I'm always a bit wary of authors who write fiction about a culture other than their own. Too often they get the subtleties wrong, or they try to throw in tidbits of language for "color" and spell things wrong or use it wrong (I've blogged that before), but Martin Walker does live in France and I'm happy to report he does a nice job with his story of a small town police officer investigating a brutal murder with racial overtones in the Perigord region of France.
At first, I was afraid I was reading something along the lines of the quaint Rule Against Murder (which I more or less savaged in February), but Bruno and his neighbors are much more interesting and authentic than anything Louise Penny created in her Quebecois series. An elderly Algerian is murdered, execution-style, and his body desecrated so that it seems that the racial troubles of the big cities have at last reached the small town of St Denis. As Bruno investigates (or follows the big dogs in their investigation), he learns more about the ugly history of France during both the Occupation and the Algerian War.
The enthusiastic role of the Vichy Government during WWII is well-known and documented, though reluctantly acknowledged--if acknowledged at all--but some of the nastiness and brutal racism that surrounded the attempt to hold onto Algeria as a colony, is less-well known, at least to me (though my father fought in that war). It was both fascinating and ugly to read about this. I'm a big fan of learning history through fiction, as long as it's with a grain of salt, and this book provides a lot to think about and to pursue.
It was almost refreshing how open and believable the casual racism was in this small town. There are no big Kumbaya speeches, though Bruno offers a hint of that. Even he knows to tread carefully when lecturing on Arab integration. The varied reactions to the murder was a reminder of how far France has to go (though I'm not throwing stones--I was viewing it more as an outsider, with curiosity). The ambiguous feelings the townspeople have towards the murdered and his family seemed realistic to me. He's one of us, they say. Sort of. But we didn't even know the victim. Who is French? What does that mean? Is France separate from the European Union or part of it? Do the laws have to apply to all or can St Denis pick and choose which ones from Belgium they want to follow? They do like their unpasteurized cheese, after all.
The melting pot growing pains extend to the British who have moved to town as there's a nice parallel in the long discussion over what constitutes a true English meal (of which Bruno has heard nothing good, of course). For example, if the fish is from Scotland, does that count as English?
As a character, Bruno is a little flat, but likeable, and after all, his role is almost to fade into the town itself, to become friends with everyone while standing as moral center and authority figure. A tough enough role. He's liked by most, heroic to some, a romantic figure to others, and he does alright. I love that he's rescued by a few well-placed Black Belt moves from a young female inspector down from Paris. How French.
The ending isn't pat, exactly, and I like that this book is part of a series. There's a lot of countryside still to explore, more good food to eat (French), and more women to fall for Bruno's simple life. I don't know where you go in a series after a bizarre murder like this one and I do hope Walker doesn't turn St Denis into a strange little bastion of unbelievable crime, but if he does, he's got a good character in Bruno to hold it together.
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