THE SHOOTING AT CHÂTEAU ROCK

Bruno Courrèges investigates an insurance scam as languidly as only he can.

As chief of police for the town of St. Denis in the Dordogne, Bruno must investigate every complaint of every citizen, even when it isn’t clear that a crime has taken place. Still, as a citizen himself of that region of France he considers unrivaled in beauty, culture, and cuisine, his investigation into the death of the elderly farmer Driant at the urging of Driant’s son, Gaston, moves at a pace leisurely enough for him to spend the requisite time cooking impossibly tender lamb shanks for a group of friends who gather for dinner each Monday night. Bruno does think it odd that Driant mortgaged his farm shortly before his death to buy an insurance policy that would have assured him a place at Château Marmont, a luxury retirement home, had he lived long enough to actually move in. But his probe must also leave time for alfresco dining with old friend and aging British rock star Rod Macrae and his soon-to-be ex-wife, Meghan, who are selling their pied-a-terre in France prior to the divorce. And of course, there’s the first mating of Bruno’s basset hound, Balzac, an event so momentous that he invites Isabelle, the love of his life, from Paris (which she will not leave to be with him and where he will not go to be with her) to watch. While waiting for the eventual crime to be solved, readers can revel in the wonders of the Dordogne, even if witnessing a doggie defloration may be a bridge too far for some.

Falling-off-the-bone French at its ne plus ultra.