Bordeaux: The Bitter Finish

By Janet Hubbard

In Bordeaux: The Bitter Finish, thirty-year-old, NYPD detective Max Maguire returns to France as bodyguard to a famous American wine critic. But when her client turns up dead in her hotel room, and a precious bottle of wine goes missing, Max has no choice but to team up with examining magistrate and former lover, Olivier Chaumont.

Max, using aggressive tactics learned from her homicide detective father, stays one step ahead of Olivier in the investigation. Olivier's more elegant approach takes them into the heart of Bordeaux society where he is sure the murderer and some fine dining lurks. Is a counterfeit wine operation with ties to New York somehow connected to the critic's murder? Readers are introduced to the fascinating world of fine wine, and to a cast of characters (and suspects) sure to keep even the most discerning critic on the edge of her seat.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781615954537

Janet Hubbard

Janet Hubbard is author of the Vengeance in the Vineyards series; Bordeaux: The Bitter Finish and Champagne: The Farewell. She has also written more than twenty nonfiction books for teens. She divides her time between Vermont, Virginia, and France. www.janethubbard.com

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Bordeaux: The Bitter Finish

A Vengeance in the Vineyard Mystery

Janet Hubbard

www.JanetHubbard.com

Poisoned Pen Press

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Copyright

Copyright © 2014 by Janet Hubbard

First E-book Edition 2014

ISBN: 9781615954537 ebook

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

The historical characters and events portrayed in this book are inventions of the author or used fictitiously.

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Contents

Bordeaux: The Bitter Finish

Copyright

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Epigraph

New York City, March 2012

Chapter One

Bordeaux, France, April 2012

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-four

Chapter Twenty-five

Chapter Twenty-six

Chapter Twenty-seven

New York, April 2012

Chapter Twenty-eight

Chapter Twenty-nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-one

Chapter Thirty-two

Chapter Thirty-three

Chapter Thirty-four

Chapter Thirty-five

Chapter Thirty-six

Chapter Thirty-seven

Chapter Thirty-eight

Chapter Thirty-nine

Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty-one

More from this Author

Contact Us

Dedication

For

My mother, Lily Whitten Hubbard

Acknowledgments

I raise a glass to the following people who helped to take this novel to another level:

Poisoned Pen Press editor Barbara Peters, and the rest of the team: Jessica Tribble, Suzan Baroni, Nan Beams, Pete Zroika, and Beth Deveny

Editors extraordinaire Kate Vieh Redden and Valerie Andrews

Agent and magic-maker Kimberly Cameron

Inspirationist Astrid Latapie (who, as always, provided the French essence)

Readers and proofreaders Dana Barrows, Colette Buret, Mary Moffroid, Sammye (Frances) Vieh, Lisa Doherty, Richard Gaillard, Dana Jinkins, and Kelly Johnson

Wine critic and blogger Barbara Ensrud

My personal hero—and role model for Max—NYPD Detective Jennifer O’Connell

Wine consultant and food writer Dawn Land, who contributed to the chapter set at Veritas Restaurant, New York City

Chef Sam Hazen of Veritas Restaurant, New York City, whose tasting menu transports

Jiu-Jitsu expert Regina Darmoni

My son, Luke Brown, and daughter (and role model two for Max), Ramsey Brown

Epigraph

Wine gives great pleasure; and every pleasure is of itself a good. It is a good, unless counterbalanced by evil.

Samuel Johnson, Boswell’s Life of Johnson

New York City, March 2012

Chapter One

March 31

Max Maguire watched as her boss, NYPD Captain Walt O’Shaughnessy, rolled his ungainly frame out of an old-fashioned oak office chair. He gouged out a Rolaid from the packet on the desk and slipped it into his mouth, then walked across the floor in the cramped and overheated West 82nd Street Precinct and leaned against the doorjamb. Max was in the hot seat and it burned. She’d gotten herself into a jam. One so bad Walt had called her father, about to retire from the elite Homicide North uptown, for a consult.

Let me see the last part of that video again, Hank Maguire muttered in his gravelly voice.

Max felt frustration rising in her. Oh, come on, she said, first looking at Hank, who maintained a stoic, intractable expression, then shifting her gaze to Walt, who she could tell had slipped back into his usual role of mediator between father and daughter. We’ve looked at it twice already.

A YouTube video uploaded by a tourist showed Max in top form, using the Jiu-Jitsu moves she’d been practicing for a decade. At thirty, she had won too many tournaments to count. Walt clicked Play and the three of them watched as she approached a short, dark man dodging in and out of baby strollers and bicycles on a crowded street. Max gained on him, and he spun around to face her, apparently deciding he could take a woman cop. He seemed a little excited by the prospect. In fact, women were his main targets. Max gained speed and crashed headlong into him and both fell to the ground. That was a horrible couple of seconds, she recalled.

