"An anonymous skull, an unsolved murder, sinister rumors from the Cold War era of espionage--Bruno's investigation into a long-standing cold case finds him caught between an enigmatic winegrower and a menacing Communist organization from the past. After attending an exhibit on the facial reconstruction of ancient skulls, Bruno wonders if this technology might provide an invaluable clue to a thirty-year-old cold case. But learning the identity of the...

"Martin Walker presents his first collection of stories featuring all the familiar characters from his Bruno novels and the glories of the Périgord region of France, with ample helpings of food and wine. After a prisoner breaks parole to see his son on Christmas, Bruno must track him down before he throws away his chance at eventual freedom. When a Senegalese man's coffee sells superbly at the market, some café owners become incensed by the new...

"It's summer in the Dordogne. The heirs of a Périgordian sheep farmer learn that they have been disinherited, and their father's estate sold to an insurance company in return for a policy that will place him in a five-star retirement home for the rest of his life. But the farmer never gets his life of luxury-- he dies before moving in. Was it a natural death? Was there foul play? Bruno begins the investigation that leads him to several shadowy insurance...

"The town of Sarlat is staging a reenactment of its liberation from the British in the Hundred Years War when the play's hero, Brice Kerquelin, is stabbed and feared fatally wounded. Bruno is tasked with the safety of his old Silicon Valley buddies, in town for a reunion. One friend, a tycoon in chip fabrication, soon goes missing, and Bruno suspects there may be a link to the French government's efforts to build a chip industry in Europe. Wading...

"A veteran of the Resistance dies, and among his possessions are documents that connect him to a notorious train robbery. A former British spymaster's estate is burglarized, the latest in a spree of expert thefts. An academic's home is broken into just as she is finishing a revelatory book on Frances nuclear weapons program. An antiques dealer is found brutally murdered, and his former lover, the number one suspect, is on the run. It's just another...

Investigating an apparent occult murder during the Easter season in St. Denis, beloved chief of police Bruno discovers links to a troubling real estate proposal, a suspicious accident, and the sudden reappearance of a controversial elderly countess.