In this 6th book in the 'Bruno, Chief of Police' series, Bruno investigates a murder and a series of robberies. I'm a fan of the Bruno series but this book isn't one of my favorites.
*****
Benoit Courreges, Chief of Police of St. Denis, France, is known as Bruno to everyone in the tight little community. Bruno loves to garden, play tennis, ride horses, socialize with friends, have romances, and of course, keep the peace in St. Denis.
As the story opens, a French resistance fighter from WWII has died of old age, and he's found clutching two bills from a decades old train robbery. The theft is infamous because, at the end of the war, the French resistance stole a HUGE fortune being transported for safekeeping....and the money has never been found.
Besides the natural death, St. Denis is experiencing a crime wave. For one thing, a gay man has been viciously beaten to death; for another thing, there have been a series of robberies. The stolen goods aren't the usual computers and televisions, but instead things like antique furniture, valuable paintings, expensive bottles of wine, and so on. The thieves apparently know when the homeowners are out of town, and simply drive up in a van and make off with the loot.
There's no obvious connection between the natural death of the resistance fighter; the horrific murder of the homosexual man; and the thefts of high-end goods, but Bruno senses a thread connecting them. So far so good.
After this the story gets overcomplicated (for me).
One story line is historical, harking back to WWII, the Nazis, the Vichy government, and France's development of nuclear weapons.
Another story thread involves an upcoming election in France, and 'corrupt politicians' who'd lie and manipulate to stay in office. (What else is new, right?)
The main theme of the book is Bruno's investigation of the murder and the robberies, and this comes to involve a CORNUCOPIA of characters that are hard to keep straight.
During his investigation, Bruno has to work with his former girlfriend Isabelle - a police detective who's ambitious and on her way up. The relationship has fizzled out, but Bruno is haunted by memories of the affair. In any case, Bruno now has a new girlfriend Pamela - a wealthy Scottish horse owner who spends a lot of time in St. Denis.
Not exactly connected to Bruno's romances, there's a lot of chitchat about people (both gay and straight) wanting to have children and start families.
By the latter part of the novel, I was struggling to remember who's who, and to put the various parts of the tale together. On the upside, I did like the dinner parties organized by Bruno and his friends - with food that sounds delicious - and I liked Bruno's new puppy Balzac, who' very cute and sweet.
Rating: 3 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment