Book review of The Resistance Man by Martin Walker

My review for today is for The Resistance Man, book six in the Bruno Chef de Police series by Martin Walker. You can read my review of book five The Devil's Cave here.

Set in the Dordogne town of St Denis, Bruno the chief of police spends his days solving crimes, keeping the streets safe, enjoying fine food, wine and female company. With his comforting and homely descriptions of simple country life in the Dordogne I have developed a soft spot for Martin’s writing and for Bruno. I easily slip back into his life in St Denis whenever I pick up one of his books.

In The Resistance Man Bruno finds himself having to piece together the links between the past and present in an investigation with many twists and turns. By the time we get to the end of chapter three (and in the space of one day) we have the natural death of an old farmer, the mystery of stolen money from a train robbery in 1944, a cleverly planned burglary and a murder. Bruno is busy trying to piece together the evidence but still has time to lunch with a lady friend, take coffee with another, speak on the phone to a third and is due to meet a fourth from the airport. Life is never dull for Bruno and this is certainly an exciting start for a book set in sleepy rural France. I enjoyed every page and twist in the plot and was slightly sad to reach the end of the book.

If you are looking for a distraction this summer I can think of nothing better than a trip to the Dordogne to delve into the delicious world of Bruno and read all seven books (Children of War, book seven will be published in hardback by Quercus Books this month). I have now read two of the novels and the short story, but the more I read the more I want to read, so I will be playing catch up this summer. You can also read more about Bruno at his website here. 

All of Martin’s books are available in paperback and ebook format and a great place to start would be the free ebook Bruno and le Père Noel: A Christmas Short Story . Links to Amazon are below. Many thanks to Quercus Books for my review copy.