When he scrambled to rise, she jabbed her left hand across his Adam’s apple, cutting off his wind. Max quickly moved behind him and punched at his right ear, and, dropping her left hand into the crook of her right elbow, squeezed his neck in her forearms, until he went completely limp. As he fell to the pavement, his head bounced. With the perp nearly unconscious, she rolled him over, cuffed him, and then simply walked away. Max felt a surge of pride that she had brought the guy down with a perfectly executed guillotine choke.

Where the hell was your partner while you were using excessive force? Hank asked, his eyes hard as steel. "The press was right: you did use excessive force. And you had no back-up." Hank put up his hand and Walt paused the video, freeze-framing Max in her instant of triumph.

"How would I know? Max knew she sounded on the defensive, and quickly switched to explanatory mode. I was too busy chasing this guy. Look, we found the woman bruised and totally hysterical. Joe took one path at the 72nd Street Entrance off Central Park West and I took the other. I got to the guy first…"

Walt said softly, Joe made a statement, Hank. He told us he got to the scene too late to help with the arrest.

Hank’s voice was tight. I disagree. See that shadow in the background? He’s watching. Like a voyeur. Max felt her stomach go queasy. He turned the full force of his gaze on his daughter. I thought you and Joe ended things before you went to France last year.

We did.

Hank turned to Walt, They need to be officially separated.

Max leapt up. Hel-LO. I’d like to have a say in this.

Walt’s voice was kind, but firm. Joe will be reassigned. He looked at Max. And I’m going to put you on temporary suspension. Max cringed. She’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this. Just until the YouTube thing dies down. Meanwhile, you’ve got a bit of freelance work.

What’s your agenda? she shot back.

It’s the wine critic, Ellen Jordan, Walt said. She received a threat and wants protection. This had to be a ruse—something her father and her mentor had cooked up. Ellen Jordan was her mother’s friend. They saw each other regularly when Ellen was in town but Max had not kept up with her. She hadn’t even seen her when she was in France last year, involved in one of the biggest murder cases in the country. Now Max felt like a child who was being sent to time-out. She was pissed.

So what am I supposed to do? Hang out in a bar and watch her drink?

Better than that, Hank said. You follow her to Bordeaux, and get to use that French that made your mom so proud.

Yeah, Walt said. You can order QUA-SONTS every morning. He said to Hank, She won’t touch our donuts, you know.

Ouch. Max’s years abroad, before she made the leap to follow in her dad’s footsteps, was the source of much teasing from her fellow cops who tried to knock her down a peg. Hank’s fame as the NYPD version of Clint Eastwood didn’t help. Max had to prove herself over and over, to everyone. Once she had hooked up with Joe, she thought she’d no longer feel like an outsider. Now all this was about to change.

Before she left for France last spring, and ended up solving a murder, Max learned that Joe had slept with another female officer. Feeling a little reckless after the breakup, she had had a brief fling with Olivier Chaumont, the examining magistrate on the case. When she returned to New York, she refused to go back to Joe when he tried to reignite their relationship. It had been awkward being partners after that, but neither wanted to complain for fear of being reassigned. There was no way she could explain all this now.

Hank sat blinking like an old turtle. Your plane leaves at ten.

Tomorrow morning?

He stood up, an intimidating presence at six four.

Tonight. You’ll fly with Ellen Jordan to Bordeaux. Someone will pick you up and take you to the village of Saint-Émilion, a half-hour away.

Recalling the days in Champagne without technology, Max said, I want a phone that works this time.

You got it, Walt said.

And bodyguards carry guns, right?

You’re covered, Walt said. I’ll talk with our contacts at Interpol, but I don’t think you’ll need them. She knew what he meant. She was really going as a babysitter, not a bodyguard. Max hopped up and grabbed her short leather jacket off the back of the chair.

By the way, Hank said, as she headed to the door, your Jiu-Jitsu moves were impressive. It’s that ‘Kill Bill’ attitude at the end that got you into trouble with the public.

She stared hard at her father. He raped that woman, Dad. What was I supposed to do? Congratulate him?

Max…

She walked out. When she got to the subway station, her cell phone rang. It was Hank.

What?

Your mom and I will drive you to the airport.

I have a ride, thanks.

She hung up before he could call her on that lie. Hank had been discreet as he watched her climb from rookie to second level detective, but now it appeared he was going to start micromanaging again. She jogged down the stairs of the subway station, and hopped on the express train to Times Square. She didn’t know who to be more furious with, her father or Joe. Until fifteen minutes ago, she had believed Joe’s excuse that he had shown up too late to help. Now she had a mountain of doubt. On top of that, Hank had seen the couple of seconds she was out of control. She also knew that he was terrified for her.

