Fatal Pursuit

February 29, 2016
Walker’s engaging ninth mystery featuring police chief Bruno Courrèges (after 2015’s The Patriarch) finds the residents of St. Denis, France, commemorating their relationship with their Alsatian twin town of Marckolsheim. The festivities, which include a classic car parade and a rally car race, have attracted many tourists, including two men hunting for a priceless Bugatti that vanished during WWII. Bruno is preoccupied with his role as a rally car navigator, until a local historian hired to research the Bugatti is murdered. Mediation of a family feud and surveillance of suspected money launderers compound Bruno’s work load, but he still finds time to ride horses, woo attractive women, and consume copious amounts of good food and fine wine. Bruno’s day-to-day business occasionally eclipses the plot, but that’s hardly cause for complaint given the idyllic picture Walker paints of life in the Périgord region. History buffs, racing fans, and automobile aficionados will find plenty to love, and the mystery is intriguing even if it doesn’t fully satisfy. Agent: Stephanie Cabot, Felicity Bryan Associates.

April 1, 2016
St. Denis chief of police Bruno Courreges (The Children Return, 2015, etc.) turns his attention from cabbages to cars. The Concours de Elegance brings a bevy of classic beauties to the Perigord. Jack Crimson dusts off his Jaguar Mark 2. Horst, a German architect, helps his friend Clothilde emerge from her Porsche Speedster. Bruno's friend Annette sits at the wheel of her Jaguar S-type, her English friend George Young beside her. Sylvestre Wemy drives his Bugatti from Marckolsheim. Fabiola shows off her Renault Zoe electric car, and town councilor Alphonse drives a Kango. But none of these automotive wonders can hold a candle to the Bugatti Type 57C, known as the Atlantic. Only four of the cars were ever produced: one is owned by Ralph Lauren, one was destroyed, one is in a California museum, and the fourth was lost in World War II while being driven across France. Since the Atlantic's path would have taken it through Perigord, and arguably near St. Denis, the car aficionados' interests are piqued. At the peak of all piques are Sylvestre and George Young, and their dogged curiosity makes Bruno wonder just how far they might go to track down the car of their dreams. Bruno has other things on his mind. Young Felix, son of a local cleaning lady, is caught shoplifting, someone wings a pebble at a horseback rider, and elderly historical researcher Henri-Pierre Hugon is found dead in his study. Plus, the always-indispensible lunar almanac tells Bruno when it's time to plant, and his neighbors' daughter, Martine, provides a delightful distraction all her own. But the lost Atlantic keeps drifting through his inner landscape until murder gives its disappearance a new urgency. Walker's latest Bruno adventure has a lighter touch than earlier entries but offers as pleasing a puzzle as any.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2016

When a local scholar turns up dead at St. Denis, France's annual rally and classic car parade, Bruno, the city's chief of police, suspects foul play, especially when a family squabble is factored in, making the investigation more challenging. Then another body is found. This ninth outing (after The Patriarch) is lighter in tone but still entertaining. The descriptions of food and the Dordogne region? are enchanting.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2016
The chief subject of Walker's mysteries, the glories of the Dordogne region of southwestern France, never varies, and it never grows old, not even over the span of the long-running series. That's because Walker so vividly describes the variegated pastoral landscape, with its cliffs, woods, ancient villages, twisty roads, and prehistoric caves (the most famous being Lascaux). Yes, but Walker saves his poetry for describing food. His hero, Bruno Courreges, chief of police in the town of St. Denis, is always scouting out local markets, meeting friends for sumptuously evoked lunches and dinners; of course, he cooks, too, and the preparation of his own locally sourced dinners for friends or lovers is detailed in the lovingly precise manner of Robert B. Parker's Spenser. Walker mixes in murder and intrigue as well, but crime operates more as a side dish. In this, the ninth Bruno, Chief of Police, novel, a vintage-car rally (filled with sensuous details of the cars and the experience of driving them) leads to Bruno's learning about how one of the most famous cars of all time, a Bugatti Type 57 Atlantic, went missing during WWII somewhere in France. He also contends with the murder of a local scholar, whose work may offer clues to the vanished Bugatti. The mystery uncovers traces of an international crime ring in St. Denis, and offers rich views of the Resistance. A feast, from scenery to food to Bugattis.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)