By Paul Carrier
One of the joys of reading a series, in addition to following the progress of the extended story line, is revisiting characters whom we already know but may have lost touch with for a spell, if we haven’t spent time with them lately.
So it is with Martin Walker’s “Mystery of the French Countryside” novels starring village policeman Benoit Courrèges, known in France’s Périgord region, and more specifically on his home turf of St. Denis, as Bruno. The fifth entry in the series, The Devil’s Cave, finds Bruno tackling multiple investigations simultaneously, including one baffling death that may or may not have been a suicide and another that may or may not have been an accident.
First, a naked — and quite dead — woman is found in a leaky boat, floating down the Vézère River, which bisects the fictional town. Her appearance, and the contents of the boat, suggest she may have been involved in a satanic ritual.
Compounding Bruno’s problems, unsettling signs discovered in a local cave trigger speculation that a Black Mass was performed there, inevitably leading to rumors of a link to the unidentified woman’s death.
On yet another front, the mayor of St. Denis assigns Bruno to investigate the financiers behind a proposed “vacation village” slated for construction in the town. Key players in that venture previously persuaded officials in a nearby municipality to make costly infrastructure improvements for a high-end resort which turned out to be a disappointing blight on the local landscape.
Whether all of these developments are interconnected is an open question. And there may be yet another piece to the puzzle.
A local farmer with a serious drinking problem dies in a suspicious motorcycle crash, shortly after his 18-year-old daughter, who has fled the family home to take a job in St. Denis’ ritzy new auberge, says she never wants to see her father again. The developer of that hotel is involved with the proposed resort as well.
Against this backdrop of contemporary skulduggery, Walker introduces a historical angle. Once the dead woman has been identified, investigators learn that she claimed to be a direct descendant of the Marquise de Montespan, a mistress of King Louis XIV who supposedly participated in a Black Mass to secure the king’s affection for her.
Bruno makes for a fascinating protagonist. Orphaned as a child, he went on to enlist in the military and was wounded during a peacekeeping mission in the Balkans before he took up police work. A bachelor and a gourmet cook who lives in a home that he built with help from some friends, he rarely carries a gun, has a fondness for basset hounds (including his new pup Balzac), and coaches local kids in tennis and other sports.
Bruno also has an intriguing but unsettled love life, dividing his time between Pamela, a Brit who lives in St. Denis when she isn’t in Scotland caring for her ailing mother; and Isabelle, an ambitious, career-driven policewoman now based in Paris who periodically returns to St. Denis for a visit. Pamela does not want to settle down with Bruno, and as much as he would love to do just that with Isabelle, he refuses to relocate to Paris.
The setting of Walker’s novels is a character in its own right, thanks to the region’s natural beauty, rich history and vibrant culture. Known for its cuisine and famed for its truffles and local wines, the Périgord is dotted with Roman ruins and prehistoric sites, including the painted cave of Lascaux. The region, where Walker has a home, is dotted with castles and figured prominently in the Hundred Years’ War.
St. Denis, Walker tells us, is a small town “in the gastronomic and sporting heartland of France.” Unlike the Périgord, the village where Bruno lives and works is a figment of Walker’s imagination, but he consistently brings it and its colorful denizens to life. The sometimes quirky cast includes, among many others, a tourism-savvy entrepreneur who runs a theme park where Joan of Arc is burned at the stake twice daily.
So it is with Martin Walker’s “Mystery of the French Countryside” novels starring village policeman Benoit Courrèges, known in France’s Périgord region, and more specifically on his home turf of St. Denis, as Bruno. The fifth entry in the series, The Devil’s Cave, finds Bruno tackling multiple investigations simultaneously, including one baffling death that may or may not have been a suicide and another that may or may not have been an accident.
First, a naked — and quite dead — woman is found in a leaky boat, floating down the Vézère River, which bisects the fictional town. Her appearance, and the contents of the boat, suggest she may have been involved in a satanic ritual.
Compounding Bruno’s problems, unsettling signs discovered in a local cave trigger speculation that a Black Mass was performed there, inevitably leading to rumors of a link to the unidentified woman’s death.
On yet another front, the mayor of St. Denis assigns Bruno to investigate the financiers behind a proposed “vacation village” slated for construction in the town. Key players in that venture previously persuaded officials in a nearby municipality to make costly infrastructure improvements for a high-end resort which turned out to be a disappointing blight on the local landscape.
Whether all of these developments are interconnected is an open question. And there may be yet another piece to the puzzle.
A local farmer with a serious drinking problem dies in a suspicious motorcycle crash, shortly after his 18-year-old daughter, who has fled the family home to take a job in St. Denis’ ritzy new auberge, says she never wants to see her father again. The developer of that hotel is involved with the proposed resort as well.
Against this backdrop of contemporary skulduggery, Walker introduces a historical angle. Once the dead woman has been identified, investigators learn that she claimed to be a direct descendant of the Marquise de Montespan, a mistress of King Louis XIV who supposedly participated in a Black Mass to secure the king’s affection for her.
Bruno makes for a fascinating protagonist. Orphaned as a child, he went on to enlist in the military and was wounded during a peacekeeping mission in the Balkans before he took up police work. A bachelor and a gourmet cook who lives in a home that he built with help from some friends, he rarely carries a gun, has a fondness for basset hounds (including his new pup Balzac), and coaches local kids in tennis and other sports.
Bruno also has an intriguing but unsettled love life, dividing his time between Pamela, a Brit who lives in St. Denis when she isn’t in Scotland caring for her ailing mother; and Isabelle, an ambitious, career-driven policewoman now based in Paris who periodically returns to St. Denis for a visit. Pamela does not want to settle down with Bruno, and as much as he would love to do just that with Isabelle, he refuses to relocate to Paris.
The setting of Walker’s novels is a character in its own right, thanks to the region’s natural beauty, rich history and vibrant culture. Known for its cuisine and famed for its truffles and local wines, the Périgord is dotted with Roman ruins and prehistoric sites, including the painted cave of Lascaux. The region, where Walker has a home, is dotted with castles and figured prominently in the Hundred Years’ War.
St. Denis, Walker tells us, is a small town “in the gastronomic and sporting heartland of France.” Unlike the Périgord, the village where Bruno lives and works is a figment of Walker’s imagination, but he consistently brings it and its colorful denizens to life. The sometimes quirky cast includes, among many others, a tourism-savvy entrepreneur who runs a theme park where Joan of Arc is burned at the stake twice daily.
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