The Bonnard winery has been handed down from father to son and their wines are award winning. When Olivier discovers priceless bottles are missing from his private cellar, he is devastated. The wife of an important business man goes missing but later shows up.
Judge Verlaque is able to leave these up to the police to investigate since he is tied up with a series of rapes and murders. The latest victim is hanging onto life and he has hopes that she will be able to help break the case. When Madame goes missing again, it is assumed that she will turn up just as she did the first time. Instead her body is discovered in the Bonnard vineyard and Jduge Verlaque will be drawn into the investigation.
Despite the fact that Madame wasn't raped, there seems to be some connection to the other murders. Antoine is convinced the cases will connect at some point although no one else can see what the connection is.
This is the third in the Verlaque and Bonnet series and I enjoyed it so much that I searched out the first two. Ms. Longworth has set her series in Aix-en-Provence, Her descriptions of the area and her characters love of food and wine make reading these a pleasure. They evoke memories of a time when people took the time to appreciate life with its many facets. Her unfolding the details of Verlaque's life and his somewhat unconventional affair with law professor, Marine Bonnet, keep the reader as interested in the characters as we are in the murders. Skillfully plotted, the book will draw the reader into another world.
A crime wave jolts Aix-en-Provence in the third delightful Verlaque and Bonnet mystery Fans of Donna Leon and Andrea Camilleri, mystery lovers, Francophiles, and foodies will adore this who-done-it with a beautiful European setting. In her riveting follow-up to Death at the Chateau Bremont and Murder in the Rue Dumas, M. L. Longworth evokes the sights and sounds of late-summer Provence, where the mistral blows and death comes in the most unexpected places. Olivier Bonnard, the owner of Domaine Beauclaire winery, is devastated when he discovers the theft of a priceless cache of rare vintages. Soon after, Monsieur Gilles d’Arras reports that his wife, Pauline, has vanished from their lavish apartment. As Judge Antoine Verlaque and Commissioner Paulik tackle the case (with a little help from Marine Bonnet), they receive an urgent call: Bonnard has just found Madame d’Arras—dead in his vineyard.
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