Friday, April 17, 2015

Book Review Friday: Bruno, Chief of Police



Bruno, Chief of Police
By Martin Walker



Wow!  I feel like I just got back from a long vacation in France.  Martin Walker gives his book Bruno, Chief of Police a real sense of place.  From the description of the small French village of St. Denis to the mouthwatering descriptions of real French cooking this book is a vacation between two hard covers.  Bruno, whose real name is Benoit Courreges, is the only policeman in the commune of St. Denis.  He knows all the villagers personally, teaches their little ones tennis, and works with the police in the other local villages playing a game of cat and mouse with the health inspectors from the European Union who are trying to enforce modern production rules that would shut down half the businesses in the local market square.  And when murder shatters the peace of the little village of St. Denis, Bruno proves that common sense and old fashioned police work can triumph over flash and politics. 

First in a series.  Other titles include:
The Dark Vineyard
Black Diamond
The Crowded Grave
The Devil's Cave
Bruno and the Carol Singers
The Resistance Man
Children of War
They Dying Season

For more mysteries set in France try these authors:
Michelle Wan
Gerald Jay
Fred Vargas
M. L. Longworth

Friday, April 3, 2015

Book Review Friday: A Dangerous Place


A Dangerous Place
By Jacqueline Winspear

The last book in this series left main character Maisie Dobbs at a crossroads, and left her author with a bit of a dilemma, she wanted to take Maisie in one direction, but millions of fans were hoping for another. How Jacqueline Winspear resolves that dilemma, and she does it very well, becomes a major plot point in this new installment of a well-loved series.
A Dangerous Place opens four years after Leaving Everything Most Loved ended.  On her way home to England, Maisie stops off in Gibraltar and becomes entangled in a murder case.  The police dismiss the stabbing death of Sebastian Babayoff as the work of a transient, but Maisie isn’t convinced and begins her own investigation.  Soon she draws the attention of the British Secret Service in a dangerous place where nothing is what it seems to be and everyone is guarding a secret, including Maisie herself.
A well-crafted story complete with many of Winspear’s characteristic psychological twists and turns. While some Maisie fans will be disappointed, most will welcome the return of their favorite psychologist and private investigator.

If you like the Maisie Dobbs series, you might like:

The Molly Murphy series by Rhys Bowen
The Kate Shakleton series by Frances Brody
The Cordelia Gray series by P. D. James
The Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R. King
The Lord Peter Wimsey series by Dorothy L. Sayers
The Ian Rutledge series by Charles Todd
The Bess Crawford series by Charles Todd


*Series suggestions courtesy of Novelist Plus