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The second installment in the delightful, internationally acclaimed series featuring Bruno, Chief of Police: When a bevy of winemakers descend on Saint-Denis the idyllic town finds itself the center of an intense drama, with suspicious fires at the agricultural research station that is working on genetically-modified crops. Two young men—Max, an environmentalist who hopes to make organic wine, and Fernando, the heir to an American wine fortune—become rivals for the affections of Jacqueline, a flirtatious, newly arrived Québécoise student of wine. Events grow ever darker, culminating in two suspicious deaths, and Bruno finds that the problems of the present are never far from those of the past. "Captivating...Sure to appeal to readers with a palate for mysteries with social nuance and understated charm." —The Wall Street Journal "A gentle reminder to slow down and smell the grapes.... [Walker] beguiles the reader." —The New York Tiems Book Review "The real pleasure of the book is the place itself.... As readers are drawn into wine-stomping parties, truffle omelet dinners, and the aged dignity of a French hunting hound, the narrative tension gathers." —Houston Chronicle
Mysteries of the French Countryside: Bruno, Chief of Police; The Dark Vineyard; Black Diamond by Martin Walker Pdf
From internationally acclaimed author Martin Walker comes the first three books in Mysteries of the French Countryside and an introduction to the world of Bruno, Chief of Police Benoît Courrèges, aka Bruno, is a policeman in St. Denis, a small town in the Périgord region of France. When trouble arises, Bruno is on the case, settling local disputes, tracking down lawbreakers, and solving tantalizing mysteries. From a disturbance in the wine business and threats against the truffle trade to murders of national and even international scale, Bruno deals with it all. In story after story, Walker weaves in familiar characters from past novels, whether they are helping Bruno on a case or helping him prepare a delicious meal. Mystery readers will delight in Bruno’s adventures, and hunger for more! “With Bruno in charge, there’s always time for one of those classic feasts that makes this series such a mouthwatering treat.”—The New York Times Book Review “Whether he’s preparing a gourmet dinner, enjoying a glass of wine, or solving a murder, it’s a pleasure to be in Bruno’s company.”—Publishers Weekly
The first installment in the delightful, internationally acclaimed series featuring Chief of Police Bruno. Meet Benoît Courrèges, aka Bruno, a policeman in a small village in the South of France. He’s a former soldier who has embraced the pleasures and slow rhythms of country life. He has a gun but never wears it; he has the power to arrest but never uses it. But then the murder of an elderly North African who fought in the French army changes all that. Now Bruno must balance his beloved routines—living in his restored shepherd’s cottage, shopping at the local market, drinking wine, strolling the countryside—with a politically delicate investigation. He’s paired with a young policewoman from Paris and the two suspect anti-immigrant militants. As they learn more about the dead man’s past, Bruno’s suspicions turn toward a more complex motive. "Enjoyable.... Martin Walker plots with the same finesse with which Bruno can whip up a truffle omelette, and both have a clear appreciation for a life tied to the land." —The Christian Science Monitor "A nice literary pairing with the slow-food movement.... [It is] lovely...to linger at the table." —Entertainment Weekly "A wonderfully crafted novel as satisfying as a French pastry but with none of the guilt or calories." —Tuscon Citizen's Journal
The third installment in thed elightful, internationally acclaimed series featuring Chief of Police Bruno. Something dangerous is afoot in St. Denis. In the space of a few weeks, the normally sleepy village sees attacks on Vietnamese vendors, arson at a local Asian restaurant, subpar truffles from China smuggled into outgoing shipments at a nearby market—all of it threatening the Dordogne’s truffle trade, worth millions of dollars each year, and all of it spelling trouble for Benoît “Bruno” Courrèges, master chef, devoted oenophile, and, most important, beloved chief of police. When one of his hunting partners, a noted truffle expert, is murdered, Bruno’s investigation into the murky events unfolding around St. Denis becomes infinitely more complicated. His friend wasn’t just a connoisseur of French delicacies, he was a former high-profile intelligence agent—and someone wanted him dead. As the strange crimes continue, Bruno’s detective work takes him from sunlit markets to dim cafés, from luxurious feasts to tense negotiations—from all of the paradisial pleasures of the region to its shadowy underworld—and reunites him with a lost love, an ambitious policewoman also assigned to the case. Filled with an abundance of food and wine (including, bien sûr, many, many truffles) and a soupçon of romance, Black Diamond is a deliciously entertaining concoction that delivers all the complexity and delights of the Dordogne itself.
