Martin always delivers a live-wire plot, well-realized characters (he’s especially adept at character-revealing scenes), and an incredibly varied setting—this time, he throws in some expertise in medieval falconry. Another winner in an always-strong series.
...this is one of [Walker's] charming mysteries set in the beautiful Périgord region of France and featuring his amiable sleuth ... Walker knows exactly what he’s doing in this series, which artfully seasons its plots with regional lore about the sport of falconry and with lessons in French history, particularly the World War II resistance—all while gently teasing the locals for indulging in 'the French love of ceremony and dressing up.'
Some authors take their time in setting up the crime, lovingly describing step by step as it takes place; others leap right in, beginning their stories with its commission. Walker does them one better. He’s so eager to embroil the reader in the story that he has the crime committed before the story begins, and by the third paragraph of page one, the reader is plunged directly into the investigation ... it brushes aside the extraneous and immediately takes the reader into the investigation and the array of characters and motives with no wasted verbiage ... the usual delightful coterie of Bruno’s colleagues are again present, offering assistance in solving the crime as well as in preparing and eating the usual delightful recipes featured throughout the story.
Walker weaves the details of Bruno’s unruffled investigation together with all the obligatory social rituals fans of the series...have come to expect. A detective story whose dramatic trajectory is marked less by its rising suspense than by the increasingly elaborate meals consumed by the hero, who prepares one of its most endearing menus for the sometime lover who’s just spent the night with him.
...satisfying ... The book’s main strength is the intrepid Bruno, a horseback-riding and dog-loving master chef whose calm professional practicality pulls the reader into the well-developed, if familiar, crime story. Whether he’s preparing a gourmet dinner, enjoying a glass of wine, or solving a murder, it’s a pleasure to be in Bruno’s company.
