The Children Return
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4.3 • 33 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The seventh novel in Martin Walker’s irresistible mystery series set in the South of France and starring Bruno, Chief of Police
Bruno, chief of police in the French town of St. Denis, is already busy with a case when the body of an undercover French Muslim cop is found in the woods, a man who called Bruno for help only hours earlier.
But Bruno's sometime boss and rival, the Brigadier, doesn't see this investigation as a priority—there are bigger issues at stake.
Bruno has other ideas.
Meanwhile, a Muslim youth named Sami turns up at a French army base in Afghanistan hoping to get home to St. Denis. One of Bruno's old army comrades helps to smuggle Sami back to France, but the FBI aren't far behind. Then an American woman appears in St. Denis with a warrant for Sami's extradition.
Bruno must unravel these multiple mysteries, amidst pressure from his bosses, and find his own way to protect his town and its people.
PRAISE FOR MARTIN WALKER AND THE BRUNO, CHIEF OF POLICE, SERIES:
“Martin Walker’s bucolic mysteries offer a gentle reminder to slow down and smell the grapes.” —THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
“Walker is brilliant at capturing the murderous charms of rural France.” —DAILY MIRROR
“Walker hits the sweet spot of balancing humor and drama, and his food descriptions will leave readers fantasizing about dining in the Perigord.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Recent events make the themes of Walker's thoughtful seventh novel set in France's P rigord (after 2014's The Resistance Man) terrorism and prejudice seem eerily prescient. Bruno Courr ges, the St. Denis a police chief, is sickened by the burnt, tortured corpse he discovers and later identifies as Rafiq, an undercover operative investigating extremist infiltration at a nearby mosque. Soon afterward, Bruno learns that local youth Sami Belloumi, an autistic savant, is being transported home from Afghanistan, where he has been forced by jihadists (whom he met through the mosque's school) to engineer lethal terrorist bombs. Sami's return puts St. Denis in the middle of a media firestorm; experts converge to determine his legal treatment even as Rafiq's killers try to silence Sami and Bruno. More thriller than mystery, this installment lacks the warmth of the series' more-local story lines but Bruno still has time to savor food, wine, and his attraction to a FBI liaison.
