Walker is brilliant at capturing the murderous charms of rural France, with the aid of his charming St Denis chief of police Bruno.

Henry Sutton, Daily Mirror

This is the fourth novel in Walker’s series featuring Bruno Corrèges, chief of police in the fictional town of St Denis in an idealised Dordogne that symbolises rural independence in the face of urban and EU bureaucracy. One of the charms of the series is the detailed procession of French country cuisine that no investigation is ever allowed to impede; another is the character of Bruno himself– humane, sensible, honest and a very good cook. Here, the investigation involves a recently skeletonised body found at an archaeological dig, Basque separatists who are threatening the security of a Franco-Spanish summit being held in a local chateau, and animal rights campaigners targeting producers of foie gras. A satisfyingly intriguing, wish-you-were-there read with lashings of gastroporn.

Laura Wilson, The Guardian

Martin Walker is well known in many fields, including political commentary. In the crime writing world he’s known for his series featuring Bruno, chief of the local police in a small French town in the Périgord region, known for its gourmet food and cooking – as is Bruno himself. The Crowded Grave is the fourth in the series, which has won many fans.

Rural France is a familiar setting for today’s crime novels both for French authors and for British. Bruno Corrèges’s strength as an investigator, however, is that he is firmly based in the local police and though wider issues face him he is able to tackle them through his local knowledge of how the small town of St Denis works, both politically and on an everyday basis.

Like Jack Frost he has more than one case on his desk at a time. In The Crowded Grave he is held up on the quiet road to work by a flock of geese set free by animal rights’ activists and shortly thereafter summoned to inspect an unidentified skeleton far more modern than the archaeological site in which it is discovered. Investigation of these leads him  not only into small town political conflict with the Gendarmerie but with the French intelligence service concerned with Basque terrorism.

The Crowded Grave is no fast-paced gory thriller, but a readable slice of provincial French police life. Not just police life either. Bruno is not only a good cook but has time for other pleasures in life – such as his former lover Isabelle and his current flame Pamela.

Amy Myers, www.shotsmag.co.uk

Life in south-west rural France is not the sleepy idyll you might suppose. Local duck and goose farms are being attacked by animal rights protestors attempting to halt the production of foie gras.

A senior policeman has been shot by terrorists believed to be the Basque Separatists of ETA. And if that weren’t enough, a group of students have just unearthed a ‘modern’ skeleton during a dig at one of the ancient sites of this famous region and home to pre-historic man – a dig that has brought an influx of foreigners to the Dordogne.

It is up to Chief of Police Bruno Courrèges to get to the bottom of these seemingly unrelated events. Martin Walker spins a surprising and compelling mystery, laced with charm and a deep knowledge and love of France, past and present. It is a combination that will win him many fans.

What we think: Intriguing well written crime novel that keeps the reader guessing though to the final pages a good read and one of the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time .

Joclyn Manners, First Active Media