By Paul Carrier
Benoit Courrèges is a busy man even in the best of times, which isn’t surprising for a village cop in rural France who’s entire police force consists of . . . well . . . himself.
But Bruno, as he is known to one and all in fictional St. Denis and throughout the rest of the Périgord region, is spread especially thin in The Resistance Man, the sixth novel in Martin Walker's “Mystery of the French Countryside” series.
Bruno’s sleuthing foray — forays, actually — begins when he discovers that a recently deceased man who fought with the French Resistance during World War Two may have been linked to a real-life train robbery that ostensibly provided much-needed funding for the cash-strapped Resistance in 1944.
In quick succession, Bruno learns that the home of a retired British spymaster has been burgled while the owner was away. Worse still, a British antiques dealer whose business involved buying and selling antiques in both Britain and France is found brutally murdered near a home he had rented.
Bruno comes to suspect that the train heist, the break-in and the killing are, in fact, connected, but his investigations are both helped and hindered by the intervention of national police agencies, and powerful political forces in Paris.
Orphaned as a child, Bruno became a cop after he was wounded as a soldier during a peacekeeping mission in the Balkans. A gourmet cook who loves gardening and horseback riding, Bruno is a bachelor who longs to settle down and have a family, but he continues to find himself stymied in that department.
As in previous novels in the series, Bruno remains romantically entangled with Pamela, a Scot who lives in St. Denis, and Isabelle, an ambitious French policewoman who has moved from the Périgord to Paris. But marriage is unlikely in either case, seemingly leaving Bruno with no prospects.
Romantic travails aside, Bruno leads an interesting life in St. Denis and its environs, in no small measure because he is trying to train a basset hound puppy whom he has named Balzac. Bruno puts his impressive cooking skills to good use on a regular basis, which will leave readers wishing they were guests at his table.
Even Balzac gets the culinary treatment, thanks to home-baked biscuits that contain milk, brown flour, eggs, brown sugar, ham and garlic. Sometimes, gravy and bread crumbs as well.
When he isn’t whipping up a delectable meal with ease, Bruno often finds himself dining out, either at a nearby home or in a local eatery owned by a restaurateur named Ivan, whose ever-changing menu depends in part on his latest sexual conquest. A Belgian lover introduced moules, a dish combining mussels and fries; a Spaniard, gazpacho and paella; a German, Wiener schnitzel and potato salad.
Walker takes full advantage of the Périgord’s attributes by working travel notes and history lessons into his novels. When Bruno visits a fortified medieval town on police business, for example, the reader learns that such towns, known as bastides, were built on grid patterns around a market square, “with a church at one corner that could act as a fortress” in times of war. Bastides are but one of the many attractions in a region blessed with prehistoric cave art, Roman ruins and Renaissance châteaux.
The Resistance Man marries a complex and likable protagonist, a beautiful and culturally significant setting, and an intriguing plot. Then too, there is the affectionate and adorable Balzac, who has yet to grow into his long ears, and sometimes trips over them.
But Bruno, as he is known to one and all in fictional St. Denis and throughout the rest of the Périgord region, is spread especially thin in The Resistance Man, the sixth novel in Martin Walker's “Mystery of the French Countryside” series.
Bruno’s sleuthing foray — forays, actually — begins when he discovers that a recently deceased man who fought with the French Resistance during World War Two may have been linked to a real-life train robbery that ostensibly provided much-needed funding for the cash-strapped Resistance in 1944.
In quick succession, Bruno learns that the home of a retired British spymaster has been burgled while the owner was away. Worse still, a British antiques dealer whose business involved buying and selling antiques in both Britain and France is found brutally murdered near a home he had rented.
Bruno comes to suspect that the train heist, the break-in and the killing are, in fact, connected, but his investigations are both helped and hindered by the intervention of national police agencies, and powerful political forces in Paris.
Orphaned as a child, Bruno became a cop after he was wounded as a soldier during a peacekeeping mission in the Balkans. A gourmet cook who loves gardening and horseback riding, Bruno is a bachelor who longs to settle down and have a family, but he continues to find himself stymied in that department.
As in previous novels in the series, Bruno remains romantically entangled with Pamela, a Scot who lives in St. Denis, and Isabelle, an ambitious French policewoman who has moved from the Périgord to Paris. But marriage is unlikely in either case, seemingly leaving Bruno with no prospects.
Romantic travails aside, Bruno leads an interesting life in St. Denis and its environs, in no small measure because he is trying to train a basset hound puppy whom he has named Balzac. Bruno puts his impressive cooking skills to good use on a regular basis, which will leave readers wishing they were guests at his table.
Even Balzac gets the culinary treatment, thanks to home-baked biscuits that contain milk, brown flour, eggs, brown sugar, ham and garlic. Sometimes, gravy and bread crumbs as well.
When he isn’t whipping up a delectable meal with ease, Bruno often finds himself dining out, either at a nearby home or in a local eatery owned by a restaurateur named Ivan, whose ever-changing menu depends in part on his latest sexual conquest. A Belgian lover introduced moules, a dish combining mussels and fries; a Spaniard, gazpacho and paella; a German, Wiener schnitzel and potato salad.
Walker takes full advantage of the Périgord’s attributes by working travel notes and history lessons into his novels. When Bruno visits a fortified medieval town on police business, for example, the reader learns that such towns, known as bastides, were built on grid patterns around a market square, “with a church at one corner that could act as a fortress” in times of war. Bastides are but one of the many attractions in a region blessed with prehistoric cave art, Roman ruins and Renaissance châteaux.
The Resistance Man marries a complex and likable protagonist, a beautiful and culturally significant setting, and an intriguing plot. Then too, there is the affectionate and adorable Balzac, who has yet to grow into his long ears, and sometimes trips over them.
No comments:
Post a Comment