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Title details for The Body in the Castle Well by Martin Walker - Available

The Body in the Castle Well

#12 in series

by Martin Walker
Robert Ian Mackenzie
Audiobook
1 of 2 copies available
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1 of 2 copies available
An aging art scholar and a visiting student, haunting echoes of France's colonialist past, and a delicious navarin of lamb—Bruno is back, and his latest case leads him from the Renaissance to the French Resistance and beyond by way of a corpse at the bottom of a well. When Claudia, a young American, turns up dead in the courtyard of an ancient castle in Bruno's jurisdiction, her death is assumed to be an accident related to opioid use. But her doctor persuades Bruno that things may not be so simple. Thus begins an investigation that leads Bruno to Monsieur de Bourdeille, the scholar with whom the girl had been studying, and then through that man's past. He is a renowned art historian who became extraordinarily wealthy through the sale of paintings that may have been falsely attributed—or so Claudia suggested shortly before her death. In his younger days, Bourdeille had aided the Resistance and been arrested by a Vichy policeman whose own life story also becomes inexorably entangled with the case. Also in the mix is a young falconer who works at the Chateau des Milandes, the former home of fabled jazz singer Josephine Baker. In the end, of course, Bruno will tie all the loose threads together and see that justice is served—along with a generous helping of his signature Perigordian cuisine.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Bruno, Chief of Police

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 19, 2019

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781980033493
      • File size: 312950 KB
      • Duration: 10:51:58

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Robert Ian MacKenzie's performance of this Bruno Chief of Police mystery is strangely inert, as if he doesn't understand that lovers of fiction hope to experience the characters as believable fellow humans, not just to receive information. Outstanding as usual, though, is Walker's knowledge of the art world, the people and customs of the Perigord, and the extremely complex social and political history of the region during WWII. These reverberate through the contemporary plot, which starts with a rich and well-connected American art history doctoral student drowned in a well. MacKenzie's French accents seem accurate, but his American voices are ridiculous, and this matters here. At least he's fine on the food and sex scenes; they matter, too, especially in the Perigord. B.G. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 11, 2019
      The disappearance of American Claudia Muller, an art history student, drives Walker’s satisfying 14th outing for French chief of police Benoît “Bruno” Courrèges (after 2018’s A Taste for Vengeance). When Claudia’s body is found in a well in Bruno’s small town of St. Denis, the preliminary autopsy leads the authorities to believe her death was an accident. Drugs may have been a contributing factor. Claudia was studying with a noted art scholar who was possibly engaged in shady dealings related to his valuable art collection. She was also seen in the presence of a man recently released from prison. Was her death a simple misfortune or something more sinister? The book’s main strength is the intrepid Bruno, a horseback-riding and dog-loving master chef whose calm professional practicality pulls the reader into the well-developed, if familiar, crime story. Whether he’s preparing a gourmet dinner, enjoying a glass of wine, or solving a murder, it’s a pleasure to be in Bruno’s company. Agent: Stephanie Cabot, Gernert Agency.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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