AN ENEMY IN THE VILLAGE

Forget the latest sudden death in St. Denis. The real story here is the torching of police Chief Bruno Courrèges.

It’s Bruno himself who finds Monique Duhamel dead in her car, parked in an overlook near La Peyrière. The “super-concierge,” whose partnership provided a wide range of services to the owners of expansive estates, had increased her own wealth in every area except domestically. She’d recently suffered a miscarriage that would have provided a plausible motive for her suicide from an overdose of painkillers even if she hadn’t left behind farewell letters to her husband, Dominic d’Estringen; her attorney, Rebecca Weil; and her longest-standing partner, Laura Segret, together with a note of apology to whomever found her body. The case seems so open-and-shut that it’s soon eclipsed by the many complaints of harassment women have lodged against police officer Roland Villon, whose uncle is head of the Dordogne gendarmes, and the ambush the local Green Party launches against Bruno when he accepts France Bleu radio host Marie-Do’s invitation for a live interview and the Greens flood the phone banks with hostile calls accusing him of crimes against animals. The cases come together when Maître Poincevin, Roland’s bottom-feeding attorney, says that Bruno’s “not a village constable, he’s a secret policeman”—all except for the death of Monique Duhamel. Bruno’s only hope for redemption is a barrage of evidence quashing the Greens’ campaign and a Christmastime stint as Père Noël. Walker’s trademark accounts of memorable meals are slow to arrive but well worth the wait.

Christmas in the Vézère Valley, with a forgettable mystery thrown in to tease the unwary.