Le French Book Releases French Wine Country Mystery Book

Wine and mystery seem made for each other in Le French Book's French wine country mystery series. The mystery and thriller publisher just released the Kindle version of a third book in the Winemaker Detective series. In Nightmare in Burgundy, expert wine critic Benjamin Cooker leaves his native Bordeaux for Burgundy, where he is accepted into a prestigious wine-tasting brotherhood. This dream wine-tasting trip soon turns into a nightmare when he stumbles upon a mystery revolving around messages from another era.

"This whodunit is a moment of pure Epicurean pleasure," publisher Anne Trager says. "Readers follow Cooker around this famous wine region as he tries to uncover what dark secrets haunt the Clos de Vougeot. Does blood need to spill to sharpen people's memory? It's a fine exploration of the region, and just calls to be accompanied by a glass of Burgundy."

For the authors of this series, Jean-Pierre Alaux and Noël Balen, "The world of wine is no more respectable than the world of finance. It has all the requirements for a detective novel: death, crime, inheritance, jealousy. You name it, all human weaknesses are present. In our experience, reality always exceeds fiction. We will often imagine particularly nasty scandals, terrible violence, warped backstabbing and the most twisted acts, and then when we start digging through local archives, exploring history and even more recent news, we are surprised to find that people have never lacked imagination when it comes to harming their neighbors. The novelist's job is to put the darkness of the human spirit to music, turning what defies comprehension into a credible story."

The Winemaker Detective series of cozy mysteries has over twenty books to it and has also been adapted into a hit television series in France known as "Blood of the Vine," with French actor Pierre Arditi.

Click here to read an excerpt.

The print version will be released this summer. Readers can order it from their local bookstore now.

Other Books in the Series
The first in the series, Treachery in Bordeaux (9781939474025) introduces the characters and revolves around a mystery in a prestigious winery. This journey to Bordeaux takes readers behind the scenes of a grand cru wine estate that has fallen victim to either negligence or sabotage. World-renowned winemaker turned gentleman detective Benjamin Cooker sets out to find out what happened and why. Who would want to target this esteemed vintner?

Grand Cru Heist(9781939474049) navigates 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 peculiar heist. Who stole those bottles of grand cru classé?

In Deadly Tasting (9781939474216), a serial killer stalks Bordeaux, signing his crimes with a strange ritual. To understand the wine-related symbolism, the local police call on the famous wine critic Benjamin Cooker. The investigation leads them to the dark hours of France's history, as the mystery thickens among the once-peaceful vineyards of Pomerol.

The Authors
Jean-Pierre Alaux is a magazine, radio and television journalist when he is not writing novels in southwestern France. He is a genuine wine and food lover and the grandson of a winemaker. For him, there is no greater common denominator than wine. Coauthor of the Winemaker Detective series, Noël Balen lives in Paris, where he shares his time between writing, making records, 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. Nightmare in Burgundy was translated by long-time translator Sally Pane from Boulder, Colorado.

Praise for the Winemaker Detective series
"Unusually adept at description, the authors manage to paint everything...The journey through its pages is not to be rushed." -ForeWord Reviews

"A terrific new series." -William Martin, New York Times bestselling author

"A fine vintage... It will stay with you for a very long time." -Peter May, prize-winning, international bestselling author

"An excellent mystery series in which you eat, drink and discuss wine as much as you do murders." -Bernard Frank, Le Nouvel Observateur

"The shoes are John Lobb, the cigars are Cuban, and the wine is 'classic.' As is this book." -Rantin', Ravin' and Reading

About Le French Book
Le French Book is a New York-based publisher specialized in great reads from France, with a growing catalog of top contemporary mysteries and thrillers with a French touch. An IPS publisher.

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