Book Review: Montmarte Mysteries by Jean-Pierre Alauxand Noël Balen, trans by Sally Pane

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge, from Le French Book, via Edelweiss, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it



Welcome to Book 8 in the French Winesmaker Mystery Series!


Synopsis:

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. 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 the sands of Djibouti to the vineyards of Côte du Rhône. In between tasty meals, fine vintage tastings, and visits to Paris attractions, Benjamin and Virgile unravel another crime.


Read an Excerpt



Reveiw:

Once again Benjamin literally stumbles into a mystery involving a friend in the wine business, while a side mystery finds him. What I truly love about this series is just HOW much you learn about wines and wine making, and the French area the wine 'of the book' is from. In this book, the Paris Montmarte area comes front and center, just as it is being rediscovered in real life in Paris. There is so much history in the area- who knew grape vines could be grown in the city center? It makes you want to head to Paris and find the vines for yourself, to drink in the atmosphere that Benjamin extols to his reader. Add in a bit of a 'Herculeon' mystery for him and Virgile to ferret out, and you have a book that demands to be relished and taken in. As always, you may want some food handy, as the descriptions of meals will make you hungry! I love this series for its ability to take you to another place and put you 100% there.so that when you finish the book you feel like you just came back from vacation- bereft and nostalgic for the experience you just had! Don't miss this latest entry!



About 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 won the Antonin Carême prize for his cookbook La Truffe sur le Soufflé, which he wrote with the chef Alexis Pélissou. He is the grandson of a winemaker and exhibits a real passion for wine and winemaking. For him, there is no greater common denominator than wine.Website: http://www.jean-pierre-alaux.book.fr/


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. Website: http://www.noelbalen.com/


About the Translator:

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.>Her career includes more than twenty years of translating and teaching French and Italian at Berlitz and at Colorado University Boulder.  She has worked in scientific, legal and literary translation.  She also served as the interpreter for the government cabinet of Rwanda and translated for Dian Fossey’s Digit Fund. In addition to her passion for French, she has studied Italian at Colorado University, in Rome and in Siena.  She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband. This is her first translation for Le French Book!

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