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The Dog Lover's Guide to Travel
by Kelly CarterNational Geographic's ultimate resource for traveling with your furry friend features hundreds of dog-friendly places to pamper your pooch, from doggie daycare to canine couture. Special features include walks you can take with your dog, insider tips from local pet parents on how to best enjoy their area with a pup, and sidebars detailing unique opportunities for coddled canines, such as winery hikes in California wine country. New York Times bestselling author and pet parent Kelly E. Carter, and her beloved longhaired Chihuahua, Lucy, give you the inside scoop on pet-friendly hotels and restaurants, beaches, parks, and dog runs, plus the lowdown on events for four-legged visitors and dog-friendly attractions. A detailed introduction discussed everything you need to know when taking your pooch on vacation, including the lay of the land for road tripping and flying cross-country. From Sanibel Island, FL, to Whistler, BC, from Montreal QC, and Nantucket, MA to San Francisco, CA, The Dog Lover's Guide to Travel showcases 75 of the best pet-friendly vacation destinations across the U.S. and Canada.
The Dog Lover's Guide to Travel: Best Destinations, Hotels, Events, and Advice to Please Your Pet-and You
by Kelly CarterSpecial features include walks you can take with your dog, insider tips from local pet parents on how to best enjoy their area with a pup, and sidebars detailing unique opportunities for coddled canines, such as winery hikes in California wine country. New York Times bestselling author and pet parent Kelly E. Carter, and her beloved longhaired Chihuahua, Lucy, give you the inside scoop on pet-friendly hotels and restaurants, beaches, parks, and dog runs, plus the lowdown on events for four-legged visitors and dog-friendly attractions. A detailed introduction discussed everything you need to know when taking your pooch on vacation, including the lay of the land for road tripping and flying cross-country. From Sanibel Island, FL, to Whistler, BC, from Montreal QC, and Nantucket, MA to San Francisco, CA, The Dog Lover's Guide to Travel showcases 75 of the best pet-friendly vacation destinations across the U.S. and Canada.
The Dog Went Over the Mountain: Travels With Albie: An American Journey
by Peter ZheutlinThe New York Times bestselling author of Rescue Road embarks on a cross-country journey to take the measure of America with a loyal friend. On the cusp of turning 65, a man and his beloved rescue dog of similar vintage take a poignant, often bemusing, and keenly observed journey across America and discover a big-hearted, welcoming country filled with memorable characters, a new-found appreciation for the life they temporarily left behind, and a determination to live more fully in the moment as old age looms. Inspired by John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley, Zheutlin, hits the road for a 9,000-mile odyssey with Albie to experience all that American is and means today. Similar in approach and tone to Bill Bryson’s best-selling travel classics, but with an endearing canine sidekick, The Dog Went Over the Mountain will delight dog lovers, baby boomers and anyone who seeks to experience life on the open road with a four-legged companion.
The Dominican Republic Reader: History, Culture, Politics
by Eric Paul Roorda Raymundo González Lauren H. DerbyDespite its significance in the history of Spanish colonialism, the Dominican Republic is familiar to most outsiders through only a few elements of its past and culture. Non-Dominicans may be aware that the country shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti and that it is where Christopher Columbus chose to build a colony. Some may know that the country produces talented baseball players and musicians; others that it is a prime destination for beach vacations. Little else about the Dominican Republic is common knowledge outside its borders. This Reader seeks to change that. It provides an introduction to the history, politics, and culture of the country, from precolonial times into the early twenty-first century. Among the volume's 118 selections are essays, speeches, journalism, songs, poems, legal documents, testimonials, and short stories, as well as several interviews conducted especially for this Reader. Many of the selections have been translated into English for the first time. All of them are preceded by brief introductions written by the editors. The volume's eighty-five illustrations, ten of which appear in color, include maps, paintings, and photos of architecture, statues, famous figures, and Dominicans going about their everyday lives.
The Doomed Search for the Lost City of Z (Deadly Expeditions)
by Cindy L. RodriguezPercy Fawcett was a mapmaker and an adventurer. In the early 1900s, he spent years mapping out the jungles of South America. Fawcett became obsessed with the idea of a lost city of gold hidden deep in the jungle. At the age of 57, Fawcett, his 21-year-old son Jack, and Jack’s friend Raleigh Rimell left on a quest to find the Lost City of Z. The three men were never heard from again. Untangle the clues they left behind.
