by Martin Walker is the latest mystery featuring Bruno Courreges, chief of police of St. Denis, a quiet village in France. Bruno has a breakthrough in a thirty-year-old murder case when he visits a museum exhibit featuring the facial reconstruction of Neanderthal skulls and applies the same technique to the cold case’s mystery victim. The ensuing investigation takes Bruno and his mentor, Chief Detective Jalipeau, on a winding journey through Bergerac vineyards, the history of Parisian communists’ possible collaboration with the Stasi, and the onset of wildfire season in the Dordogne. This is quite a ride!