Received in ebook format from Netgalley in exchange for a review. This is the second in the series (I have yet to read the first), and it finds Benjamin driving his top end Mercedes one evening, only to be carjacked, and in hospital for over a month to recover.

He is out of sorts when he is discharged so decides to go on a short Epicurean break around the Loire valley to get his mood back. Elizabeth, his wife, agrees to let him get on with it on his own, whilst she returns to their home to look after their dog Bacchus instead.

Benjamin has some lovely food and wine (some meals and drinks expounded to great length in the novel), and comes across another wine merchant who seems to have access to some of the wines - and a car - that Benjamin covets. However, after a heavy eating and drinking session, things go awry when Morton's companion storms out, to be found strangled the following morning. The concierge of the hotel where Benjamin is staying is found dead later the same day, hanging from a tree, the result of an apparent suicide. Meanwhile, whole shipments of Premier/Grand Cru bottles - €100 each - are being stolen, seemingly to order.

Despite the deaths, Benjamin is excited about life again, and starts to investigate, along with with his assistant Virgile (who gets sent to do the boring job of picking up the stolen Mercedes from Germany). Finally after some investigations, along with minor input from the police, the deaths and the thefts are sorted out. The story being set in the middle of winter, when little is done in the vineyards, allows for little time needed to expostulate on the day to day vine maintenance.

This is definitely a book for those who like the finer things in life (or at least like reading about them). The food and the wine and the cigars makes you want to open a Premier Cru of something lovely, sit back and enjoy a good cigar. The mysteries are secondary to the food and wine, and whilst diverting and entertaining are not the point of the story, so shouldnt be thought about too deeply. Would be interesting to see if this ever gets shown on English TV (either in the original French or a variation of same).

A quick fun mystery. I didn't think it was quite as good as the first book but pleasurable enough that I still plan to continue the series. ( )

A quick fun mystery. I didn't think it was quite as good as the first book but pleasurable enough that I still plan to continue the series. ( )

Book 2 in the Winemaker Detective Series

The Winemaker Detective Series has been adapted for television and is a HUGE hit in France, Belgium, and Switzerland. The premise for the books (and the show) follows master winemaker Benjamin Cooker and his assistant Virgile Lanssien as they solve mysteries in vineyards throughout France.

In this episode, Cooper gets mugged and his car stolen one night in Paris. He is quite shaken about the incident and retreats to the region around Tours (France) to recover. There he meets a man who is driving a classic Morgan with a voluptuous woman on his arm and seems to know almost as much as Cooper about wines.

Then the woman turns up in shallow grave, the bartender is found hanging nearby, and the man with the Morgan has disappeared. On top of all that, someone has been breaking into nearby wineries and stealing only the Grand Cru Classe bottles.

There’s not much to this novel. It lacks tension. However, the authors do know their wineries and their wines. Cooper and Lanssien are more interested in who’s stealing the wines thatn they are about the two deaths.

I give this novel 2 out of 5 stars. ( )