Treachery in Bordeaux (Winemaker Detective)
The debut volume of the Winemaker Detective series features Bordeaux and its acclaimed wines and vineyards. Sleuth Benjamin Cooker enjoys an estimable reputation as a knowledgeable winemaker and critic, and he has a formidable eye for paintings as well. Both these skills prove valuable in his quest to discover why a respected old Bordeaux vintner’s latest wines have been infected with wild yeast, rendering them undrinkable. He and his young assistant Virgile enlist a local biologist to identify the rogue contaminant, apparently malevolently introduced. Cooker’s coincident search for a missing panel from a triptych depicting the landscape around legendary Château Haut-Brion uncovers a surprising motive for spoiling the vintage. Alaux and Balen offer intrigue and plenty of good eating and drinking within just a few pages. Already turned into a popular television series in France, this book and its successors will whet appetites of fans of both Iron Chef and Murder, She Wrote. --Mark Knoblauch