Black Diamond

lifting her hand from Bruno’s dog to cup his cheek and kiss him softly on the lips. “Don’t ever change.”
    “Change?” said Bruno, returning the kiss. “I don’t think St. Denis would let me.”

Acknowledgments
    This is a work of fiction and the characters and situations have all been invented by the author. While there is regrettably a growing amount of fraud in the truffle trade, particularly relating to China, the reputation of the famous truffle market in Ste. Alvère has not been tarnished. But my friends and neighbors in the enchanting Périgord have served as inspirations, guides and the most patient of teachers in educating a foreigner into some of the folkways of the land. They have taught me to pick and tread the grapes, to hunt and cook the elusive
bécasse
, to search for truffles and try to tell one variety from another. Above all, they have taught me the difference between food enriched with the real black diamond of Périgord and the wan apologies for the truffle you so often encounter in places that take their gastronomy less seriously. So my gratitude to the people of the valley of the river Vézère for the welcome they have given to me and my family and our basset hound is deepened yet further, along with my fondness for their way of life. I hope that the Bruno novels convey some of my profound affection and respect for the people of this valley, whose ancestors had the excellent taste to settle amid its gentle hills and fertile slopes some forty thousand years ago. Their descendants have never left, and I can understand why.
    This novel is dedicated to a particular friend, Raymond Bounichou, a veteran of the gendarmes and of various other, perhaps less public, arms of the French state. Not only has he made me reassess the role of the
barbouze
in France’s complicated recent history, but his endless stories have also triggered thoughts of many future plots. So Bruno should have some mysteries to solve in the future, even as he stands guard on all the traditions and peculiarities that make France and the Périgord so beguiling. But Bruno would hardly be Bruno without the devoted ministrations of Jane and Caroline Wood and Jonathan Segal, who whipped this book into shape with their customary and attractive blend of firmness, frankness and charm. I am most grateful to them, and to my wife, Julia Watson, and our daughters, Kate and Fanny, without whom I suspect we would not have made nearly so many friends.

A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Martin Walker is senior director of the Global Business Policy Council, a think tank on international economics founded by the A. T. Kearney management consultancy. He is also a senior scholar of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., and editor in chief emeritus of United Press International, for whom he writes the weekly syndicated column on international affairs, “Walker’s World.” In 2010, he was given the Swissglobe Award for building bridges between Switzerland and the rest of the world. Mr. Walker spent twenty-five years as a prizewinning journalist with
The Guardian
. He has also written for
The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Times Literary Supplement
and other national and foreign publications. He divides his time between Washington, D.C., and the Périgord region of France. Readers can learn more about Bruno and his friends, his cooking and his region on brunochiefofpolice.com .