The Patriarch
Bruno, Chief of Police
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Narrated by:
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Robert Ian Mackenzie
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By:
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Martin Walker
About this listen
A beloved village, a renowned family, a suspicious death - it's the latest adventure in the Dordogne for police chief Bruno. When Bruno is invited to the lavish birthday celebration of World War II flying ace and national icon Marco "the Patriarch" Desaix, it's the fulfillment of a boyhood dream. But when the party ends in the death of Gilbert, Marco's longtime friend, it's another day on the job for the chef de police. All signs point to a tragic accident, but Bruno isn't so sure. There is more to the Desaix family's lives and loyalties than meets the eye.
There is Victor, the patriarch's son, Gilbert's old comrade-in-arms and sometime rival; Victor's seductive wife, Madeleine, whose roving eye intrigues Bruno even more than her fierce political ambitions; Yevgeny, another son, an artist whose paintings seem to hold keys to the past; and the patriarch himself, whose postwar Soviet ties may have intersected all too closely with Gilbert's career in Cold War intelligence. Bruno is diverted by a dangerous conflict between a local animal rights activist and outraged hunters - as well as meals to cook, wine to share, and an ever more complicated romantic situation. But as his entanglement with the Desaix family grows and his suspicions heighten, Bruno's inquiries into Gilbert's life become a deadly threat to his own.
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Smashed skull, snapped ribs, and a cloying smell of carrion. Leave the body for the hyenas to devour - no body, no case. But when Kalahari game rangers stumble on a human corpse midmeal, it turns out the murder wasn't perfect after all. Enough evidence is left to suggest foul play. Detective David "Kubu" Bengu of the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department is assigned to the case.
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Hot and Arid
- By Robert on 11-06-08
By: Michael Stanley
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The Wolf Border
- By: Sarah Hall
- Narrated by: Louise Brealey
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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For almost a decade, Rachel Caine has turned her back on home, kept distant by family disputes and her work monitoring wolves on an Idaho reservation. But now, summoned by the eccentric Earl of Annerdale and his controversial scheme to reintroduce the grey wolf to the English countryside, she is back in the peat and wet light of the Lake District. The earl's project harks back to an ancient idyll of untamed British wilderness.
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Marvelous.
- By V on 05-27-15
By: Sarah Hall
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The Man with a Load of Mischief
- A Richard Jury Novel, Book 1
- By: Martha Grimes
- Narrated by: Steve West
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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At the Man with a Load of Mischief, they found the dead body stuck in a keg of beer. At the Jack and Hammer, another body was stuck out on the beam of the pub’s sign, replacing the mechanical man who kept the time. Two pubs. Two murders. One Scotland Yard inspector called in to help. Detective Chief Inspector Richard Jury arrives in Long Piddleton and finds everyone in the postcard village looking outside of town for the killer - except for one Melrose Plant....
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Love this series, but FYI
- By DCinMI on 03-29-14
By: Martha Grimes
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Mistletoe Murder
- A Lucy Stone Mystery, Book 1
- By: Leslie Meier
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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As if baking holiday cookies, knitting a sweater for her husband, and making her daughter’s angel costume for the church pageant weren’t enough things for Lucy Stone’s busy Christmas schedule, she’s also working nights at the famous mail-order company Country Cousins. But when she discovers Sam Miller, its very wealthy founder, dead in his car from an apparent suicide, the sleuth in her knows something just doesn’t smell right.
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5 stars
- By Beatrice on 12-21-20
By: Leslie Meier
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Mrs Queen Takes the Train
- By: William Kuhn
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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An absolute delight of a debut novel by William Kuhn - author of Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books - Mrs Queen Takes the Train wittily imagines the kerfuffle that transpires when a bored Queen Elizabeth strolls out of the palace in search of a little fun, leaving behind a desperate team of courtiers who must find the missing Windsor before a national scandal erupts.
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Can't believe how much I loved this story
- By analyzethis on 03-10-13
By: William Kuhn
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Corduroy Mansions
- A Novel
- By: Alexander McCall Smith
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In London’s Pimlico neighborhood lies a tenement described in architectural guides as “a building of no interest whatsoever.” But the residents of Corduroy Mansions—including a literary agent, a wine merchant, a thoroughly unpleasant member of Parliament, and a vegetarian dog—are a rather fascinating lot.