The Door Swings Both Ways
by Pico IyerA Vintage Shorts Travel Selection Welcome to China in 1985, to a nation that has just begun to swing open for the West, and specifically for a young Time magazine journalist named Pico Iyer. From the beloved set of travel essays Video Night in Kathmandu, this is his dispatch. From Beijing to Chengdu to Guangzhou, Iyer crisscrosses the country, making friends, gathering impressions, and always getting to the train station early (very early). Along the way he encounters a China eager to take in Western goods, but not always Western values--and a Great Wall, established to keep the world out, that's now being used to draw it in. Neither Easterner nor Westerner knows where to turn. With frank curiosity and prophetic clarity, Iyer's travel essays have become the gold standard for the genre. Here he gives us a time capsule of an ambiguous and fast-changing China that remains strikingly familiar even today. An eBook short.
The Door to December: A terrifying novel of secrets and danger
by Dean KoontzCan the love of a mother bring back the lost past and overcome the terrifying evil of the present? The Door to December is a thrilling novel from bestselling author Dean Koontz, of terrible secrets and a haunting past. Perfect for fans of Richard Laymon and Harlan Coben.'First-rate suspense, scary and stylish' - Los Angeles Times Six years ago, Laura McCaffrey's three-year-old daughter Melanie was kidnapped by Laura's estranged husband, Dylan, and seemingly vanished from the face of the earth.Now, Melanie has been found, a nine-year-old wandering the Los Angeles streets with blank eyes and a secret in her soul she will not or cannot reveal. Dylan has been found too - or at least his mangled remains. Melanie is home again.But can she ever truly be safe - as the floodgates of terror open and the bloody torrent comes pouring through...? What readers are saying about The Door to December: 'Captivating [right up to] the explosive end''Once I started this book I was absolutely hooked and read it in three nights. A fantastic fast-paced thriller''A well written book, the plight of the little girl pulls at your heartstrings, and the tension in the plot keeps you turning the pages'
The Downhill Hiking Club: A short walk across the Lebanon
by Dom JolyThree men. 470 kilometres. Twenty-one days.Welcome to the Downhill Hiking Club . . .At a boozy, cricket-filled afternoon at Lord's, Dom Joly convinces his two closest friends to agree to the unthinkable: a challenging hike across Lebanon, from the Israeli border in the south, along the spine of the country's mountain range, all the way to the Syrian border in the north. For Joly it is something of a homecoming, having grown up in Beirut. It was a happy childhood, though he did go to school with Osama bin Laden.Arriving in Lebanon armed with copious amounts of Vaseline - and no walking experience, bar taking the dog for the occasional stroll - Dom, Chris and Harry don't quite know what they've got themselves into. Joined by their bemused chaperone Caroll, they meet a variety of characters along the way including Ali, a stony-faced Hezbollah Museum guide who seems unperturbed by circling Israeli jets, and part-time Londoner Raf, who challenges Dom and the boys to a brain-freeze drinking contest. From a hair-raising creep along the 'Valley of the Skulls' to accidentally flashing an unsuspecting Ethiopian cook, the three friends just about manage to keep going.With more than a smattering of persiflage and some cringe-worthy moments, The Downhill Hiking Club is a big-hearted, witty and affectionate love letter to Lebanon and its rich history with a meditation on family and homeland at its heart. Written with Dom's trademark humour, it is a paean to both the simple joys of friendship and to growing old disgracefully.
The Downhill Hiking Club: A short walk across the Lebanon
by Dom JolyThree men. 470 kilometres. Twenty-one days.Welcome to the Downhill Hiking Club . . .At a boozy, cricket-filled afternoon at Lord's, Dom Joly convinces his two closest friends to agree to the unthinkable: a challenging hike across Lebanon, from the Israeli border in the south, along the spine of the country's mountain range, all the way to the Syrian border in the north. For Joly it is something of a homecoming, having grown up in Beirut. It was a happy childhood, though he did go to school with Osama bin Laden.Arriving in Lebanon armed with copious amounts of Vaseline - and no walking experience, bar taking the dog for the occasional stroll - Dom, Chris and Harry don't quite know what they've got themselves into. Joined by their bemused chaperone Caroll, they meet a variety of characters along the way including Ali, a stony-faced Hezbollah Museum guide who seems unperturbed by circling Israeli jets, and part-time Londoner Raf, who challenges Dom and the boys to a brain-freeze drinking contest. From a hair-raising creep along the 'Valley of the Skulls' to accidentally flashing an unsuspecting Ethiopian cook, the three friends just about manage to keep going.With more than a smattering of persiflage and some cringe-worthy moments, The Downhill Hiking Club is a big-hearted, witty and affectionate love letter to Lebanon and its rich history with a meditation on family and homeland at its heart. Written with Dom's trademark humour, it is a paean to both the simple joys of friendship and to growing old disgracefully.
