Dark Vineyard
France's favourite policeman's second brilliant adventure
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- 5,49 €
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- 5,49 €
Publisher Description
'BEGUILING, EVOCATIVE, WONDERFUL ... THE ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH OF FRANCE' Francis Wheen
In the second mystery of this mouthwatering and bestselling series, Bruno, Chief of Police of a small rural French town, must balance local tradition and modern progress while bringing a killer to justice.
Just before dawn one summer morning Bruno is summoned by the wail of the siren in the little town of St Denis in the Périgord. A fire is raging in a local barn and spreading to the surrounding fields. When Bruno arrives at the scene, the smell of petrol leaves no doubt: it was arson. The barn belongs to an agricultural research company experimenting with genetically modified crops - an unpopular move in deeply traditional St Denis.
Meanwhile, a Californian producer wants to set up a wine-making business in the valley. Despite the money and jobs this would bring, many fear it would destroy their town. When a violent death follows the crop burning, it looks as though someone is prepared to do anything to stop the scheme. Bruno will have to draw on all his local knowledge to reach the truth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Age-old French traditions collide with global commerce in Walker's lyrical sequel to Bruno, Chief of Police. When vandals attack a secretive research station hidden in the hills near Saint-Denis, Bruno Courr ges, the rural village's only municipal policeman, looks into the matter. Meanwhile, winemaker Fran ois Cresseil and the young man he has just adopted, Max Vannes, both die of mysterious causes. Max's seductive Canadian girlfriend; the scion of a rich American winery looking to buy up tracts of fertile land; protesting " colos"; representatives from a variety of government agencies; and a host of colorful locals all complicate what turns into a murder investigation, which calls on Bruno's tact as well as his shrewdness. Walker evokes his French community's celebrations of wine, food, love, and friendship with obvious affection but without sentimentality. His villagers are no more immune from modern times than the rest of us they just drink better wine.
Customer Reviews
Could have been a good book, but …
The author and his protagonist seam to have quite a strange view on women.
Luckily, the author describes women mostly as independent humans with their own full rights.
However, sometimes he takes quite a macho look:
In the story a man tries to pull a woman with force out of a bar. Later the protagonist Bruno explains to the woman, it is relevant „to establish whether there was something that could have misled him into believing he had a relationship with you“. With this argument he triggers the victim not to bring charges.
Does the author not understand, that a relationship does not matter here?Even if a woman has a real (and not only imagined) relationship with a man, he has no right in the world to assault her and pull her with force out of any place!