The Coldest Case: A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel, is the latest in a long series by Martin Walker. The main mystery in the novel involves "the curious obsession of his friend J-J, chief detective for the département of the Dordogne" with a skull from a long-unsolved murder.
"Bruno knew this skull well, since its enlarged photograph had for three decades accompanied J-J to every office he had occupied. These days it was fixed to the back of J-J’s door, where he could see the skull from his place at the imposing desk that was standard issue for such a senior official. His visitors could not miss it as they left his room. His fellow cops often speculated why J-J submitted himself willingly to this constant reminder of his first big case, the one he had failed to solve as a young detective some three decades earlier." (p. 3).
Besides this long-bothersome case, the novel includes several other stories, involving Bruno's friends and neighbors in the idyllic little town that preserves all the wonderful features of rural France, and only a few of its problems. Above all, Bruno is a marvelous cook, and loves to make imaginative meals from the fabulous local produce, wine, and other culinary products of the Périgueux region.
Descriptions of Bruno's cooking read like recipes. In fact, they are attributed to the cookbook that Walker has published (see this blog post for details). Bruno's big challenge in the current novel is to produce a vegan meal for a young woman named Virginie. Here's Bruno's plan for the meal:
"And what on earth did one cook for a vegan? He smiled at himself, at the way he could always relax by thinking of menus. He would make a cold summer soup to begin and beignets de courgettes which he could serve with tapenade de tomates instead of the usual aillou. For the main course he could make the kabocha pumpkin dish that Ivan’s new Japanese girlfriend had offered in Ivan’s bistro. He’d seen the blue-green pumpkins on sale in the bio store. And citrouilles rôties à la sauge et aux noix. Roasted pumpkin with sage and walnuts was a classic French dish, with shallots, parsnips and potatoes in the roasting pan alongside. He’d remove a portion for Virginie so that for the others he could add slices of cabécou goat cheese, which would slump in the heat of the vegetables. He’d serve it with a salad of thinly sliced heirloom tomatoes of different colors from his garden, drizzled with oil, followed by peaches sliced into a glass of red wine." (p. 254).
Bruno's friend asks: "How on earth can you cook, my dear Bruno, you of all people, without your beloved duck fat, without your cherished bouillon from wild boar, your cheese and your cream?” (p. 264). But in the same perfect way that he solves a decades-old murder case, participates in a struggle against a terrible forest fire near his home, and gets involved in an international intrigue, Bruno manages to produce a delicious vegan meal to the delight of his friends.
Go BRUNO!
Blog post © 2021 mae sander.
