Bruno 02 - The Dark Vineyard

life they and their ancestors have devised over thousands of years. Many of them have become dear friends, and some deserve a special mention. The Baron and Raymond, Pierrot and René and the staff of the inestimable
cave
of Julien de Savignac have among them done wonders for my knowledge of wines and the wine trade. They also taught me a lot about the challenge of finding jobs and investment opportunities in the small towns of rural France and the hard choices involved. Michael and Gabrielle Merchez, each of whom served as a town council member for the Green Party, taught me a great deal about the local politics of the environment and about the remaining communes. I should stress that the many Green supporters I know are far too sensible to start fires. My wife, Julia, and our daughters, Kate and Fanny, were wonderfully helpful first readers, and our basset hound keeps making us new friends. Once again, Jane and Caroline Wood and Jonathan Segal whipped this book into shape, and I am very grateful.

A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Martin Walker is senior director of the Global Business Policy Council and editor emeritus and international affairs columnist at United Press International. His books include
The Cold War: A History
, short-listed for the Whitbread Book of the Year Prize and a
New York Times
Notable Book, and
The Caves of Périgord
, a novel. He has written for
The New York Times, The New Yorker
and
The Times Literary Supplement.
He lives in Washington, D.C., and in the southwest of France.

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
    Copyright © 2009 by Walker and Watson Ltd.
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.aaknopf.com
    Originally published in Great Britain in slightly different form by Quercus, London, in 2009.
    Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Walker, Martin, [date]
The dark vineyard : a mystery of the French countryside / Martin Walker.—1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-59381-8
1. Police chiefs—France—Fiction. 2. Arson investigation—Fiction. 3. Murder investigation—Fiction. 4. Environmentalists—Fiction. 5. Vintners—Fiction. 6. Country life—France—Fiction. 7. Dordogne (France)—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6073.A413D37 2010
823′.914—dc22
2009045814
    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
    v3.0