chief of Police series, in order (the link provides an explanation about each of the books):

1. Death in the Dordogne (2008)  (also published as Bruno, Chief of Police)

2. The Dark Vineyard (2009) (also published as Dark Vineyard)

3. Black Diamond (2010)

4. The Crowded Grave (2011)

5. The Devil’s Cave (2012)

5.5. Bruno and the Carol Singers (a short work – 2012) (also published as Bruno and le Pere Noel)

6. The Resistance Man (2013)

7. Death Undercover (2014) (also published as The Children Return / Children of War)

7.5. A Market Tale (2014) (a short work)

8. The Patriarch (2015) (also published as The Dying Season)

9. Fatal Pursuit (2016)

10. Templars’ Last Secret (2017)

11. A Taste for Vengeance (2018)

11.5. The Chocolate War (a short work – 2018)

11.5 A Birthday Lunch (a short work – 2019)

12. The Body in the Castle Well (2019)

13. The Shooting at Chateau Rock (2020)

13.5 Oystercatcher (a short work – 2020)

14. The Coldest Case (2021)

15. To Kill a Troubadour (2022)

16. A Chateau Under Siege (2023)

17. A Grave in the Woods (2024)