An Enemy in the Village

Martin Walker

WHEN a woman’s body is found in her car at a remote beauty spot in France’s idyllic Dordogne region, it appears to be an open-and-shut case of suicide but the resulting disputes over her will soon start to raise the suspicions of the local chief of police.

And to make matters even more complicated for Lieutenant Bruno Courrèges, his interference in the local deputy mayor’s marriage dispute opens up a host of personal and professional dilemmas which will test his considerable sleuthing talents to the limit.

Welcome back to the ‘magical corner of the world’ inhabited by the incomparable Bruno in the remarkable eighteenth book of Martin Walker’s enchanting, French-flavoured series which stars an astute, epicurean detective with a taste for food, vin rouge… and crime.

Lovers of clever mysteries, social, international and political history, stunning scenery, excellent cuisine, and the very best of French wines, have enjoyed sharing the past seventeen years with the smart, likeable and fair-minded Bruno in Walker’s exceptionally entertaining and eternally popular novels. A prize-winning historian and journalist who spends much of his time in the Périgord region – the lush, gastronomic heartland of France – Walker (pictured below) has mastered the fine art of harnessing intriguing murder mysteries with paeans to his adopted country’s rich history, landscape, food and culture to dish up stories with an addictive brand of Gallic charm.

And at the heart of these witty, wonderful novels is the laidback Bruno, a bon viveur with a brain as discerning as his palate… a man who can crack crime in the fictional settlement of St Denis whilst cracking open a bottle of his favourite wine.

In this new mystery, we find France’s favourite country policeman on his way to work one autumn morning when he comes across an abandoned car parked at a beauty spot on the ridge overlooking the beautiful Vézère valley. Inside is a dead woman alongside an empty pill container, a water bottle and a folder with three farewell notes inside, including one to her husband Dominic d’Estringen.

It doesn’t take long to ascertain that she is 42-year-old Monique Duhamel, joint partner in a highly lucrative ‘super-concierge’ letting business, and that her apparent suicide may have resulted from depression caused by a miscarriage just a week ago. There are circumstances surrounding the death that raise Bruno’s suspicions, particularly around her will, but the case becomes less of a priority when our seasoned police chief makes the mistake of interfering in a local marital dispute. The deputy mayor of St Denis has been playing away and finds himself evicted from the family home by his angry wife.

Adding to that, there has been a flood of harassment complaints against a young and arrogant police cadet with high ranking connections, and old controversies about deer culls take on new life with a second campaign beginning and stating that Bruno is less of a village copper and more of a ‘secret policeman’ whose main job is working for French intelligence.

Some of the ammunition for this attack, Bruno learns, comes from deputy mayor Xavier who sees this as a way to topple both Bruno and the mayor, and succeed to the mayor’s job himself. Suddenly Bruno’s shiny reputation is looking a little tarnished as he battles to save his name and answer the questions still surrounding Monique’s suicide.

Walker’s richly descriptive and captivating series shows no sign of flagging as we meet up again with Bruno and his warm and sociable milieu, which includes some interesting new characters, and follow an intriguing case which takes the wily detective into some dark corners of the famously idyllic Périgord.

But this being Bruno, he also has time to indulge in some more pleasurable things, like introducing his beloved basset hound Balzac to a charming young female hound called George Sand, meeting friends, organising youth rugby games, listening to music, and enjoying a sumptuous Périgordian meal washed down by a 2019 curvée Ortus from Château Bélingard.

And it is this eclectic mix which has turned Walker’s amiable detective into the culinary crime king of rural France as these must-read, atmospheric and wonderfully multi-layered whodunits magically morph into wish-you-were-here feasts accompanied by plentiful side-helpings of crime, history and intrigue. Murder mystery with a quintessentially French dressing…
(Quercus, hardback, £22)