WINEMAKER DETECTIVE MYSTERIES PAGE: #8 through #11

MONTMARTRE MYSTERIES (Winemaker Detective Mysteries #8)
JEAN-PIERRE ALAUX & Noël Balen (tr. Sally Pane)
Le French Book (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$4.99 Kindle edition, available now

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: Wine expert Benjamin Cooker travels to the French capital, where his is called to help care for some vineyards in Montmartre, a neighborhood full of memories for him. He stops in on an old friend. Arthur Solacroup left the Foreign Legion to open a wine shop good enough to be in the Cooker Guide.

But an attempted murder brings the past back into the present. But which past? The winemaker detective and his assistant Virgile want to know more, and their investigation leads them from the sands of Djibouti to the vineyards of Côte du Rhône.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Virgile must've been a bad lad indeed in book seven, which I have not read. He comes in for much barbed raillery about his free-lovin' ways, not a thing I'd associate with an impending father-in-law relationship; but he is still here, and still obviously his mentor's pet despite the teasing.

Arthur, an old friend of Benjamin's and a former member of the Foreign Legion, is in need of the winelover's assistance hence the men's travel to Paris. Arthur has an attempted assassination in front, more or less, of them; the past in the Foreign Legion coming home to roost...?

We find out, of course; we also learn why Arthur decided to open a wine shop in Montmartre, and how Benjamin came to be his friend. The past is never that far from any mystery, especially in a series; this entry goes a lot further into Benjamin's past than usual. I enjoyed that, and enjoyed how Arthur came to be where he is (in a coma after the attack on him the men interrupted).

The excuse to get the men to Paris is as flimsy as anything I've ever read: A woman running some convent or hospital or something in Paris has a teensy remnant of a vineyard attached to it and asks Benjamin to come resuscitate it; he agrees, more than anything just to make the trip plausible enough. Virgile is the man of the hour, though. He's more the crimesolver than his boss is.

It's not the best book in the series but it worked fine: Arthur's shop is the occasion for much discussion of many delectable sounding bottles. The main lack is odd: the evocation of Paris feels...postcard level, facile and surface-oriented. I wished it had been more as is usual in this series of quite short reads. We're not going into history-book depths anywhere but more than this, if you please. Still quite readable and kept me engrossed enough to enjoy it.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

BACKSTABBING IN BEAUJOLAIS (Winemaker Detective Mysteries #9)
JEAN-PIERRE ALAUX & Noël Balen (tr. Anne Trager)
Le French Book (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$4.99 Kindle edition, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: The Winemaker Detective goes to Beaujolais, in a French-style cozy mystery for lovers of food and drink, amateur sleuth stories or anything set in France.

A business magnate calls on wine expert Benjamin Cooker to kickstart his new wine business in Beaujolais, sparking bitter rivalries. Can the Winemaker Detective and his assistant keep calculating real estate agents, taciturn winegrowers, dubious wine merchants and suspicious deaths from delaying delivery of the world-famous Beaujolais Nouveau? Another adventure in this made-for-TV mystery series set in France. Both a wine novel and a mystery.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Beaujolais Nouveau was all the rage ten-plus years ago, my memory informs me. I think the wine industry was having us on: “You can drink Beaujolais early on, but the wines frequently open up three to five years after being bottled. They are precocious and aromatic, but round enough to have a lingering taste.”

So there US wine snobs.

As a wealthy philistine wants to acquire a vineyard in Beaujolais to experiment with some new ideas in the making of the stuff, he runs into opposition from local people as well as his own haute Parisienne wife. The latter insists he consult with Benjamin, a renowned expert on wine, to determine how viable his plan to alter the way Beaujolais is drunk. But really, there's quite an amount of inertia in this process: “From time immemorial, {Beaujolais Nouveau} has been celebrated when it’s young, at the start of fermentation. Centuries ago winemakers traded early in the year, and the yeast would complete its job while the barrels were in transit, moving slowly by carriage or boat along the Saône and Rhône rivers or up the Loire.”

Change is hard anywhere. Changing the way the French make and consume wine? If you come for the king, you'd best not miss. That was our millionaire, Guillaume's, error. We're treated to the murder early in the story...but we're not told who's been murdered, so all the characters we meet during the story could be either the victims or the murderers.

It was a nice touch, and I'd've loved to see it on TV because I can't come up with a way to make the idea work. I'll assume it does but man, am I curious as to how. In this installment, Benjamin is the driver of the story because Guillaume has hired him for the legendary expertise he has in the entire world of wine. Of course Guillaume is looking for a certain outcome to the questions he's set Benjamin; he misjudged Benjamin, though, as Benjamin will pursue the truth. It would reflect poorly on his profesional honor to be seen doing Guillaume's bidding. You hire the best, you'd best be ready to believe their report.

Benjamin and Virgile banter and talk and generally behave as always, only now in Lyon and Beaujolais, as they discuss the case, the local wines, literature, how much they loved last night's meal; all the things that keep us coming back to the series.

