By Paul Carrier
Benoît "Bruno" Courrèges, the protagonist in Martin Walker’s mystery series set in rural France, is a bachelor, a gourmet cook, a chicken-keeping gardener and a lover of bassets and horses. He’s also the police chief in the village of St. Denis which, fortunately for the reader, has more than its share of untimely deaths.
In The Patriarch, the eighth novel in the series, Bruno is invited to the birthday party of Marco “The Patriarch” Desaix, a 90-year-old World War Two flying ace and Bruno’s childhood hero. The festivities take a tragic turn when Marco’s friend Gilbert Clamartin creates a scene at the party and dies shortly thereafter under mysterious circumstances.
As Bruno digs into the case, he’s brutally attacked outside his home and comes to realize that the Patriarch and his clan have secrets aplenty. But do they include murder?
No comments:
Post a Comment