Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker

I loved the cover, and the reviews on Book Browse, for the most part,talked about the charm of this mystery novel, which is set in a small town in France where Bruno is called the Chief because he's the only policeman, his best friend is the Mayor, he's a gourmet cook, etc, etc, so when I found the book n Chapters in Waterloo, I bought it. It's some 262 pages, and it took me a while to figure out why it was taking me so long to get through it, when I realized my attention was drifting away from it quite easily, and I'd have to force myself back. Then I decided to think about why this was happening, and I realized the author was trying to not only set the stage for this mystery, but was giving us a history lesson too, as well as a taste of life in rural France, and a romance with a karate king police investigator. Too much, way too much, and I ended up being interested in no aspect of this book, except of course for the cover which really is charming and sweet. Was the author trying to educate us, or cash in on the charms of Alexander McCall Smith? No contest- Smith accomplishes far more, and I'm sorry I bought this book. I'll donate it to the library, so someone else can hopefully enjoy it more than I did.