A Grave in the Woods

Martin Walker certainly knows his history and it shows in “A Grave in the Woods”. Bruno, beloved rural policeman in France’s Dordogne region, still in convalescence from his injury from the previous novel, is charged by his mayor with investigating a grave dating back to World War II.

Added to the mix is Abby, an American archaeologist who retreats to Saint-Denis to evade her “crazy” crypto-currency ex-billionaire ex-husband turned hacker. (Yes, I kid you not.)

There’s also major flooding, which Bruno must manage and try to prevent further damage from.

While the broad historical excursions are certainly interesting, anything “mysterious” doesn’t take up much space here. We never get to the bottom of the mystery around Abby and her ex-husband or his shady international dealings. We never get to actually know why he tried to hack Bruno and the police.

We also never learn what happened to those bodies in the concealed grave. We can understand they were killed by the French Resistance, but all their background remains unclear. This is especially aggravating since Bruno and his friends very publicly bemoan the death of the two young women and the violence of men against women – but any real interest on the part of the author and his “cast” are reserved for the male body…

The flooding is the only part that’s actually described interestingly; its force is suspensefully depicted, and climate change is explained to be at its core, but none of that is why I read the Bruno novels. I used to read them for a kind policeman investigating local crime. That, though, has been pretty much completely absent for years now. Instead, we get complicated (not just complex) stories about international espionage and terrorism. In rural France…

Many of Bruno’s friends make an appearance here, and we get not one but two Asterix-style feasts. Sadly, though, this mostly reads like fan service instead of integral parts of the story. The inevitable recipes, usually presented through descriptions of Bruno’s cooking, appear in the unlikely guise of sometimes page-long commands (!) from others to Bruno.

As usual, the writing is fine and marks a return to a less “grandiose” style of prose that much better fits these novels. Still, “A Grave in the Woods” doesn’t lend itself to being read as a standalone novel, or as an introduction to the series, since it generously references earlier novels that any new reader would not understand.

We end where we started – Bruno is injured again and goes back to hospital, where, again, Florence is taking care of him.

While this latest instalment of “Bruno” is not as annoying as its predecessors, it feels completely inconsequential in the context of the world Walker created. There’s no real mystery, no true resolution to any of the topics, and no satisfaction from its ending.

Two generous stars out of five.

Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam