The Resistance Man: A Bruno Courreges Investigation by Martin Walker
| The Resistance Man: A Bruno Courreges Investigation by Martin Walker | |
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| Category: Crime | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: A twisty plot and real sense of place is let down slightly by the characterisation - but that's me being very picky. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 352 | Date: June 2013 |
| Publisher: Quercus | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1780870717 | |
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When Old Murcoing passed on the priest called on Bruno Courreges, the chief of police in St Denis, as Murcoing had died clutching a bank note from the legendary Neuvic train robbery which happened in 1944. Murcoing had battled to find out what really happened to the money from the robbery - the reserves of the Banque de France - as the Resistance had certainly seen only a small part of it. That's not what's immediately concerning Bruno though. As a member of the Resistance Murcoing would have his funeral paid for by the state and it would be up to Bruno to organise this. He's also concerned with a series of burglaries on his patch - and it seems that one of them has led to a brutal murder.
Martin Walker writes a seriously good plot. This is the sixth book in the series and each one has taken an unusual feature of life in the Dordogne and woven a mystery around it. You get a real feel for the countryside as well as the local food and provided that you can persuade yourself that there isn't a murderer lurking around every corner you're going to be looking at flights out to Bergerac. It's elegantly done with little in the way of exposition and a lot of showing rather than telling. The plot is twisty and I certainly didn't see the solution coming.
Walker is less assured with characters and relationships though. I like Bruno - well, I've known him for a few years now and I'm aware of what makes him tick - the countryside, the food and wine and the animals with which he surrounds himself - but I don't feel that I have a picture of him in my mind. Relationships between men and women seem to happen with remarkable rapidity and I never have that frisson of suspecting that there's a little more going on than meets the eye. I am being picky - I know - and if you're reading for the place and the plot it probably won't matter to you at all.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy of the book to the Bookbag.
The books read well as stand alones so don't worry if you haven't read earlier books in the series. You might get ahead of yourself with regard to how relationships work out but there are no other plot spoilers. My favourite of the earlier books is The Devil's Cave.
Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Resistance Man: A Bruno Courreges Investigation by Martin Walker at Amazon.com.
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