Attending the lavish birthday celebration of a World War II hero, police chief Bruno becomes intimately tangled in the family's dynamics when one of their close friends dies under suspicious circumstances.

Meet Benoit Courréges, affectionately named Bruno, chief of police in a small village in the South of France where the rituals of the café still rule. A former soldier, Bruno has embraced the slow rhythms of country life. But the murder of an elderly North African who fought in the French army galvanizes his attention: the man had a swastika carved into his chest. When a visiting scholar helps untangle the dead man's past, Bruno's suspicions turn...

"When an actor in a local play is attacked during the performance, Bruno must learn whether it was an accident, a crime of passion--or an assassination attempt with implications far beyond the small French village"-- Provided by publisher.