Black Diamond

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: The third installment in Martin Walker's delightful, internationally acclaimed series featuring Chief of Police Bruno.

Something dangerous is afoot in St. Denis. In the space of a few weeks, the normally sleepy village sees attacks on Vietnamese vendors, arson at a local Asian restaurant, subpar truffles from China smuggled into outgoing shipments at a nearby market—all of it threatening the Dordogne’s truffle trade, worth millions of dollars each year, and all of it spelling trouble for Benoît “Bruno” Courrèges, master chef, devoted oenophile, and, most important, beloved chief of police. When one of his hunting partners, a noted truffle expert, is murdered, Bruno’s investigation into show more the murky events unfolding around St. Denis becomes infinitely more complicated. His friend wasn’t just a connoisseur of French delicacies, he was a former high-profile intelligence agent—and someone wanted him dead.

As the strange crimes continue, Bruno’s detective work takes him from sunlit markets to dim cafés, from luxurious feasts to tense negotiations—from all of the paradisial pleasures of the region to its shadowy underworld—and reunites him with a lost love, an ambitious policewoman also assigned to the case. Filled with an abundance of food and wine (including, bien sûr, many, many truffles) and a soupçon of romance, Black Diamond is a deliciously entertaining concoction that delivers all the complexity and delights of the Dordogne itself.

My Review: I'd like to be clear about one thing up front: No one pays me to write my reviews, and I got no free copy of this book to review it. Save your nastygrams.

What I did get from this third outing in the Bruno, Chief of Police, series was a serious jones for truffes cendrillons (or cendrées, as I knew the dish), the coal-baked tarts filled with truffled foie gras that are outstandingly rich and almost incredibly expensive. They're also the only way I actually *like* truffles.

*pause for near-lethal drooling*

So. Anyway. Truffles are obscenely expensive fungi, and the Périgord (where fictional St-Denis is located) is one of Earth's best places to find the highest quality variety of them. Naturally, this being a Bruno story, the initial push into crime and dishonesty comes from shenanigans at the truffle market. Naturally, this being a Bruno story, the malfeasance and wrong-doing stretch farther and wider than that. Naturally, this being a Bruno story, there is loving and glorious detail lavished upon the preparation and eating of meals. A very great deal less attention is paid to Bruno's rugby-playing, fire-fighting physique in action amoureuse.

I'm down with that. Sex I can get anywhere. A series of mysteries where Pomerol *drool* is fleetingly mentioned and Dom Pérignon is casually served at a public function (!!!), where the meals are...so listen, I don't need to belabor this, it's effin' para-bloody-dise that Walker's describing. A hot rugby-playing 40-year-old cop who can cook and knows his wines. Yes please.

By the end of this entry in the series, it's clear that our lad is as always the bestest Boy Scout in all France and he's got not a single problem with doing the Right Thing even if it's political suicide, even when it costs him dearly and personally, and then refusing to dodge, bob, and weave when shady souls want him to trim his sails expediently.

For this very reason, Bruno ends this installment with a vastly better material life, and a very greatly enlarged circle of influence. Hobnobbing with royalty, even minor royalty, grants a man access to things previously not available. Very useful in a sleuth's development; and as done by Walker in this book, perfectly logical and in fact sort of inevitable.

I'll cut to the chase: For a series-mystery fan, this procedural-cum-cozy-via-thriller series is catnip and should not be resisted. For a foodie, it's madness to pass up. For one who fancies gentlemen of a certain interesting age, it's damn near mandatory reading. (My Gentleman Caller has a serious book-crush on Bruno, for example. I'm not jealous it says here because so do I.) And if wine interests you, for heavens' sake go NOW and buy them all!


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. show less

For me this third entry in the Bruno series was probably the best yet and a step up from the second book. It is not required but reading the prior books lets you know about most of the people who appear here and altho the author drops enough into this to support the character (as well as refresh the memory for continuing readers) I certainly enjoy this more knowing what has come before. The french history in here, the good and mostly bad of things are woven into the story and I very much appreciate it. The author is quite good at this and we learn about food and wine and truffles, especially truffles, in rural France and culture clashes, wars, spies, the greens, and more. There are now 11 novels and a couple novellas in this series and show more I am happy to have more to look forward to. Oh, this is indeed a crime and murder mystery story and series, but all the cultural trappings make this much much more.

The big topic of this particular story is truffles (the best are black diamonds), but the story gets very twisty by the end when everything is wrapped up. show less

Bruno is looking forward to a day’s hunting with his friend and truffle hunting mentor, Hercule. When Bruno and the baron arrive at the appointed meeting place, they discover Hercule’s body. Hercule had been an intelligence officer in Vietnam and Algeria, and his death seems to be connected to his past. Bruno suspects that the death may also be connected to recent acts of violence against Vietnamese vendors in the local markets. Or maybe it’s related to the irregularities in the truffle market that Hercule had just asked Bruno to investigate. Bruno and his colleagues will need to follow each trail to see where they lead.

