My reading tastes are pretty eclectic, but I don't usually grab the standard adult mystery fare. Almost two years ago, Walker's first Bruno detective novel, Bruno, Chief of Police, caught my eye:
Bruno's the police chief of a small town in the French countryside. And he fights crime. When crimes actually happen...that is, rarely. Even then, he investigates trouble by speaking to people in the town as friends and neighbors, sort of like a French Andy Griffith.
Bruno's investigation style and pragmatic sense of justice slightly clashes with the feds if a serious crime happens to occur in the little town of St Denis, as it does in The Dark Vineyard. Bruno responds to a field fire at an agricultural research station on the edge of town, and it looks suspiciously like arson. Soon after, an American wine-making conglomeration shows up in St Denis and wants to make a large land deal. Then one of the prime suspects in the arson dies suspiciously, and Bruno has a mess to unravel. Throw in lots of good wine, a little romance (not too much) and some muted, chin-stroking humor, and you've got a quaint mystery novel.
But the real reason to read this novel is the food. You'll have to put down the book several times for a snack after reading about delicious artisan cheeses and Bruno's truffle omelets. And you might suddenly look down at the grocery store to find your cart laden with French wine, baguettes, and goat cheese. Consider yourself warned.
It's like the Oatmeal's observation about shopping while hungry, only you develop European tastes.
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