A wine-lover's guide to murder and theft would be an apt
subtitle for this novella, latest in The Winemaker
Detective series. In GRAND CRU HEIST Benjamin Cooker,
vineyard owner, vintner and writer, is on business in Paris
when he is the victim of a carjacking. Recovering in the
hospital, he regrets the loss of his briefcase of wine
notes more than anything. His employee and friend Virgile
Lanssien arrives along with Benjamin's wife. They agree
that Benjamin is lucky to be alive.
Snow falls in Paris as the newspaper carries the story of a
theft of expensive bottles of Grand Cru wine from the
cellar at le Place du Madeleine. The hundred bottles were
of a type which had received top rating in the Cooker
Guide. During January, Benjamin feels depression as he
recuperates in a venerable hotel in the Loire region,
dedicated to vineyards and crumbling castles. An Englishman
with a classic car befriends him, but next day the man has
left and his companion, a glamorous girl from Russia, is
found dead on the riverbank. A young, eager hotel employee
has vanished. Not only that, but another bulk wine theft
has been reported, abiding by the Cooker Guide assessment
of top quality stock. Benjamin feels the need to get home,
but he's obliged to help police with enquiries into the
death. Is there a connection between his wine guide and
the thefts, or is it coincidence?
Amusing asides abound; the vintner's dog is named Bacchus,
while a Spanish worker deplores the way France admits North
African immigrants. Continuous setting details bring the
earthy scents and vigorous work of wine country to life.
Virgile, the younger, more sceptical man, constantly shakes
traditional Benjamin's assumption that people who appear to
be respectable must be just that. I am enjoying this series
more as the characters are now well established. Noel Balen
and Jean-Pierre Alaux are both writers and Alaux is the
grandson of a winemaker. Anne Trager has been translating
in France and decided to bring the books she enjoyed to a
wider audience.
In another Epicurean journey in France, renowned wine critic
Benjamin Cooker’s world gets turned upside down one night in
Paris. He retreats to the region around Tours to recover.
There a flamboyant British dandy, a spectacular blue-eyed
blond, a zealous concierge and touchy local police disturb
his well-deserved rest. From the Loire Valley to Bordeaux,
in between a glass of Vouvray and a bottle of Saint-Émilion,
the Winemaker Detective and his assistant Virgile turn PI to
solve two murders and very particular heist. Who stole those
bottles of grand cru classé?
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