Book Review: Backstabbing in Beaujolais

Book: Backstabbing in Beaujolais (Winemaker Detective Mysteries book #9) by Jean-Pierre Alaux and Noël Balen with translations from Anne Trager

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Description:

A business magnate calls on wine expert Benjamin Cooker to kickstart his new wine business in Beaujolais, sparking bitter rivalries. Can the Winemaker Detective and his assistant keep calculating real estate agents, taciturn winegrowers, dubious wine merchants and suspicious deaths from delaying delivery of the world-famous Beaujolais Nouveau?


Rating: 4 stars

Review:

Backstabbing in Beaujolais centers around Gillamue Perithiard, a businessman who has a strong desire to make his mark in the wine industry even more so than he already has. To make sure his business would be a success, Perithiard hired wine expert Benjamin Cooker who along with his assistant Virgile Lanssien traveled to Beaujolais to provide their expertise.

Once the wine making duo arrived they realized that Perithiard was looking for success in a short amount of time. He was also making quite a few enemies as he tries to become a premiere wine maker and one of his enemies is rival wine maker Francois Dujaray. Adding fuel to the fire, Perithiard poached one of Dujaray's top executives, Laurent Quillebaud.

However, when Quillebaud was found dead on a hunting trip, Cooker was wondering if it was an accident or murder? The death wasn't the only problem affecting Perithiard's business, someone was also vandalizing his vine yard. As more death and vandalism seem to plague the business owner, it appeared someone was trying to derail Perithiard's efforts.

Despite Gillamue Perithiard being a self-imposed pig, Benjamin Cooker and his assistant Virgile went above and beyond the call of duty to not only get Perithiard's new winery up and running but also figure out who was behind the accumulating incidents.

This was a good read but as with many cozy mysteries it did take a while for the mystery aspect of the story to start. But once it did it was an enjoyable read. I also enjoyed all of Benjamin and his assistant Virgile's exploits in the story. I do like that with each book you get to know even more about them. As per usual in this series, Benjamin likes to provide historical information to his assistant that I found to be very interesting to read about.

All the food descriptions and historical information never gets old for me. I'm a bit of a foodie and history buff and not to mention my love of mysteries, which is why I enjoy reading this series.