Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker

I have been in a Mystery Book Group for over 10 years now and I used to read a lot of mysteries. In fact, I probably read more mysteries than any other genre at one point.   In the last several years, though, I have somewhat lost my enthusiasm for the mystery genre.  I think it is because so many of the mysteries written today and that our group picks all seem to be very dark and with a protagonist who has many issues – alcoholism, divorce, bad relations with the boss, extremely graphic murders, etc.  This month our group discussed Bruno, Chief of Police, and I really enjoyed reading this one.  It is the first in a series set in a fictional small town called St. Denis in France.  Bruno is a well-liked police chief who enjoys a close relationship with the town and the town’s mayor.  He is a likable ordinary guy who enjoys where he lives, loves to cook, garden, play tennis and rugby, and is happy with his life.  The book gives a strong sense of place with Martin’s descriptive writing style that isn’t over-done.  There is a lot of humor in the book as the town runs a market with products they have been making in their families for hundreds of years.  Now the European Union want to put rules in place that they don’t want to do.  The town has made an elaborate system to evade the regulators who come to town.  The manner of the murder was rather gruesome, but that was just a small part that it did not detract from the story for me.   I will definitely be putting this series on my list to continue.