Peter Mayle's newest and most delightful novel of France, filled with mouthwatering food, sumptuous wines, colorful characters, and lots of fun.

The story begins in Hollywood, at the expensive home - and impressive wine cellar - of lawyer Danny Roth. Unfortunately, after inviting the Los Angeles Times to write an extensive piece on the treasures of his collection, Roth finds himself the victim of a world-class wine heist. Enter Sam Levitt, former corporate lawyer, wine connoisseur, and expert on cultivated crime. Called in by Roth's insurance company - now saddled with a multimillion-dollar claim - Sam follows his leads, first to Bordeaux and the magnificent vineyards where so much wine is aged into delectable existence and then to Provence and the collectors who he rightly assumes might have envied Roth's collection. Along the way, bien sûr, he's joined by a beautiful and intelligent French colleague.

The unraveling of the ingenious crime is threaded through with Mayle's seductive rendering of France's sensory delights - from a fine Pinchon-Lalande and Léoville Barton to the bouillabaisse of Marseille and young lamb in Bordeaux. Even the most sophisticated of oenophiles will learn a thing or two in this vintage work from a beloved author.

Genre: Mystery