The Dracula Dilemma: Tourism, Identity and the State in Romania (New Directions in Tourism Analysis)
by Duncan LightFor many in the West, Romania is synonymous with Count Dracula. Since the publication of Bram Stoker's famous novel in 1897 Transylvania (and by extension, Romania) has become inseparable in the Western imagination with Dracula, vampires and the supernatural. Moreover, since the late 1960s Western tourists have travelled to Transylvania on their own searches for the literary and supernatural roots of the Dracula myth. Such 'Dracula tourism' presents Romania with a dilemma. On one hand, Dracula is Romania's unique selling point and has considerable potential to be exploited for economic gain. On the other hand, the whole notion of vampires and the supernatural is starkly at odds with Romania's self-image as a modern, developed, European state. This book examines the way that Romania has negotiated Dracula tourism over the past four decades. During the communist period (up to 1989) the Romanian state did almost nothing to encourage such tourism but reluctantly tolerated it. However, some discrete local initiatives were developed to cater for Dracula enthusiasts that operated at the margins of legality in a communist state. In the post-communist period (after 1989) any attempt to censor Dracula has disappeared and the private sector in Romania has been swift to exploit the commercial possibilities of the Count. However, the Romanian state remains ambivalent about Dracula and continues to be reluctant to encourage or promote Dracula tourism. As such Romania's dilemma with Dracula remains unresolved.
The Dragon Ridge Tombs
by Tianxia BachangThe second book in China's multimillion-copy bestselling series takes readers on a treacherous journey to the depths beneath a mountain range, where ancient tombs are certain to contain riches but also rumored to be guarded by merciless supernatural forces.Self-proclaimed gold hunter Tianyi, who has excellent feng shui skills, along with his best friend, Kai, and a shady antiques dealer called Gold Tooth, have traveled all the way from Beijing to Gulan in search of treasure in ancient tombs. But what they think will be a simple grab-and-go of loot turns into trouble when they are faced with a perplexing labyrinth of tunnels full of unexpected obstacles, traps, and deadly creatures that thwart their advancement, as well as their escape. As if that weren't enough, the return of their American friend Julie Yang, with whom they faced perils on a previous expedition, leads to a startling discovery--one tied to both China's ancient past and the Yang family's history, and one that could very well be the death of them all.Translated from the Chinese by Jeremy Tiang, whose recent work includes NEVER GROW UP, the translation from Chinese of the autobiography from action movie superstar Jackie Chan.
The Dragon in the Cliff: A Novel Based on the Life of Mary Anning
by Sheila Cole T. C. Farrow"I scraped off the wet clay with mounting excitement. There was no mistaking what I saw." What Mary Anning found in the cliffs in 1811, when she was 13, was the first complete fossil of an ichthyosaurus, a marine dinosaur. She hunted and sold fossils to save her family from poverty after her father died when she was 11 years old. Despite social disapproval of her unfeminine occupation, Mary persisted and became a leading fossilist who made valuable contributions to science.
The Dragon's Gate (Chronicles of the Black Tulip #2)
by Barry WolvertonAn engrossing fantasy, a high-seas adventure, an alternate history epic—this is the richly imagined and gorgeously realized second book in acclaimed author Barry Wolverton’s Chronicles of the Black Tulip, perfect for fans of The Glass Sentence and the Books of Beginning series.A magical white jade stone and a map inscribed in bone that may be the key to an even greater mystery—this is the treasure Bren and Mouse have found buried on the Vanishing Island.Mouse is determined to follow the map to a place called the Dragon’s Gate, convinced it will explain who she really is and the powers she possesses. Bren has had enough adventure for one lifetime and would like nothing more than to return to his father in Map. But nothing goes according to plan when the survivors of the Albatross are rescued by Lady Jean Barrett, a charismatic archaeologist with a sense of destiny.Barrett is on a quest for the Eight Immortals, ancient artifacts she believes are buried in the tomb of China’s first emperor—the location of which has been hidden for nearly two thousand years. The only way for Bren, Mouse, and Barrett to all get what they want is to work together on a dangerous journey into the heart of China, a kingdom long closed to outsiders, where the greatest secrets about Mouse and Bren are waiting to be unveiled.