By the time the murders were solved, I'd sort of accepted there wasn't a solution. There was; and it was dead clever for the authors to hide the victim this time instead of the perpetrator. A very fun entry into the series I'm still enjoying. (Though not really so much thrilled with the lists; they persist.)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

LATE HARVEST HAVOC (The Winemaker Detective Series Book 10)
JEAN-PIERRE ALAUX & Noël Balen (tr. Sally Pane)
Le French Book (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$4.99 Kindle edition, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Disaster strikes the vineyards in Alsace. Vintners are tense and old grudges surface. The Winemaker Detective's reputation is on the line as he must find the cause before the late harvest starts.

Winter is in the air in Alsace and local customs are sowing trouble, piquing the curiosity of the famous winemaker from Bordeaux, Benjamin Cooker. While the wine expert and his assistant Virgile settle into their hotel in the old city of Colmar, distinguished vineyards are attacked. Is it revenge?

The plot thickens when estates with no apparent connection to one another suffer the same sabotage just days prior to the late harvest. All of Alsace is in turmoil, plunged in the grip of suspicion that traces its roots back to the darkest hours of the German occupation. As he crosses back and forth into Germany from the Alsace he thought he knew so well, Cooker discovers a land of superstition, rivalry, and jealousy. Between tastings of the celebrated wines, he is drawn into the lives and intrigues of the inhabitants.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Benjamin is getting older. As is so often the case, it's something outside himself that sours his usually fairly confident-in-goodness manner. It makes some sense, even, as it comes from nothing so petty as murdering someone you hate for one or another reason.

Someone is attacking the vines of Alsace. Someone is systematically and violently attacking the means of making wine in this ancient part-French, part-German province that Benjamin has known (he thought) most of his career. Some darker mutterings even accuse Benjamin, an outsider from the south, of being connected to the chainsaw attacks on the vines.

We'd get soured by that kind of gross insult to our specialist knowledge and passion, too. Virgile is the one who really shines, and that is always nice to see. He's still a skirt-chasin' houndawg, but he has skills he's honed under Benjamin's tutelage. He uses them to good advantage as he pokes into another viper's nest of Occupation resentments, as we saw in book #4. it felt a little bit weird for the men to wander from Lorraine into Germany and back seemingly at a whim, but it certainly drove home the point that the cultures on either side of the border are subtly different, they're not *dramatically* so; it makes sense to do that in the context of the story's resolution.

I was a bit confronted by the bolder-than-usual sex scene.

I'll say that Alsace, Strasbourg and its cathedral, and gewürztraminer all mean more to me than they ever have. I'm still eager to try, one day, mirabelle plums from nearby Lorraine; since they can't be exported, though, that is a very very unlikely eventuality.

I keep reading these stories, lists and all, because they are short enough to read in a sitting, dense of story enough to satisfy me as I read; and there are enough of them that I can get a solid foothold in their storyverse.

Don't start here, but don't stop before you get here, either.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

TAINTED TOKAY (The Winemaker Detective Series #11)
JEAN-PIERRE ALAUX & Noël Balen (tr. Sally Pane)
Le French Book (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$4.99 Kindle edition, available now

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: In between enjoying sumptuous food and wine, the Winemaker Detective grapples with deceit and deception in Old World Europe.

France’s top wine expert Benjamin Cooker sets off to enjoy the delights of Vienna, a romantic ride down the Danube, a gourmand’s visit to Budapest, and a luxury train through the enchanting Hungarian countryside. All too soon, stolen wallets, disappearing passports, guides who are a bit too obliging, and murder mar the trip. Meanwhile, in Bordeaux, Cooker’s assistant handsome Virgile faces an annoying rival and a mildew crisis in the vineyards just as Cooker’s lab technician is the victim of a mugging.

If you love cozy culinary mysteries, amateur detective stories, international mysteries with French flair, or anything wine-related, this made-for-TV series offers armchair travel at its best with gentle mysteries.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Vienna? Hungary?!

What the actual. I was not expecting this, nor was I bargaining on Benjamin leaving Virgile in Bordeaux to make this lucullan journey. And does Virgile ever get the short end of the stick! All the practical problems are his to figure out and then to solve.

Benjamin, meantime, is spending time with his much-loved Elisabeth as they take in the scenery of the wine world along the Danube. It is genuinely the main pleasure I had in this story, their charming interactions. The authors make it clear these are soul mates, real genuine friends married and very devoted to each other. The tribulations of the murders around them merely make that clearer; they handle the different challenges with the sangfroid of long-established couples.

Back in Bordeaux, the disasters plaguing Benjamin's premises are affecting his every asset. Alexandrine, whose tenure with Benjamin exceeds Virgile's (I think; could be wrong about that), has hitherto kept her distance from Virgile which makes her more interesting, frankly.

Well, that's over.

Too bad, that, she went from mildly interesting in a greyscaled-Moneypenny way to just being another woman on Virgile's cosmic rapsheet. It was here that I determined the series and I were parting company. I'm just not able to gin up much interest in Virgile's exploits in bed, they outnumber the times he's taken the investigative lead, and...well...Vienna? I'm not very interested in the Danubian plains, and it's usually a sign we're going to spend more time outside the wine-world of France when we get time in foreign places back-to-back.

I had an excellent time with Benjamin, Elisabeth, Virgile, and the crew. I'd prefer to leave smiling so that's what I'm doing.