Bruno, chief of police in the rural French town of St-Denis, can't get a moment's peace. He's uncovered a cache of WWII-era banknotes on the deathbed of a member of the French Resistance and is also dealing with a wave of major local burglaries. The targets include the recently retired head of Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee, which brings Bruno's old flame Isabelle back to St Denis, and into his heart. The next burglary ends in murder: the victim's bludgeoned body found by his lover, who becomes the prime suspect. But Bruno suspects there is more at play. Meanwhile, the mayor introduces Bruno to Jacqueline, a Sorbonne academic who is researching the theory that American funds were used to obstruct communism in France following the Second World War, leading the US to give clandestine support to the nuclear program. When Jacqueline's home is burgled and sensitive documents stolen (as well as a valuable family heirloom supposedly made by Paul Revere), the stakes become much higher. Jacqueline's work, suggests the mayor, is political dynamite. The sense-stirring sixth novel in the internationally beloved Bruno series once leads readers on a mid-twisting journey of local mystery and international politics while immersing us in the sights, sounds and tastes of the idyllic south of France.