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Oedipus Snark, MP
- By connie on 04-25-12
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A Killer Plot
- Books by the Bay Mystery Series #1
- By: Ellery Adams
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Olivia Limoges is the subject of constant gossip. Ever since her mysterious return to the small coastal town of Oyster Bay, North Carolina, Olivia has kept to herself, her dog, and her unfinished novel. With a little cajoling from charming writer Camden Ford, she agrees to join the Bayside Book Writers to break her writer's block and even make a few friends. But when townspeople start turning up dead with haiku poems left by the bodies, anyone with a flair for language is suddenly suspect.
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My new favorite Cozy Mystery Series!
- By Christina on 09-21-15
By: Ellery Adams
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Thyme of Death
- China Bayles Mystery, Book 1
- By: Susan Wittig Albert
- Narrated by: Julia Gibson
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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When ex-lawyer and herb-shop proprietor China Bayles’s friend Jo dies of an apparent suicide, China looks behind the quaint façade of her new home of Pecan Springs, Texas, and takes a suspicious look at everyone. And though she finds lots of friendly faces, China is sure that one of them hides the heart of a killer.
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Excellent story and excellent narrator
- By P. Priest on 05-21-23
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When a Crocodile Eats the Sun
- A Memoir of Africa
- By: Peter Godwin
- Narrated by: Peter Godwin
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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After his father's heart attack in 1984, Peter Godwin began a series of pilgrimages back to Zimbabwe, the land of his birth, from Manhattan, where he now lives. On these frequent visits to check on his elderly parents, he bore witness to Zimbabwe's dramatic spiral downward into the jaws of violent chaos, presided over by an increasingly enraged dictator. And yet long after their comfortable lifestyle had been shattered and millions were fleeing, his parents refuse to leave, steadfast in their allegiance to the failed state that has been their adopted home for 50 years.
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Worth the listen.
- By SEE on 09-06-21
By: Peter Godwin
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Elementary, She Read
- By: Vicki Delany
- Narrated by: Kelly Clare
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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When Gemma finds a rare and potentially valuable magazine hidden in the bookshop, she and her friend Jayne set off to find the owner, only to stumble upon a dead body. The highly perceptive Gemma is the police's first suspect, so she puts her consummate powers of deduction to work to clear her name, investigating a handsome rare books expert, the dead woman's suspiciously unmoved son, and a whole family of greedy characters desperate to cash in on their inheritance.
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A great read, but only for some
- By TK on 12-05-19
By: Vicki Delany
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10 Lb. Penalty
- By: Dick Francis
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Even though Ben Juliard had always dreamt of becoming a jockey, he couldn’t say no when his father—a prominent politician—pulled some strings and got him a job in his campaign for Parliament. Now, Ben needs to do more than smile for the cameras.
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Father - Son Bonding Moments!
- By R. Pontiflet on 02-16-15
By: Dick Francis
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Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions
- By: Mario Giordano, John Brownjohn
- Narrated by: Matt Addis
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Auntie Poldi, sassy, brassy, and 60, moves to Sicily for a quiet alcohol-fuelled retirement. A murder spoils her plans. This is the first novel in a charming new mystery series set in Sicily and laced with Italian sensuality and humor. It features an amateur sleuth, the sassy and foul-mouthed Auntie Poldi. Recently widowed Poldi moves to Sicily in order to quietly drink herself to death with a sea view, but fate intervenes. When she finds the corpse of a young man on the beach, his face blown off with a sawn-off shotgun, she becomes a potential suspect in his murder case.
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Auntie Poldi Rocks!
- By Lynn on 04-01-18
By: Mario Giordano, and others
What listeners say about The Patriarch
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- love to read
- 08-06-20
Not the best Bruno story.
I thoroughly enjoy this series, but felt Bruno acted out if character in this one.
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- ili pika
- 08-10-22
Enjoyable, but...
If I reach the eighth entry in a series, I like the books a lot. That said, this one contained far too much rhapsodizing on Bruno's response to women for my liking. The endless descriptions of women's shining, curling loose hair, the breasts, the legs, the scents, the color, texture and feel of their skin, blah, blah, blah. It's starting to feel a bit sexist, and like I'm a voyeur into what should be Mr. Walker's private fantasies. I hope Bruno gets his act together with a partner in the next book so we can get on with the investigation, and not have to reclassify these books into the romance category.
The narration has always seemed to me to fit the mood of the books, but the Russian accent here was completely over the top and sounds like a Transylvanian vampire from a B movie.
I enjoyed this one, but I've enjoyed the others more.
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1 person found this helpful
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- SRQdan
- 08-12-17
one of his best.
great story, weaving in unique WWII material with Cold War espionage, and good ole skeletons in the family closet.
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- Walter G Sutton III
- 11-04-15
Great Series
This is a. Great addition to a great series. I learn something about France, cooking, hunting, village life and history from each book all the while challenged by a good mystery enacted by great characters!
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- Adam Shields
- 09-19-17
same old same old
Somehow I missed the Patriarch by Martin Walker when it came out. I was looking around for something to read, and check to see when the next Bruno Chief of Police novel comes out. I discovered that it came out in June and not only did I miss the release, but I also missed one of the previous books in the series.
It is odd that you can read a series and not notice when you miss a book. And once I finished reading The Patriarch, I am can see why I did not realize that I missed anything. This novel did not really move the story along.
In one of the previous books Bruno saved ‘The Red Countess’, an elderly woman from a historic family that was being drugged to steal her land. The Red Countess invites him to a party for the Patriarch, a national hero of the cold war, a pilot and one of the Countess’s previous relationships.
At the party, which is local and adds in yet another wealthy member of the community, Bruno observes a quiet scuffle between a granddaughter of the Patriarch and her Godfather, the best friend of one of the sons of the Patriarch. Later that day, Bruno is called in to quietly certify the death of the Godfather, who it turns out was a former spy.
Again the connection is a bit too complicated for a small French town. But it works with the formula that Martin Walker has set up for the series. The Patriarch includes some history that has an impact on the modern day. There is the side thread of a community problem that Bruno has to solve through creative negotiation (in this case an unauthorized deer refuge by a local animal rights supporter). And there is Bruno’s love life, which I know the result of before I started the book because I accidentally read the next book first.
As a novel, the thread work fine. As a broader series, it is a perfect example of a series going awry. Bruno is stuck in his life. His desire to settle down and have a family isn’t going anywhere (and the next book is much the same). The small community has gotten much too large to continue in quite the same way that the early books suggested. Walker’s desire to keep the series interesting has continued to add in threads of international relations, terrorism, and organized crime instead of focusing on writing characters that grow and change.
The Patriarch was fine. I read some pretty negative reviews before I started, so my expectations were low. It wasn’t as bad of a book as the negative reviews suggested. Walker still can write and a lot of the elements that I like about the series were still present. But those elements are becoming a bit cardboard. The next book in the series, The Templar’s Last Secret is out. I will read it soon, but my interest in the series has wained.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Eva
- 09-18-15
Great for atmosphere-disappointing ending
Love the author's obvious regard for this region of France. I listen to these for the description of life in Perigord and to follow the characters to which we've been introduced. This novel ended abruptly with loose ends that didn't quite fit together. A lackluster effort on the author's part.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Michael
- 06-17-16
Donna Leon meets Peter Mayle, Delightful
I really enjoyed The Patriarch by Martin Walker. Sort of a cross between Donna Leon and Peter Mayle's Summer in Province. It's about a police chief in the south of France, lots of local detail and a real understanding of life, people and politics in a small French town. Has Leon's leisurely way of getting you almost living in the little French town. Not Venice, no canals but charming. Turns out it's part of a series so if you like it there's more!
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-31-17
Another good story of Bruno chief of police
I have enjoyed the series, although this book is probably not my favorite. I'm not really sure what was going on in the authors head but Bruno, who is generally very analytical and smart, gets involved with a woman he shouldn't. Spoiler alert – she's a suspect and it doesn't end well. Otherwise I truly enjoy the descriptions of the town, of the characters, and especially, of the food that is prepared every other chapter or so. Don't read/listen if you're hungry!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Maine Knitter
- 05-28-16
I just love Bruno
Oh how I love Bruno!
This book reverts back to the daily life in St Denis unlike the previous book. I love the village, and Bruno's cooking, and the quirky residents and their problems. (Deer.)
The main story is wonderful. We are reminded a lot of the history between France and the Soviet Union. The new characters are very interesting but I was annoyed with Bruno at one point. I still miss Isabel.
Brilliant writing and excellent narration. A 5 star book!
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- Dana Wedel
- 09-19-22
I am trying to read all of Bruno.
I have tried to read all of Bruno, but now I get to listen to Him and it is like I have been to the movies!
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