View source for A Taste for Vengeance (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel) by Martin Walker

{{infobox1
|title=A Taste for Vengeance (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)
|sort=Taste for Vengeance (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)
|author=Martin Walker
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's the eleventh book in the series, but it's still fresh and with bags of local colour.  Don't even look at it if you're on a diet.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=384/9 hours
|publisher=Quercus
|date=June 2018
|isbn=978-1786486110
|website=Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order
|cover=1786486113
|aznuk=1786486113
|aznus=1786486113
}}

Bruno Courreges is now the police chief for the whole of the Vezere valley, but the promotion is not without its drawbacks, as the chain of command is not quite as clear as it was when he knew that he worked for the mayor.  Still, on a cool, damp Sunday afternoon in spring he had other things on his mind: he was watching the St Denis women's rugby team playing in the regional final.  One player stood out: Paulette was the daughter of the local florists and she was the best player that Bruno had ever trained, male or female.  He had hopes of her making the national squad, but there might be a cloud on the horizon - Paulette had been sick and had fainted in the showers.

There's another challenge on the horizon: he's going to be doing some teaching in the cookery school run by Pamela (a former lover and now a friend) and Miranda, and it's a call from Pamela which reaches him at the rugby match.  One of the pupils on this week's course had failed to turn up, but it wouldn't be long before her body would be discovered along with that of a man who had combat scars and a false passport.  Investigations reveal that there was a long list of people who would have good reason to want him dead, but who could have got to him and how had they managed to make it look like a murder suicide?

Martin Walker has a real talent for picking up on issues which have wide interest and showing how they affect a local population.  This time it's the personal problem of a woman's right to choose what happens to her body and the wide-ranging problem of terrorism.  Walker somehow brings it all together and makes for a very readable story.  It's one which reads reasonably well as a standalone, but you will get more out of the book if you've read some of the earlier books in the series.  This is no hardship and it will mean that you understand a little more about Bruno's rather complicated personal life and that of the expatriates who populate the Dordogne.

The tale is well-plotted with plenty of local colour.  On occasions I did feel that the 'local colour' went perhaps a little too far, particularly with the food and how it's cooked: I've seen fewer instructions on making a dish in some cookery books.  It's a minor quibble though and was easily outweighed by the hurrah when Bruno showed that he could be the victim of his own vanity.  It's a good series and one which I always look forward to reading.

If you would like to read the series in order you'll find a list [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|here]].

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