The Dragon's Pearl
by Devin Jordan Jim Di BartoloWhen Niccolo Polo vanishes on an expedition to Asia and his family writes him off as dead, sixteen-year-old Marco knows that it's up to him to rescue his father. He sets out on a dangerous journey--but it is not the adventure he bargained for. Marco comes face to face with the magical Eastern world we know from mythology and legend, complete with dragons, flying carpets, and genies. And it is here that Marco finds himself caught in a dangerous plot in the court of Kublai Khan while trying to discover the mystical secret of the fabled dragon's pearl.ticism, swashbuckling swordfights, and the ultimate battle between good and evil.
The Dress Thief: one secret could destroy everything she holds dear...
by Natalie Meg EvansAlix Gower may be poor but she's also ambitious, and she'd do anything to secure her dream job in one of Paris's premier fashion houses. But Alix also has a secret: she supports her family by stealing from the very houses she so adores. But can Alix risk her reputation and her relationships forever? And is the handsome English reporter she keeps bumping into really to be trusted? 'Wonderful! I didn't want to put this book down' Amazon reviewer. Perfect for fans of The Keeper of Lost Things, Island of Secrets and Amy Snow.
The Drive Across Canada: The Remarkable Story of the Trans-Canada Highway
by Mark RichardsonExperience driving Canada’s longest road and travel with the adventurers who helped make it a reality.The Trans-Canada Highway is one of the longest highways in the world – 7,700 kilometres from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Victoria, British Columbia, with almost the same distance again on secondary routes. It’s ironically Canadian, but its story is a long and winding journey. In The Drive Across Canada, automotive journalist Mark Richardson tells the stories of the pioneers who first drove across the country in the early days of cars and motorcycles, even before any roads existed, and of the political fight to create a physical link that would connect Canadians to every province of their vast country. Richardson drove the length of the Trans-Canada Highway in 2023, repeating the drive he first completed in 2012. In his most recent journey, he encounters a hurricane in Newfoundland, a firestorm in British Columbia, and unspeakable tragedies on the Prairies. He meets people whose lives have been changed by the highway, sometimes in ways they could never have imagined, and along the way the highway changes his life too.
The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan-American Highway
by Teresa BruceThe Drive follows Teresa Bruce on her 2003 road trip through Mexico and onto the Pan American Highway, in a rickety camper with her old dog and new husband in tow. Bruce first set off on the exact same route in 1973, her parents at the helm and their two young daughters in tow, as a reaction to the accidental death of their youngest child, Bruce's brother John John. Her attempt to follow the route, using her mother's travel journal as an anecdotal guide, is as much about her need for exploration as it is about trying to understand her parents and their pain, and to finally begin to heal her own wounds over the accident. Bruce is immensely talented in bringing scenery of Central and South America to life-countries from Mexico and Guatemala to Bolivia and Argentina are detailed with her innate attention to detail and sense of storytelling. The Drive details a really incredible journey through these beautiful, at times corrupt and war-torn countries, across roads that are as likely to be barricaded by guerrillas or washed out by floods as they are to be passable. The Drive is travel writing at its best, combining moments of deep heartbreak with unimaginable joy over a panoply of unforgettable settings.
The Drop Box
by Ted Kluck Brian IvieBrian Ivie was filled with compassion as he read an LA Times article about Pastor Lee's solution to unwanted newborns in South Korea--a baby drop box. Brian traveled halfway around the world to film the documentary The Drop Box. But God had even bigger plans. For in the midst of filming the plight of these abandoned and forgotten children, Brian realized his own spiritual brokenness. At its heart, this is a story of spiritual orphans--young and old--discovering their true identity as children of God.
The Drunken Forest
by Gerald DurrellThe story begins as Durrell and his wife enter Buenos Aires to start a six-month collecting trip. The plan is to collect animals in areas around Buenos Aires and eventually journey to the southernmost tip of South America to collect geese and ducks.
