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.

Book Summary

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?