Synopses & Reviews
In the heart of Gascony, a fire ravages the warehouse of one of Armagnac's top estates, killing the master distiller. Wine expert Benjamin Cooker is called in to estimate the value of the losses. But Cooker and his assistant Virgile want to know more. Did the old alembic explode? Was it really an accident? Why is the estate owner Baron de Castayrac penniless? How legal are his dealings?
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"Intrigue and plenty of good eating and drinking." - Booklist on Treachery in Bordeaux
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"Clever, enjoyable, nuanced in all the right ways." -MartysReads on Deadly Tasting
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"A terrific new series." NYT-bestselling author William Martin
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"A good vintage with tasty dialogue and a solid plot." --Tele-loisir
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"A smooth, jubilatory discovery of French wine country. I love these." --5-star reader review
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"Difficult to forget and oddly addictive...deserves a high mark for keeping the answers hidden and the pages turning." --ForeWord Reviews
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"You'll travel to France to taste the complex flavors, the unraveling of a mystery, while relishing the French countryside, the gourmet dishes, and the simple pleasurable delight of this rare series." --5-star educator review
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"This is a fun and informative take on the cozy crime mystery, French style." --Eurocrime
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"For me, this series is like a gift... it takes you on a journey." --Actor Pierre Arditi, who stars in the TV series
About the Author
Jean-Pierre Alaux is a magazine, radio and tele- vision journalist when he is not writing novels in southwestern France. He is a genuine wine and food lover, and won the Antonin Carême prize for his cookbook La Truffe sur le Soufflé, which he wrote with the chef Alexis Pélissou.Noël Balen lives in Paris, where he shares his time between writing, making re- cords, and lecturing on music. He plays bass, is a music critic and has authored a number of books about musicians in addition to his novel and short-story writing.Sally Pane studied French at State University of New York Oswego and the Sorbonne before receiving her Masters Degree in French Literature from the University of Colorado where she wrote Camus and the Americas: A Thematic Analysis of Three Works Based on His Journaux de Voyage. Her career includes more than twenty years of translating and teaching French and Italian at Berlitz and at Colorado University Boulder. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband.