Wednesday 9 April 2014

Nightmare in Burgundy: Review and Giveaway

Every place has its own share of myths and mysteries associated with it. Some when investigated provide a reasonable explanation, others cannot be explained logically and will remain a mystery until an explanation reasonable or otherwise is found. Like myths and mysteries, each places has its own traditions. Some very mundane that has no appeal to us. Some so quirky that we go 'what?'. Do you know that Wines are Exorcised? No, not in some distant past but even in the present. I understand that after having a little too much to drink a person may need some exorcising of the inner demons that are let loose, but exorcising Wine, never heard of. But then, what do I know about wines!

This is the third book in the Winemaker Detective Series set in the winemaking rural regions of France. Another very short cozy mystery that can be read in a hour or two. Benjamin Cooker visits Burgundy region where he is celebrated with the Chevalier award. Cooker takes us to wine tasting session and gives us a lesson on how to go about one if we were ever inclined to do one. He tells us the difference not only between the wines of the Loire valley and those of the Burgundy region, but also of the nature and 'terroir' of both. He is as usual accompanied by his handsome and heartbreaking assistant Virgile. In all this leisurely tour of Burgundy, Cooker gets interested in a mystery, and does some Sleuthing but again the mystery gets solved on its own by coincidences.

Cooker is baffled by the mystery of the writing on the wall in various places in Burgundy. What is mysterious about the writing on the wall? Writing on the wall is just graffiti. But who goes about writing graffiti in Latin, in Verses, about vengeance all over the walls in Burgundy. Graffiti is just the beginning, there are other mysterious happening that follow. Is there a logical explanation to all the mysterious happenings, or is the devil really let loose in Burgundy? Escape into Burgundy!

Click on the Banner for the rest of the Tour and more chances of winning the book! 

SYNOPSIS

The Winemaker Detective leaves his native Bordeaux to go to Burgundy for a dream wine-tasting trip to France’s other key wine-making region. Between Beaune, Dijon and Nuits-Saint-Georges, it turns into a troubling nightmare when he stumbles upon a mystery revolving around messages from another era. What do they mean? What dark secrets from the deep past are haunting the Clos de Vougeot? Does blood need to spill to sharpen people’s memory? [provided by the publisher]
***
***
ABOUT THE AUTHORS

©David Nakache 
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 recently 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. He gets a sparkle in his eye when he talks about the Winemaker Detective series, which he coauthors with Noël Balen. Noël 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.

 ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

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 where she wrote Camus and the Americas: A Thematic Analysis of Three Works Based on His Journaux de Voyage.  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; her literary translations include Operatic Arias; Singers Edition, and Reality and the Untheorizable by Clément Rosset.  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.
***
Follow Le French Book on Twitter @lefrenchbook | on Facebook
Sign up to receive their latest news and deals



Disclaimer: I received an ebook from the France Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated for this review and all opinions are my own. Giveaway is sponsored by France Book Tours.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks for your fun review!
yes that day of prayer on the vineyard is BIG in Burgundy, my own region. I think at least originally it was more like exercising it against all the potential threats to it [disease, pest, bugs, etc] that would ruin the wine harvest and then give no income to the monks - wine started big in Burgundy around the 11 century, by monks

srivalli said...

Thanks Emma for the interesting info, Burgundy sounds like an interesting place!

Unknown said...

Thanks so much for this review. I loved that exorcism scene. I have to admit that I love Burgundy wines.

srivalli said...

I loved it too! Thanks Anne for stopping by!