The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street
by Helene Hanff“A charmer. Will beguile an hour of your time and put you in touch with mankind.” —New York TimesNewly reissued with an introduction by Plum Sykes, this cult favorite is a delightful diary—think Nancy Mitford–meets–Nora Ephron—chronicling author Helene Hanff’s “bucket list” trip to London (at the age of fifty-five!) after the unexpected success of her memoir 84 Charing Cross Road. When she’s invited to London for the English publication of her wildly successful book, 84 Charing Cross Road—in which she shares two decades of correspondence with Frank Doel, a British bookseller who became a dear friend—New York writer Helene Hanff is thrilled to realize a lifelong dream. The trip will be bittersweet, because she can’t help wishing Frank was still alive, but she’s determined to capture every moment of the journey.Helene’s time in London exceeds her wildest expectations. She visits landmarks like Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle; explores Shakespeare’s favorite pub, Dickens’s house, and the Oxford University courtyard where John Donne used to walk; and makes a host of new friends from all walks of life, who take her to the theater, introduce her to institutions like Harrod’s, and share with her their favorite corners of countryside.A love letter to England and its literary heritage, written by a Manhattanite who isn’t afraid to speak her mind (or tell a British barman how to make a real American martini), The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street is an endearing account of two wildly different worlds colliding; it’s an outsider’s witty, vibrant portrait of idiosyncratic British culture at its best, as well as a profound commentary about the written word’s power to sustain us, transport us, and unite us.
The Dune's Twisted Edge: Journey in the Levant
by Gabriel Levin"How to speak of the imaginative reach of a land habitually seen as a seedbed of faiths and heresies, confluences and ruptures . . . trouble spot and findspot, ruin and renewal, fault line and ragged clime, with a medley of people and languages once known with mingled affection and wariness as Levantine?" So begins poet Gabriel Levin in his journeys in the Levant, the exotic land that stands at the crossroads of western Asia, the eastern Mediterranean, and northeast Africa. Part travelogue, part field guide, and part literary appreciation, The Dune's Twisted Edge assembles six interlinked essays that explore the eastern seaboard of the Levant and its deserts, bringing to life this small but enigmatic part of the world. Striking out from his home in Jerusalem in search of a poetics of the Fertile Crescent, Levin probes the real and imaginative terrain of the Levant, a place that beckoned to him as a source of wonder and self-renewal. His footloose travels take him to the Jordan Valley; to Wadi Rumm south of Petra; to the semiarid Negev of modern-day Israel and its Bedouin villages; and, in his recounting of the origins of Arabic poetry, to the Empty Quarter of Arabia where the pre-Islamic poets once roamed. His meanderings lead to encounters with a host of literary presences: the wandering poet-prince Imru al-Qays, Byzantine empress Eudocia, British naturalist Henry Baker Tristram, Herman Melville making his way to the Dead Sea, and even New York avant-garde poet Frank O'Hara. When he is not confronting ghosts, Levin finds himself stumbling upon the traces of vanished civilizations. He discovers a ruined Umayyad palace on the outskirts of Jericho, the Greco-Roman hot springs near the Sea of Galilee, and Nabatean stick figures carved on stones in the sands of Jordan. Vividly evoking the landscape, cultures, and poetry of this ancient region, The Dune's Twisted Edge celebrates the contested ground of the Middle East as a place of compound myths and identities.
The Dungeon
by Lynne Reid BanksIn the aftermath of a murderous savagery between two rival Scottish lairds, Bruce McLennan commands the building of a castle with a dungeon below. During its building, he travels to the far away, and then almost unknown land of China, where he joins a troop of mercenary soldiers-all to distract him from his memories. In a poor tea-house, he encounters the child Peony, and, on impulse, buys her to be his attendant. Despite his harshness toward her, she serves him faithfully. After many adventures, they return to Scotland, where McLennan s castle-and his planned revenge-await him. Within these dark walls, Peony finds a new life and unexpected happiness. For McLennan the time has come to fill the dungeon with its destined prisoner. But he does not dream of the terrible twist of fate, that will make him lock away his old enemy but the most precious person in his life. Celebrated author Lynne Reid Banks takes us back to the fourteenth century in this compelling epic of one lord s bitterstruggle, his quest for vengeance, and the tragic awakening of his frozen heart.
