Black Diamond: A Mystery of the French Countryside (Bruno Chief Of Police Book 3)

Fast paced and exciting with flashes of humanity and humor sprinkled through the mayhem of a first class whodunnit. For Foodies, a fascinating history of truffles and suggested mouth-watering meals paired with brilliant French wines. I am reaching for the next Bruno Chief of Police book and my French recipe book with equal enthusiasm. Enjoy the read.

I`m captivated by the Bruno books. The plots are interesting and the is quite good,but the absolute love of this place ( St Denis and environs) is incredibly charming. The characters are vividly described and developed.

With the holidays approaching Bruno finds himself experiencing a rare discontent with his life in St. Denis. A contentious mayoral race is creating a headache for the normally easy-going Chief of Police and a disturbing series of attacks on Vietnamese market vendors casts a pall over the quiet little village. A grisly murder leaves Bruno trying to figure out if any of these violent events could possibly be related.This series centers on Bruno, the Chief of Police in a small village in the south of France. There's a poignancy to his character that I find very appealing. Bruno is nearly forty, an ex-soldier with no family to speak of who loves this village and its people with his heart and soul. Bruno is content to walk his beloved hunting dog, feed his chickens and tend to his garden. If he had his way, nothing would ever change, and yet (of course) in that he's fighting a losing battle. Little by little "real world" problems are creeping into the fiber of St. Denis.This third installment has plenty in it to keep an armchair sleuth busy. The various crimes and how (or should I say "if"?) they are related are intriguing. The plot is well thought out and skillfully executed. There are no lulls in the storyline and the pacing has a nice balance; neither rushed nor lumbering. Of course one of the main attractions of this series is its familiar cast of characters, and we get to visit with many of them.Bottom Line: An intelligent, well-written mystery that makes the most of its charming setting. This is a series that is best read in order as the interpersonal relationships of some of the characters are integral to the story. Start with book one, Bruno, Chief of Police: A Novel of the French Countryside  . You'll be glad you did!

Mr. Walker continues to inform and charm the reader: his historical rendering of the French Vietnam involvement is fascinating and his charming characterization of truffle collection reveals an aspect of French rural life rarely depicted with such enthusiasm. As always, Bruno and the action personae are flawlessly rendered.

While the story had a bunch of wine, truffles and food, which was fun, it also has a murder story involving Vietnamese gangs and Chinese involvement. Not what i wanted to read about in this series. I just lost interest. Shame. There are so many better stories to read than this one.

Bruno is everyman's community hero -- he saves the child who falls in a pit, he dresses up like Pere Noel, he makes the most fabulous dinner in remembrance of a friend, he is nearly burned alive saving more children in a house fire, and he behaves with integrity in relationships. I am not quite sure how Martin Walker makes the process of cooking flow with detective drama, but he certainly does. I find the passages about cooking and dining to be almost lyrical and replete with the essence of France. These books are delightful and I love to throw one in every now and then when I need a relief from my more intense reading subjects.

Great weaving of mystery and community life…carefully crafted characters and subtle intimate issues contribute to an intriguing beautiful romp in Dordogne.

I think about Bruno all the time, I have read the books back to back and cannot thank Martin Walker enough for the pleasure these Inspector Courreges books are giving me.How he weaves French history into the novel in an interesting not lecturing way that enhances the plot has me reading with Google at the ready to research more along the way, listen to the Partisan anthem (not this book) check the map to determine what is real etc. Also Google translate is at the ready to know what the odd French word or phrase means,I am worrying about his relationship with Isabelle as to what their solution could be!I am a fan of this region anyway and adore foie gras and I will be finding a Monbazillac to go with it on my next holiday, it is lovely to learn more about the delicacies in this area - Pecharmant wines are already my preference but Bruno and his recipes and suggestions have me making a long list of things to make and try.I am wittering, the books are about far, far more than food and drink. The complexities of human nature, communities, emotions, politics, history - Bruno walks HIS line through it all and we can all learn from his way. Humanistic, respectful of his job and role in the community. Well done Martin Walker, I hope a director is working with a script writer to bring Bruno to the international screen, everyone should be exposed to Bruno.I am already experiencing mild panic that all too soon I will have read them all.