On October 12, 2005, a massive fire broke out in the Wines Central wine warehouse in Vallejo, California. Within hours, the flames had destroyed 4.5 million bottles of California's finest wine worth more than $250 million, making it the largest destruction of wine in history. The fire had been deliberately set by a passionate oenophile named Mark Anderson, a skilled con man and thief with storage space at the warehouse who needed to cover his tracks. With a propane torch and a bucket of gasoline-soaked rags, Anderson annihilated entire California vineyard libraries as well as bottles of some of the most sought-after wines in the world. Among the priceless bottles destroyed were 175 bottles of Port and Angelica from one of the oldest vineyards in California made by Frances Dinkelspiel's great-great grandfather, Isaias Hellman, in 1875. Sadly, Mark Anderson was not the first to harm the industry. The history of the California wine trade, dating back to the 19th Century, is a story of vineyards with dark and bloody pasts, tales of rich men, strangling monopolies, the brutal enslavement of vineyard workers and murder. Five of the wine trade murders were associated with Isaias Hellman's vineyard in Rancho Cucamonga beginning with the killing of John Rains who owned the land at the time. He was shot several times, dragged from a wagon and left off the main road for the coyotes to feed on. In her new book, Frances Dinkelspiel looks beneath the casually elegant veneer of California's wine regions to find the obsession, greed and violence lying in wait. Few people sipping a fine California Cabernet can even guess at the Tangled Vines where its life began.
Amazon Best Book of the Month, July 2014 Journalist Maximillian Potter uncovers a fascinating plot to destroy the vines of La Romanée-Conti, Burgundy's finest and most expensive wine. In January 2010, Aubert de Villaine, the famed proprietor of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, the tiny, storied vineyard that produces the most expensive, exquisite wines in the world, received an anonymous note threatening the destruction of his priceless vines by poison-a crime that in the world of high-end wine is akin to murder-unless he paid a one million euro ransom. Villaine believed it to be a sick joke, but that proved a fatal miscalculation and the crime shocked this fabled region of France. The sinister story that Vanity Fair journalist Maximillian Potter uncovered would lead to a sting operation by some of France's top detectives, the primary suspect's suicide, and a dramatic investigation. This botanical crime threatened to destroy the fiercely traditional culture surrounding the world's greatest wine. SHADOWS IN THE VINEYARD takes us deep into a captivating world full of fascinating characters, small-town French politics, an unforgettable narrative, and a local culture defined by the twinned veins of excess and vitality and the deep reverent attention to the land that runs through it.
Another delightful installment in the internationally acclaimed series: It's spring in St. Denis. The village choir is preparing for its Easter concert, the wildflowers are blooming, and among the lazy whorls of the river a dead woman is found floating in a boat. This means another case for Bruno, the town’s cherished chief of police. With the discovery of sinister markings and black candles near the body, it seems to Bruno that the occult might be involved. And as questions mount—most notably about a troubling real estate proposal in the region and the sudden reappearance of an elderly countess—Bruno and his colleagues are drawn ever closer to a climactic showdown in the Gouffre de Colombac: the place locals call the Devil’s Cave.
