Jessica's Reviews > Bruno, Chief of Police

A charming police procedural, set in the small town of St. Denis in the Perigourd region of France. Bruno is an ex-Army officer who served in Bosnia and now is happily settled into life as the chief of police in a town where he usual duties involve solving petty crimes, protecting the local food purveyors from the humorless enforcers of EU regulations, and coaching youth tennis and rugby leagues. This bliss is interrupted when the grandfather of the local math teacher, an Algerian war hero, is found brutally murdered with a swastika carved in his chest, awakening xenophobic suspicions and prompting an investigation of local Front National agitators. Was this the work of a local band of drug-dealing skinheads and the rich teenage girl slumming with them? Or do the roots go deeper, into the war-torn past which still provokes Resistance fighters from opposing factions to refuse to speak to one another? A couple of charming innkeeping Englishwomen and a lithe inspector from Paris keep Bruno romantically busy, insightful political intrigue and plenty of scenic descriptions and delightful foodie talk set the scene. A great start to a promising series by an international political journalist.