The Coldest Case
Martin Walker
Aug 2021 · Bruno, Chief of Police Book 14 · RB Media · Narrated by Robert Ian Mackenzie
headphones
Audiobook
10 hr 21 min
Unabridged
family_home
Eligible
info
Want a free 4 min sample? Listen anytime, even offline.
Add
About this audiobook
An anonymous skull, an unsolved murder, sinister rumors about Cold War espionage—Bruno’s investigation into a long-standing cold case takes him into the tangled inheritance of a Bergerac vineyard and into the archives of once Communist-run regions of Paris as a fierce heat wave threatens the region with fire.
After attending an exhibit on the facial reconstruction of ancient skulls, Bruno wonders if the technology might help him resolve a thirty-year-old murder case in which a body was found in the woods near St. Denis. Then the death in action of a French special forces soldier puts his DNA into the national database and a tangled family tale unfolds.
The murdered man from the cold case turns out to have been the dead soldier’s father. The mother is dead and never revealed to her husband or children that she had been made pregnant by a stranger she met on a camping holiday in St. Denis. Bruno soon starts to unravel the secrets of that camping weekend, of a young woman’s last fling before her marriage and the murder of her lover.
Through patient police work and examining old photographs, Bruno findsimages of the murdered man and his mysterious friend. They open a trail that takes Bruno from the Bergerac vineyards to the old Communist Party strongholds in the poorest quarters of Paris and their links to the comrades of the Soviet bloc. But as Bruno tries to establish whether those connections were simply fraternal or something more sinister, he finds the French establishment closing ranks against any use of the Rosenholz dossier, the master file of hundreds of thousands of Stasi agents, in East Germany and abroad, obtained by the CIA but never shared with the French.
Meanwhile a heat wave is building. The Dordogne is suffering from an intense summer drought that is sparking forest fires across the region. But, as always, Bruno will keep a cool head through it all—and, bien sûr, take time to enjoy a sumptuous Périgordian meal.
After attending an exhibit on the facial reconstruction of ancient skulls, Bruno wonders if the technology might help him resolve a thirty-year-old murder case in which a body was found in the woods near St. Denis. Then the death in action of a French special forces soldier puts his DNA into the national database and a tangled family tale unfolds.
The murdered man from the cold case turns out to have been the dead soldier’s father. The mother is dead and never revealed to her husband or children that she had been made pregnant by a stranger she met on a camping holiday in St. Denis. Bruno soon starts to unravel the secrets of that camping weekend, of a young woman’s last fling before her marriage and the murder of her lover.
Through patient police work and examining old photographs, Bruno findsimages of the murdered man and his mysterious friend. They open a trail that takes Bruno from the Bergerac vineyards to the old Communist Party strongholds in the poorest quarters of Paris and their links to the comrades of the Soviet bloc. But as Bruno tries to establish whether those connections were simply fraternal or something more sinister, he finds the French establishment closing ranks against any use of the Rosenholz dossier, the master file of hundreds of thousands of Stasi agents, in East Germany and abroad, obtained by the CIA but never shared with the French.
Meanwhile a heat wave is building. The Dordogne is suffering from an intense summer drought that is sparking forest fires across the region. But, as always, Bruno will keep a cool head through it all—and, bien sûr, take time to enjoy a sumptuous Périgordian meal.
An anonymous skull, an unsolved murder, sinister rumors about Cold War espionage—Bruno’s investigation into a long-standing cold case takes him into the tangled inheritance of a Bergerac vineyard and into the archives of once Communist-run regions of Paris as a fierce heat wave threatens the regi...
Discover more
About the author
Martin Walker is a senior fellow of the Global Business Policy Council, a private think tank for CEOs of major corporations, based in Washington, D.C. Walker is also editor in chief emeritus and international affairs columnist at United Press International and the author of the Bruno series.
Martin Walker is a senior fellow of the Global Business Policy Council, a private think tank for CEOs of major corporations, based in Washington, D.C. Walker is also editor in chief emeritus and international affairs columnist at United Press International and the author of the Bruno series.
Rate this audiobook
Tell us what you think.
Listening information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can read books purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
