Juste commencé; lais lecture très agréable.

This is the 14th in Martin Walker's "Dordogne series", and is every bit as involved and interesting as the previous volumes. The Vézère Valley and the town of St Denis are mostly unchanged, but protagonist, Benoît Courrèges , known as "Bruno" has been promoted to Chief of Police, and his beloved basset hound Balzac has become the sire of a large little of puppies. All the usual characters appear in the story: the Mayor of St Denis, the Baron, J-J, "the mad Englishwoman", and all the local folk from the towns and farms. This story doesn't start with a fresh murder, but rather with a very old one. Bruno's boss, J-J , has never been able to forget the dead young man he could not identify. J-J has kept the skull for many years in the vain hope its owner might be named and granted justice--he calls it 'Oscar'. Bruno comes up with a novel way to restore the original appearance of the skull when alive, and perhaps identify the dead man, but his detecting is abruptly and violently interrupted by an enormous fire that requires everyone in the valley to man the pumps, quite literally. This is a worthy inclusion in the "Bruno" series, studded with amusing and interesting characters, good cooking, a fair bit of wine information, and a lot of enjoyable writing. If you haven't met Bruno and his friends before, this is a good time to start.

This is the latest in a wonderful series which is part detective story and part celebration of French provincial cuisine. The characters, especially Bruno, the main protagonist, are delightful and the stories evocative of the Dordogne. I loved this book

Martin Walker never fails to draw me in and transport me to his wonderful Dordogne village and life of the village folk.
Can smell The air and taste the wonderful , the early morning drew and the hustle of the markets.
AlwYs a great read drawing one into the next exploit