By
Margaret S. Hamilton
“Every one of us here is a
child of the Cold War, Bruno. It shaped us, defined our politics and reshaped
our economies and our systems of government. Not just the Russians and
Americans, but we in Europe in our own way became national security states,
each of us shaped by our own military-industrial complex. The past always lives
on in very profound ways, particularly in our security agencies and defense
bureaucracies.” (p. 169)
Recently, I realized that I
had never read Martin Walker’s 2021 book in his Bruno, Chief of Police series, The
Coldest Case, set in the Dordogne region of Southwest France.
The book takes place during
a summer plagued by wildfires. Bruno is preoccupied with not only emergency
evacuation plans and water rationing, but the exciting possibility of a
university student creating an accurate face and head from a skull to help
solve a thirty-year-old cold case.
Technology saves the day,
with the student using a precise laser measurement system to map the skull
followed by a 3D printer creating the head. Bruno and his colleagues
tentatively identify the victim, which leads to an exploration of Cold War era
files identifying East German children raised to infiltrate France as adult
Stasi agents.
This book is quieter than
others in the series, with less violence. Bruno enjoys the challenges of his
job as a municipal police officer and finds solace in his vegetable garden, on
morning runs with his basset hound, Balzac, and riding his horse. He takes the
time to reflect on the pleasures of his simple life.
Bruno was abandoned by his
mother as an infant and raised by an aunt. He yearns to marry and have his own
children, but his lover, Isabelle, lives in Paris and is preoccupied with her
high-powered law enforcement career. Bruno’s “family” is an ever-increasing
number of friends in his community. I sense Bruno is poised for a major change
in his life and wonder how it will affect Walker’s long-running series.
In The Coldest Case,
Bruno helps subdue raging forest fires with an ingenious solution. East German
sleeper agents are identified. The birth of Balzac’s first litter of puppies
completes the plot.
Walker will publish the
seventeenth book in the Bruno series, A Grave in the Woods, in
September. With his wife, Julia Watson, Walker published a Bruno cookbook in
2023.
Readers and writers, do you
wish a series would continue forever, or finish at a logical point?
https://margaretshamilton.com/
Seventeen books in a series is quite a feat - especially if the author can make each interesting enough to engage the reader. As you predict, Bruno's arc will need to change because if it doesn't readers will begin to think the character and the books are stagnant. Thanks for bringing this series back to my attention.
ReplyDeleteDaniel Silva is about to publish his twenty-fourth Gabriel Allon thriller. They are the best airplane reads!
DeleteI am agnostic regarding how long a series should last. Some authors continue to make their stories interesting and relevant. And others, I realize, have become the same old, same old. The second group I stop reading (regardless of whether they continue writing), and the first I look out for their next books.
ReplyDeletePersonal preference, though if the character doesn't continue to grow and change, I give up.
DeleteI think authors can often sense when a series should come to an end. The arc is played out, and there is nothing more to write. I've been there.
ReplyDeleteI agree.
DeleteSeries should run as long as the author feels the need to write them. Sometimes the author has a series arc in mind, and the series is done. Other times, they can go on as long as the author is capable.
ReplyDeleteWe should all be cognizant of the unfortunate possibility that a series can run out of steam, but for whatever reason (ego? income?) the author continues to produce sub-par entries to an otherwise excellent series.
Unless every book is a guaranteed best seller, I don't understand why publishers continue a series that's run out of steam.
DeleteI've read books in this series and enjoyed them. The problem I have is that there are so many new series I don't have reading time to continue with series I've already read.
ReplyDeleteThere's something about Bruno and his basset hound that lures me back every year.
DeleteI’m not familiar with this series, but it sounds intriguing. As for the length of the series, that depends on the series itself. Some I want to curl up and live in, and if they go on forever, I’m quite content. Others try to live on past their shelf life and the characters become caricatures. When the plots begin to border on the ridiculous – I generally bid the series good-bye.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the ridiculous plots.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love mystery series with characters I have come to cheer for. My gut instinct is that if the writer feels the spark as they write the story, then the magic is still there. I hope to someday be in the position where I have to ask myself these questions about MY series ( ;
ReplyDeleteThe Bruno series is one of the favorites in my household. CONGRATULATIONS to Martin Walker ( and thanks for this post, Margaret). Know you've made the readers here happy, happy, happy.