The Dunkirk Perimeter and Evacuation 1940: France and Flanders Campaign (Battleground Dunkirk)
by Jerry MurlandThe history of a disastrous WWII setback, including numerous photos, maps, and information for visitors. This book tells the story of the fierce fighting around the Dunkirk Perimeter during May and June 1940 between the retreating British Expeditionary Force and its French allies and the advancing German army. This grievous military setback was soon transformed into a morale-boosting symbol of the resilience of the British against a Germany that had crushed so many nations in a matter of weeks. With over 200 black and white photographs and fourteen maps, this book looks at the units deployed around Dunkirk and Nieuport and their often desperate actions to prevent the inevitable advance of German forces opposing them. The evacuation of the BEF from the beaches east of Dunkirk is covered in detail from the perspective of the Royal Navy and from the standpoint of the soldier on the beaches. Also included are details for travelers to the sites involved. In addition to visits to the relevant cemeteries, the book includes three appendices and two car tours, one tour covering the whole of the Dunkirk perimeter and the other covering Ramsgate and Dover, although there is plenty of scope for walking in both tours. There is also a walk around De Panne, which takes the tourist along the beach that saw so much of the evacuation, and into the back areas of the town where the Germans left their mark when clearing up after the British had gone.
The Durham Papers: Selections from the Papers of Admiral Sir Philip Charles Henderson Calderwood Durham G.C.B. (1763-1845) (Navy Records Society Publications #166)
by Hilary L. RubinsteinAdmiral Sir Philip Durham (1763–1845) was one of the most distinguished and colourful officers of the late Georgian Navy. His lucky and sometimes controversial career included surviving the sinking of HMS Royal George in 1782, making the first conquest of the tricolour flag in 1793 and the last in 1815, and having two enemy ships surrender to him at Trafalgar. A Scot distantly related to Lord Barham, Durham entered the Navy in 1777, serving initially on the American and West Indies stations. He was Kempenfelt's signal officer on HMS Victory during the second battle of Ushant in 1781 and on the Royal George. Making his reputation initially as the daring young master and commander of HMS Spitfire early in the French Revolutionary War, he became a crack frigate captain with a fortune in prize money, and commanded HMS Defiance at Trafalgar, where he was wounded. He ended his war service as Commander-in-Chief, Leeward Islands. En voyage he artfully captured two brand-new French frigates which were subsequently taken into the service of Britain, and during his tenure he won the heartfelt gratitude of local merchants by ridding the surrounding seas of American privateers preying on British trading vessels. True to form, he clashed with the judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court on Antigua and with the general with whom he led a combined naval and military assault on Martinique and Guadeloupe following Napoleon's escape from Elba. He later served as Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth having resigned his parliamentary seat to do so. Married first to the sister of the Earl of Elgin, of 'Marbles' fame, and secondly to a cousin of 'sea wolf' Lord Cochrane, he was well-known to George III, who as a result of Durham's amusing yet improbable anecdotes, dubbed any tall tale he heard 'a Durham'. This collection of his papers consists mainly of letters and despatches relating to his service in the Channel Fleet, the Mediterranean, and the Leeward Islands. Correspondence with his parents during 1789–1790 reflects his anxieties relating to employment and prospects for promotion when he was a young lieutenant with an illegitimate child to support. The collection, featuring items from and to him, comprises a fascinating and informative set of documents.
The Dying Season: Past and present collide violently in Bruno's latest thrilling case (The Dordogne Mysteries #8)
by Martin Walker'BRINGS ALL THE BEAUTY OF DEEPEST FRANCE VIBRANTLY ALIVE' - Irish Independent on SundayBruno, Chief of Police's beloved Dordogne town of St Denis is tearing itself apart. Can he keep it together in the gripping eighth instalment in this internationally bestselling series? St Denis may be picturesque and sleepy, but it has more than its fair share of murder and mystery, as Bruno knows all too well. When Bruno is invited to the 90th birthday of a powerful local patriarch - a war hero with high-level political connections in France, Russia and Israel - he encounters a family with more secrets than even he had imagined. When one of the other guests is found dead the next morning and the family try to cover it up, Bruno knows it's his duty to prevent the victim from becoming just another skeleton in their closet. Even if his digging reveals things Bruno himself would rather keep buried.Meanwhile, very modern battles are being fought in St Denis between hunters defending their traditions and environmentalists protecting local wildlife. Neither side, it seems, is above the use of violent tactics. At the centre of it all, Bruno must use all his cunning and character to protect his community's future from its present - and its past.