The more books I read in the Dordogne Mysteries series, the more I like them.
Bruno is the Chief of Police in a small French town in the Périgord region.
Bruno’s friends remind me a bit of the folks in Three Pines, Quebec.
Charming.
Each murder is almost incidental to the scenes of rural life. Especially the food!
In this one, after a death seemingly from heart attack, Bruno discovers that both a local retirement home and their insurance company are scams with links to a Russian oligarch.
If you like the Gamache books for the quaint townspeople of Three Pines, this one may not be for you.
It’s set entirely within the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, hidden deep in the wilderness of Quebec.
Ironically, for a community that has taken a vow of silence, the monks have become world-famous for their glorious voices, raised in ancient chants whose effect on both singer and listener is so profound it is known as “the beautiful mystery.” …
But when the renowned choir director is murdered, the lock on the monastery’s massive wooden door is drawn back to admit Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Sûreté du Québec. …
Benoît “Bruno” Courrèges is the superhuman village policeman in a small town in the Périgord region of France.
The British author has a home there. Walker is an excellent writer though I found this book somewhat overly complicated and detailed. It slowed down the story which revolves around Russians trying to disrupt Spain around the issue of the Catalan independence movement.
… a wonderful mix of crime investigation, scrumptious food, Périgordian history, Bruno’s friends and colleagues, and of course, Bruno himself.
And readers also get a healthy dose of Bruno’s basset hound, Balzac, and Balzac’s adorable new pup, “the Bruce”. …
Rachel North is not your average law student. For starters, she is far older than most of her classmates and married to a prestigious Boston defense attorney. She has a background in politics and a solid understanding of law as the daughter of a lawyer.
As she enters her third year of law school at Harvard, she starts an internship that collides with her previous political career and her marriage to her devoted husband, Jack. Together with her new boss, Rachel works to get to the bottom of a cold case that has haunted her memories for years. …
Her husband is gone—no warning, no note, not answering his phone. Something is wrong.
She starts with hotel security, then the police, then the American embassy, at each confronting questions she can’t fully answer: What exactly is John doing in Lisbon? Why would he drag her along on his business trip? Who would want to harm him? And why does Ariel know so little about her new—much younger—husband?
The clock is ticking. Ariel is increasingly frustrated and desperate, running out of time, and the one person in the world who can help is the one person she least wants to ask.
Other candidates that year included Ian Rankin and Louise Penny.
Krueger was raised in small town Minnesota. The same age as the 13-year-old narrator of this book.
My main takeaway — at the end — is that two of the characters I’d include in my list of best all time. Frank’s father, Nathan, a Methodist minister. And Frank’s younger brother, who eventually also becomes a minister.
If you asked me to name great Christians in fiction, I’d include those two.
New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were selling out at the soda counter of Halderson’s Drugstore, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack.
It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder.
Frank begins the season preoccupied with the concerns of any teenage boy, but when tragedy unexpectedly strikes his family— which includes his Methodist minister father; his passionate, artistic mother; Juilliard-bound older sister; and wise-beyond-his-years kid brother— he finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal, suddenly called upon to demonstrate a maturity and gumption beyond his years. …
Book #3 in the series featuring Benoît “Bruno” Courrèges, master chef, devoted oenophile, and, most important, beloved chief of police in the sleepy village of St. Denis, France.
This story deals with crime and murder in the truffles trade.
The 13th in the Inspector Gamache series (2017). Excellentwriting, as always.
BUT I am fed up with the absurdity of her plots.
This nonsense must be the most unlikely yet.
Gamache is now the Head of Surete du Quebec — yet finds himself in court risking perjury. Why is never made clear (to me) though it seems to have something to do with saving young Quebecois. From drugs.
Every less likely is a mysterious masked person in black standing in Two Pines. For a couple of days.
Could drugs be smuggled through a tunnel in the church basement? Right after a murder in the same basement?
Rick McCharles 