An Enemy in the Village by Martin Walker Series: Bruno Chief of Police #18
Published by Knopf on July 1, 2025
Source: NetGalley
Genres: Mystery
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
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A real estate agent’s suicide sends shockwaves through the idyllic town of St. Denis, leading Bruno, Chief of Police, to suspect that there’s more to this tragedy than meets the eye.
When Bruno receives a call reporting a motionless figure in a car parked outside a beauty salon, he arrives ready to investigate. What he finds is a suicide note and the dead body of Monique, a successful businesswoman who sold chateaus to wealthy ex-pats. It seems like an open and shut case.
But Bruno can’t shake the feeling that something sinister lurks underneath this tidy narrative. After he delivers Monique’s final messages to those most important to her, malicious gossip about Bruno begins to spread through the village. One thing leads to another, and soon protesters are showing up outside the precinct, demanding that Bruno be taken off the job. Despite this disturbing turn of events, Bruno remains Bruno, never one to turn down a fine meal with good company in the French countryside. In the course of inquiry, he meets Laura—and her dog, which happens to be the same breed as his beloved basset hound. As sparks fly and Bruno realizes just how much he has at stake, he races to find out what really happened to Monique, before he loses his badge, his new love—or worse.
I’ve read a couple of the earlier books in the Bruno, Chief of Police series and enjoyed them. This one was boring. Bruno does a lot of riding and eating. We see a lot of his dog. The death takes place at the beginning of the book, but while Bruno talks to some people, the investigation doesn’t really accomplish much until the last chapter or two, when it all falls in to place too quickly. In the meantime, we get a bunch of village life and some territorial disputes among the various police forces and some bad behavior among the gendarmes.
Bruno is a likeable character. He truly cares about the people of his village and doing his job. The food descriptions were wonderful and tempting. I just need more from the plot. Maybe if I had read the series from the beginning and cared more about the characters I wouldn’t have minded so much, but I kept asking when we were going to get back to the main mystery. There was a lot going on, but it all felt a little scattered. And quite honestly I could care less about his dog’s love life.
About Martin Walker
Martin Walker MARTIN WALKER, after a long career of working in international journalism and for think tanks, now gardens, cooks, explores vineyards, writes, travels, and has never been busier. He divides his time between Washington, D.C., and the Dordogne.
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