A Shooting at Chateau Rock

Written by Martin Walker

Review written by Jon Morgan

Jon Morgan is a retired police Superintendent and francophile who, it is said, has consequently seen almost everything awful that people can do to each other. He relishes quality writing in all genres but advises particularly on police procedure for authors including John Harvey and Jon McGregor. Haunts bookshops both new and secondhand and stands with Erasmus: “When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I may buy food and clothes.”


A Shooting at Chateau Rock
Quercus
RRP: £18.99
Released: May 26, 2020
Hbk

Part thriller, part advert for this wonderful and very historic (and I mean prehistoric) part of France, and part recipe book, this latest outing for Bruno has all the ingredients (sorry) which have garnered him such a huge fan base in the UK and abroad.

 

Bruno Courrèges, Chief of Police (sounds grand but this is France and the Police Municipale) for several villages in the Dordogne has, on the surface an ideal job with great friends, a supportive boss (the Machiavellian ex-Senator) and excellent relationships with both his local constituency and further afield in the Police Nationale, Gendarmerie and in the French Intelligence services. He is a brilliant cook, a decorated former French soldier, a good all round sportsman, fairly lucky in his various relationships with women and the owner of a highly intelligent Basset hound.

 

Called to a seemingly non-suspicious sudden death of a local sheep farmer, known as a ladies man even into his seventies, Bruno uncovers dark forces at work which lead him to suspect foul play and he uses all his professional skill and guile to hold those responsible to account and achieve justice for the disinherited family of the deceased.

 

En route, his enquiries touch on global and local issues including the Ukraine issue, Émigré Russian oligarchs, corruption at EU state level and an ageing British rock star – the latter will have you trying to find who the character is based on. Inevitably in this thirteenth outing for Bruno he will again have his heart broken, cook some damn good meals, which will have you salivating as you read – not attractive if in company – and resolve the issues to the benefit of the local community in the commune of St Denis. He even manages to get both himself and Balzac, his Basset hound, ‘in stud’ as well!

 

I have loved Martin Walker’s work since the 1980’s, whether it be his earlier journalism for the Guardian and the books he produced on the Soviet Union under Gorbachev or his fiction which is mainly Dordogne-based. Some may argue that the Bruno books are becoming, or have always been, a little formulaic. This may be true, but it is also the reason they work so well. You are on familiar territory and there are few who would not wish to live in such a beautiful area of France, albeit that the world’s problems do seem to end up there with alarming regularity.

 

They are good entertainment and an escape from our own, sometimes humdrum. reality, with the added bonus of the recipes, the scenery, the people and the history. Bruno is a man who knows what he likes, likes what he knows, knows his own limits and is content to live within them. Food for thought!



Home
Book Reviews
Features
Interviews
News
Columns
Authors
Blog
About Us
Contact Us

Privacy Policy | Contact Shots Editor

THIS WEBSITE IS © SHOTS COLLECTIVE. NOT TO BE REPRODUCED ELECTRONICALLY EITHER WHOLLY OR IN PART WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION OF THE EDITOR.