The Dark Vineyard
A Novel of the French Countryside
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4.3 • 235 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
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
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Age-old French traditions collide with global commerce in Walker's lyrical sequel to Bruno, Chief of Police. When vandals attack a secretive research station hidden in the hills near Saint-Denis, Bruno Courr ges, the rural village's only municipal policeman, looks into the matter. Meanwhile, winemaker Fran ois Cresseil and the young man he has just adopted, Max Vannes, both die of mysterious causes. Max's seductive Canadian girlfriend; the scion of a rich American winery looking to buy up tracts of fertile land; protesting " colos"; representatives from a variety of government agencies; and a host of colorful locals all complicate what turns into a murder investigation, which calls on Bruno's tact as well as his shrewdness. Walker evokes his French community's celebrations of wine, food, love, and friendship with obvious affection but without sentimentality. His villagers are no more immune from modern times than the rest of us they just drink better wine.
