The Devil's Cave: A Bruno Courrèges Investigation (Bruno Chief of Police 5)

newspaper
Sud-Ouest
would never behave as Philippe Delaron does in this novel. My imagination must have run away with me.
    Madame de Montespan did indeed take part in a Black Mass in 1666 to win the affections of King Louis XIV, according to witnesses testifying before the special heresy court, the
Chambre Ardente
, whose records are preserved in the
Archives de la Bastille
. The King decided to close down the court soon afterwards. According to Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie, then Lieutenant General of the Paris Police, the royal mistress gotaway with it because ‘the enormity of the crime proved her safeguard’. The text of exorcism that I use is taken from the 1614 Ritual, and Pope Paul VI did indeed say in 1972, ‘from somewhere or other, the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God.’ Otherwise, the service in the cave is my own invention.
    This novel is dedicated to two very dear friends who first brought our family to the Périgord and have taken loving care of us ever since. Their kindness has been characteristic of the welcome we have received in the Périgord, whose traditions and cuisine, countryside and characters are the real heroes of the Bruno novels. I just hope the welcome stays as warm now that the novels are being published in French.
    As always, I owe particular thanks to my wife, Julia Watson, who checks all my fictional meals and recipes. Readers of her articles in
Gourmet
magazine and of her food blog eatwashington.com will recognize her expertise. Our elder daughter Kate runs the brunochiefofpolice.com website with great verve and dedication. Our younger daughter, Fanny, who is an eminent poet back in Scotland, brings a supportive but discriminating eye to my first drafts. Along with the much-mourned Bothwell and his successor Benson, our basset hounds, they have shared in the Bruno enterprise from the beginning. Finally, great thanks are owed to the magical editing gifts of Jane and Caroline Wood in Britain, Jonathan Segal in New York, and to my German-speaking family at the Diogenes publishing house. Daniel Keel, the legendary founder of Diogenes, sadly passed away just as I finished this book. One of the great literary figures of Europe, he also enjoyeda good
Krimi
and I will always be grateful for his kindness to me and his early support for the Bruno series. The books and authors, readers and friends that Daniel leaves behind him are as close as any of us human beings can come to immortality.