Bruno, Chief of Police

A Recipe for Success
• Take a rural commune in the heart of the Dordogne and a one-man police department by the name of Bruno.
• Add a brutal murder with the hallmarks of a racial crime against immigrant workers from North Africa.
• Season with clues that point to unsettled feuds from the Nazi legacy of World War II.
• Serve with Gallic charm in all good bookshops as the first book in a brilliant crime fiction series.

Set in the street markets, cobbled squares, vineyards and farmland of the Dordogne area of France, Bruno, Chief of Police features Captain Bruno Courrèges, a man as charming and eccentric as he is wise. A formidable investigator, Bruno must rise to the challenge when the head of an Algerian family is murdered and the peace of Bruno's beloved village of St. Denis is shattered. Racism is the obvious conclusion, and the son of a local doctor who is caught playing sex games surrounded by Nazi paraphernalia is the immediate suspect. But Bruno knows his people well and sees a more complex explanation lurking in the memories and unsettled feuds of the German occupation.

This addictively readable novel, filled with the sights and sounds -- and politics -- of the French countryside, launches a stunning new crime fiction series.