I think that Bruno Courrèges must be one of the most likeable of recent crime fiction protagonists. He is local Chief of Police in St Denis, a small commune in the Dordogne region, and has established himself as a key member of the local community, helping out the largely volunteer local fire brigade, teaching the children of the village how to play rugby and tennis, and even filling in as Santa Claus for the annual Christmas party.His life has not always been so idyllic, and he had been raised in local authority care as an orphan. Embarking upon adult life, he had enlisted in the French Army and served two tours as part of the UN peace keeping force in what was formerly Yugoslavia. Having left the army he joined the police and found himself stationed in St Denis where he worked hard to become accepted as a key part of the local community. As a man of many parts, he has taught himself to cook local recipes, and also devotes much of his time to hunting the requisite wildlife, and also growing much of the requisite fruit and vegetables, as well as his own small crop of vines. Always eager to learn, he has also immersed himself in local lore about the mystical truffle, and has had great success training his dog to mind valuable specimens.Truffles play an important role in the local economy, and Bruno is called in to investigate apparent irregularities in the truffle harvest in one of the neighbouring villages, about which some of the higher profile customers, including prominent Parisian restaurants, have started to claim. It appears that weaker strains of truffles have been substituted for the genuine article, threatening the local product’s reputation. Meanwhile, there have been several instances of members of the local Vietnamese community being attacked by Chinese assailants.Having been an eminent journalist, Martin Walker knows how to tell a tale. He also knows how to impart information about which his reader might previously have been lamentably ignorant (well, this reader certainly was), without alienating them, or making them feel brow beaten. He conveys his love of the local region, its traditions, and the values by which the local residents navigate through life. Yet he also manages to combine this rural idyll with an engrossing plot, encompassing much of recent French history, and up to the minute trends in international organised crime.This is a series that is going from strength to strength!

And onto the third book in this series of mysteries set in the Dordogne region of France. Bruno, the Chief of Police in St. Denis is on the case involving a scam in the supply chain of truffles.The atmosphere of this book is exactly the same as the previous two books in this series. A comfortable and easy read with a mix of police and private life. Many of the characters continue from the other books. There are plenty of crimes for Bruno to deal with as he enjoys his life in rural France. We have the scam in the supply chain of truffles, racial hate crimes, a murder, some illegal immigrants and arson plus the discovery of a very disturbing crime at the end of the story. But between all this crime solving, Bruno makes time for a little romance.I enjoyed reading Black Diamond and consider it to be a GOOD 4 star read. I found Martin to be consistent in his writing and feel his name has become a brand readers can trust.

An intriguing tale that rather fizzled out - not that we didn't get a satisfactory ending just it could have carried on a bit longer. But maybe given the high level international in fighting it was best left as it was.Bruno really should really get a new uniform to replace his burnt out rags - and judging by his superhuman antics maybe its underpants should be outermost.

In his first two novels featuring Bruno Courreges, Martin Walker created an affectionate portrait of a small community in rural France. They were also essentially crime stories, the two elements neatly interwoven. In Black Diamond the balance is woefully out of kilter.The fact thee the crime element involved the truffle industry and (improbably in t Denis) Chinese and Vietnamese gang warfare called for a great deal of exposition. There are necessary digressions to Algeria, toVietnam and Kossovo. Chapters 19 deals with nothing else, and 20 is not much better. As a result life in St Denis is dropped in as semi-detached chunks.The chapter devoted to the Over 35w v Under 18s rugby match suggests an author who has been there and experienced it from the inside. It is lovingly done but carries the plot forward only marginally.Black Diamond should not ut off Martin Walker's fans, but they will hope for a return to more familiar territory next time.

This is the third in Martin Walker's 'Bruno' series. Last year I read 'Dark Vineyard' the second in the series.  Dark Vineyard: A Case for Bruno, Chief of Police: A Bruno Courreges Investigation  I was not won over by it and hoped for better things when I bought 'Black Diamond'. I was not disappointed. I found this a much more coherent plot than 'Dark Vineyard' and I was caught by the story by the end of the first chapter. I completed the book in a couple of sittings and thoroughly enjoyed it.There are a lot of themes in this story, the green environmentalist presence from the 'Dark Vineyard' is still here as a prominent feature but it does not dominate the storyline in the way it did to the detriment of 'Dark Vineyard'. We also have illegal immigration; Chinese triads; Vietnamese exile gangs; truffle fraud and spooks from the war in French Vietnam and Algeria. All these come together in the not so sleepy little town of St Denis in the Perigord. Poor Bruno, chief of police, gets blasted by a stun grenade; descends into a slurry pit and gets caught in a conflagration. A third woman and potential love interest gets added to the mix. Unlikely as it seems it all fits together to make a cracking good story. I look forward to the next episode. Dark Vineyard: A Case for Bruno, Chief of Police: A Bruno Courreges Investigation