Jurassic, basalt, moraine, flint, alluvial, magma: what are these words and what do they have to do with wine? The answers are here in this book. They are geological terms that reflect a bond between wine and the land. Understanding geology, however, is tricky. Geological concepts are obscure; processes can be imperceptibly slow, invisible, and unimaginably ancient. The terminology is formidable, such that even the names of common rocks carry an air of mystery. Geology is introduced plainly, starting with basic principles, all in the context of wine. The emphasis is on the kinds of processes that shape vineyards, and on the minerals, rocks and soils that host the vines. Geological words now commonly seen in wine writings are systematically explained. You will learn the stories behind some of the names, the human face of geology. The book also explores how the geology-wine connection manifests in the finished product and evaluates its importance, particularly in the contexts of minerality, terroir, and wine taste. The fact is that geology is increasingly being promoted in the world of wine; the aim here is to help it be properly understood.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. Don't miss the #1 New York Times bestselling prequel, Family of Liars. A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island. A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy. A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive. A revolution. An accident. A secret. Lies upon lies. True love. The truth. Read it. And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE. "Thrilling, beautiful, and blisteringly smart, We Were Liars is utterly unforgettable." —John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars
"too few Brocks... As the townsfolk of Niagara-on-the-Lake (NOTL), the 'First Capital of Upper Canada', gather on the hallowed grounds of Fort George to celebrate the nation's 150th birthday, Edward Mitchell, the town's modern-day patriarch, lies dying in a nearby vineyard. The old man, a retired history professor, was clearly murdered ... but by who? A revered man with no apparent enemies, the only potential clue to his death is a 'for sale' sign that was erected earlier that day at the front of his grand, historic estate-the most valuable and coveted piece of property in town. But as the murder investigation unfolds, it seems that real estate is perhaps not the only motive for Edward Mitchell's murder. At first, inexperienced, unenthusiastic homicide detective, Bryan Dee, hopes solving the murder will be a slam-dunk, but he soon realizes he is in over his head. Knowing nothing about property law, he turns to his boyhood friend, Kris Gage, an urban planner who has conveniently returned to his home town to help his parents move. Gage is convinced that if they follow the money trail, they'll find their suspect ... but Dee soon discovers that his seemingly innocent best friend has a connection to the dead man that can't be explained. Then, when another prominent citizen-the dead man's best friend-goes missing, the heat is on. Together Bryan and Kris try to make sense of what is going on. What would motivate the chilling death of one man and the disappearance of the other? Was land acquisition the motive for the murder? Was their devotion to heritage preservation upsetting local builders? Did it have anything to do with allocating federal funds given to the town to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday? Or was someone simply out to settle a score? Meanwhile, Bryan must decide whether to trust his best friend or not as they try to weed out who the greedy culprits destroying the charm and history of their beautiful, little hometown are, making them both wonder why, 200 years after the War of 1812, a different battle is being waged ... and whether Niagara-on-the-lake has become Niagara-on-the-take. ...and too many Willcocks!"
The riveting sequel to Walker's internationally acclaimed "Bruno, Chief of Police," in which the Dordogne's great pleasures--wine, romance, and intrigue--threaten Bruno's beloved village of Saint-Denis.
'From the way her buttocks looked under the black silk dress, I knew she'd be good in bed' So begins the most hardboiled of Latimer's novels, whose notoriety meant that it was only published in unexpurgated form in the States in 1982, 40 years after its original publication. In this classic noir novel, St Louis private eye Karl Craven, who likes his steak rare, his liquor hard and his women fallen, arrives at the small town of Paulton to protect his wealthy client's daughter from a religious cult. He soon finds himself involved with various unsavoury characters, as well as a femme fatale named Princess, and proves more than a match for the worst of them.
"In true Susan Mallery fashion, strong female characters, friendship, and family are at the center of THE VINEYARD AT PAINTED MOON. You're sure to laugh and cry along the journey and delight in the happy ending."—Robyn Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Virgin River “The Vineyard at Painted Moon feels like a story about courage—about making hard choices so that you can live an authentic life.”—Katherine Center, New York Times bestselling author of What You Wish For Step into the vineyard with Susan Mallery’s most irresistible novel yet, as one woman searches for the perfect blend of love, family and wine. Mackenzie Dienes seems to have it all—a beautiful home, close friends and a successful career as an elite winemaker with the family winery. There’s just one problem—it’s not her family, it’s her husband’s. In fact, everything in her life is tied to him—his mother is the closest thing to a mom that she’s ever had, their home is on the family compound, his sister is her best friend. So when she and her husband admit their marriage is over, her pain goes beyond heartbreak. She’s on the brink of losing everything. Her job, her home, her friends and, worst of all, her family. Staying is an option. She can continue to work at the winery, be friends with her mother-in-law, hug her nieces and nephews—but as an employee, nothing more. Or she can surrender every piece of her heart in order to build a legacy of her own. If she can dare to let go of the life she thought she wanted, she might discover something even more beautiful waiting for her beneath a painted moon. Don't miss The Happiness Plan, a new novel coming from #1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery where three women experience hope, heartache, and the power of friendship as they search for true happiness!