A Grave in the Woods

July 22, 2024
Benoît “Bruno” Courrèges returns to cook for his friends and keep the French town of St. Denis safe in Walker’s leisurely latest outing for the food-loving police chief (after A Château Under Siege). Back at home after convalescing from a gunshot wound sustained on his previous case, Bruno learns that human remains—two German women and an Italian man—have just been unearthed on the grounds of an abandoned hotel. Forensic analysis dates the bodies to WWII, and Bruno enlists the help of Abby Howard, a recently divorced American archaeologist visiting St. Denis, to find out more. Complicating matters is Abby’s ex-husband, computer whiz Gary Barone, who’s harassing her for her settlement money and attempting to hack the police department’s computer system, potentially as part of an international blockchain conspiracy. Meanwhile, climate change–induced floods threaten St. Denis’s infrastructure, pulling Bruno’s focus away from his and Abby’s inquiry. As usual, Walker peppers the action with long, chatty dinner scenes and detailed digressions about European history. Series fans will get just what they came for. Agent: Stephanie Cabot, Susanna Lea Assoc.

September 1, 2024
Relax. All the deceased in police chief Bruno Courr�ges' latest case have been dead for a long time. But that doesn't mean there's no mystery about them. Bruno returns from medical leave to his office, which has been commandeered by Colette Cantagnac, his overbearing new executive administrator, just in time to hear that English ex-chef Tim Birch and his wife, Krys, want to purchase a vacant hotel, the Domaine de la Barde, and refit it as a cooking school. It sounds like a win-win for everyone, but there's one problem: what to do about the neglected grave on the building's grounds. A quick excavation in the presence of visiting American archaeologist Abigail Howard reveals a dog buried there; a deeper dig discloses three human skeletons--two naked females and one fully clothed male. The women are pretty clearly Luftwaffe officers Anna-Liese Weber and Hannalore Franke, who died in 1944, but it's not at all clear how the man can really be Italian captain Salvatore Todaro, whose identification papers he carries, since Todaro was killed in 1942 on board the submarine he commanded. By the time this third corpse is properly identified, the brew will include other complications: attempted cyberattacks on Bruno and others, the threat of some once-in-a-lifetime floods, and the difficulties in both establishing the truth of what happened back in 1944 and what the French, Italian, British, and American authorities who are involved can do about it now. The questions Walker raises about the wartime foundations of the comfortable social fabric and rituals Bruno and his friends in St. Denis take for granted are so ambitious that it's no great surprise that they're more compelling than their answers. An overstuffed memorial to the days of World War II.

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Starred review from September 15, 2024
For readers who like mysteries dripping with French atmosphere, it's hard to beat two current mystery masters: Jean-Luc Bannalec, whose Commissaire Georges Dupin mysteries are set in picturesque Brittany in the northwest, and Martin Walker, whose Bruno, Chief of Police, stories are set in the Dordogne, in the southwest. Bruno Courr�ges has an enviable beat, spanning prehistoric caves (including the recreated Lascaux) of the region, caves now used as wine cellars and restaurants, chateaux, and greatly variegated countryside. In the seventeenth in the series, a British TV crew filming a home renovation series on the grounds of a crumbling chateau stumble upon a long-abandoned grave that must be moved. The contents of the grave are disturbing: two women and one man buried with Luftwaffe badges. This discovery plunges Bruno, with the aid of three archaeologists, into the task of solving a historical mystery, along with a contemporary one: Who is trying to harm the visiting American woman archaeologist? Expect great servings of the region's archeology and history, from the Ice Age onward, along with enviable meals and jaunts into the countryside on horseback. Bruno's expansive character (he's an archeology, cooking, and sports enthusiast) adds spice to this series.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.