Walker seems to have hit his stride with the third book in the Bruno series. The mystery unfolds at just the show more right pace. I had trouble putting this one down once I had started, and I resented interruptions that kept me from reading. Bruno is beginning to sound a bit too perfect. Hopefully his character won’t become static as the series progresses. show less

Black Diamond - Walker
Audio performance by Robert Ian Mackenzie
4 stars

Everything I never knew I wanted to know about truffles. And why do I think that I need to have Bruno in my kitchen to cook me a gourmet meal? As with other books in this series, I would read for the food porn if nothing else. But, there’s also the murder mystery and the ugly crimes that include market manipulation, child abuse, and human trafficing. It’s always Bruno to the rescue, giving chase in a Santa costume or rescuing victims from a burning building. He especially won my heart when he found a good teaching job for a single mother of twins.

Chief Bruno Courrèges is drawn into a complicated mystery when an old hunting companion is found dead---obviously tortured and murdered to send a message to someone. The man's past is full of secrets of the official sort. The local truffle market has been receiving complaints about product contaminated with cheap Chinese imports, and there's a big kerfuffle about the upcoming mayoral election, which could mean the end of Bruno's tenure. Also, he is up to his ears in women, and the relationships are not without their own complications. Another fascinating story of intrigue, both modern and historical, enhanced by foodie fantasies (Bruno's venison stew will haunt my dreams) and set in the French countryside . I got a bit bogged down in show more the French and Vietnamese history embedded in this one, but that's on me. If you love the Montalbano series and you haven't met Bruno yet, you have a need. show less

This series is my idea of a comfort read. There’s lots of detail about food and wine and the various characters but there are also serious subjects that are dealt with. In this book, Bruno is dealing with food fraud, illegal immigration and child sexual abuse. It was fascinating.
Bruno, in his role as Chief of Police, has wide-ranging duties from checking on the vendors at the local market to ensuring children are safe to playing Pere Noel. And then, there are all his extra-curricular activities like rugby, hunting, cooking, teaching tennis and spending time with his latest romantic conquest, Pamela. This book starts out with one of his least favourite activities – doing crowd control at a demonstration of people opposed to and in show more favour of the shutting down of the local sawmill. Environmental regulations have forced the sawmill owner to move out of the village so the local Green Party is supportive but many jobs will be lost so the Mayor and Village Council are concerned. Complicating matters even further is that the owner of the sawmill is the father of the leader of the Green Party. When the two engage in fisticuffs, Bruno has to move to break it up and reduce tensions. Soon after that, Bruno and his pals are gathering for a hunting trip when they discover the body of one of their members, Hercule. Hercule had lived a quiet life in Perigord but his past included service in French Indochina and in Algeria. Could someone from his past have decided to exact revenge? Or, as a renowned truffle expert, could his suspicions about fraud in the local truffle market be the reason for his murder. The murder investigation isn’t Bruno’s sole responsibility. His former lover, Isabella, plus his good friend from the Surete, are involved. However, Bruno is tasked with looking into the allegations of fraud and he could really use Hercule’s truffle journal. Isabella is also involved with apprehending the persons responsible for smuggling Asian immigrants into the area. There is also a subplot of intimidation of Vietnamese immigrants who settled in the area after the Communist takeover. See, lots for Bruno to sink his teeth into. With the return of Isabella to the area, Pamela is exhibiting signs of the green-eyed monster, so Bruno has to decide how to handle that.
There were some distasteful details (rats introduced into a Vietnamese families home while they were away almost produced a nightmare) but, as always, the food and camaraderie make the book delightful. And, maybe, there is a new lady in Bruno’s life? I’ll have to read #4 to see. show less

You know how you have those series books that you wait not-so-impatiently for? This is one of those series. The adventures of Bruno and all of the residents of St. Denis are a complete treat for me, and each fall I can hardly wait for the next installment. This third book did not disappoint. (One annoying thing - the fourth book in the series is already out in the UK and it won't be out for awhile here. ??? WTF.) It might look like these books could be described as "cozies" but I don't think that's accurate. There is always a political thread, the murders are always described in a bit of detail, there's usually some kind of an international business component - it's actually kind of a treat since these books aren't like any others out show more there that I know of. These differences are totally due to Mr. Walker's background as a senior director of the Global Business Policy Council and an international affairs columnist, among a few other things. However, don't think that what could be a seemingly-boring background will translate into a dry-as-toast book. Because it's not.

Bruno is a smart guy, knows when to make a threat and when to act, totally loves his dog, Gigi, and is a loyal friend. I enjoyed where this book took Bruno, both personally and professionally, and the mystery was one I couldn't figure out. Well, part of it I did, but there was a whole other part that was a total surprise to me. If you don't mind getting in to another series (I know - sorry!), and could use a little armchair traveling to small-town France, I can't recommend this book and this series enough. 4.25 stars show less