She hit Joe’s name on her speed dial.

Hi, babe.

Can you drive me to JFK in an hour? We need to talk.

Guess so. Where’re you going?

Bordeaux. A short assignment.

Joe was silent for two beats before he said, You’ll catch hell from the rest of the team for this plush job.…

Wait until you hear you’re being transferred, she thought. I wouldn’t be going anywhere if you had covered my back!

You had just accused me of always taking over. I decided to give you free rein.

You didn’t jump in because you were teaching me a lesson? I’ll find another ride! She hit end.

Within moments, she received a text from Joe: u pms? Ignoring it, she rushed for the shuttle to Grand Central that would take her to the East Side, and an express train to the East Village. When she emerged from the station, she had new texts but ignored them. Instead, she tried to absorb the information that she was on her way to France again. And what’s so wrong with that? she asked herself. If I stop acting like I’m being punished, it could be an interesting gig. She and Ellen Jordan would be staying at a hotel in Saint-Émilion, far from Bordeaux, where he had been transferred.

Entering her rent-controlled apartment building, she took the steps two at a time to the third floor. Selecting a Grace Potter tune on her iPod, she began gathering up her clothes and stuffing them into a suitcase. Her phone rang again. Ma?

"Chérie, Hank just called to tell me that you are being given a great opportunity to go to Bordeaux with my friend Ellen."

I’m trying to get out of the doghouse.

Juliette de Laval Maguire sighed and switched to French. I hardly believe that traveling with a famous wine writer to Bordeaux is such an awful thing, chérie.

Max began explaining in French to her mother that she was on the verge of blowing the career that she had committed to a year ago. Using excessive force during an arrest was a strike against her—regardless of the fact that she collared a rapist. Max was about to hang up when her mother said, And Olivier? He’s now in Bordeaux, isn’t he?

Let’s not go there.

"Oh, Max. This is difficult for you, n’est-ce pas? I’m sure there’s a good reason why he hasn’t been in touch."

"Maman. It was a fling, une amourette. Nothing more. Gotta go. Love you."

"Je t’aime, sweetie. Au revoir."

Max began to sing along with Potter to her song, If I was a judge I’d break the law. Oooh. Oooh… as she tossed her sneakers into the suitcase and zipped it closed. Having given up on Joe—this time, for good—she called her friend Juanita for a ride to the airport and was told to be waiting at the curb in twenty minutes. Standing there with her suitcase, Max read her messages from Joe: didn’t mean it; call me; fuckin CALL me. She typed in a simple response: I’m already gone.

***

Ellen Jordan had an abundance of charisma. Passengers flocked around her in the first-class Air France lounge where she and Max waited to board their flight. Instantly recognizable from her TV appearances, Ellen joked with them and offered wine advice freely. Every half-hour Ellen would mouth the words to Max, the case? And Max would lift up the impact-resistant metal carry-all for her to see. Max had had no problem securing permission to carry the wine onboard, which had impressed Ellen.

Ellen had been firm when she handed it over, Forget me, this is what you have to guard. Max had been surprised by the weight of it when she lifted it, but when she asked what was in it, Ellen had said simply, wine.

Max sipped bottled water and kept her eye on Ellen as the passengers began lining up to board the aircraft. She was deep in conversation with a man who was also going to Bordeaux for the en primeur, a significant wine event in the region. Brokers, retailers, distributors, importers, and exporters from all over the world descended for barrel tastings of wines from the previous year.

Max knew Ellen’s history from her mother. The two women had met in Paris in 1984. Juliette hailed from a long line of French aristocrats. The daughter of a car manufacturer, Ellen had been raised in Grosse Point, Michigan, and ventured to Yale for college. When she was twenty, she toured the wine districts of France with a classmate and discovered she had an impeccable nose, able to distinguish without any coaching the nuances in taste required for professional tasting. Through a friend she met Juliette, who was soon on her way to New York to visit Ellen. Juliette happened to meet Hank Maguire, who proposed the day she was to return to France.

Ellen had gone on after graduation to create a newsletter that initially had only a handful of subscribers. Half a million readers later, she was considered, next to Robert Parker, the most influential critic in the world. It wasn’t easy, Juliette had told Max, the wine world wasn’t open to women during those years. Neither was police work, Max had reminded her.

Once settled in their seats, Ellen, ordered a glass of red wine for each of them and said, I’m glad I’m going to have the chance to get to know you. Are you aware that I was your brother’s godmother?

Max shook her head. Ellen turned back to the flight attendant to answer a question, and Max’s thoughts turned to her brother, Frédéric, who, had he lived, would be twenty-four. She looked out her window, replaying that dreadful moment in her mind. The phone call announcing that her twelve-year-old brother was DOA after being hit by a car on his way home from school. Hank going into a stupor for weeks, and her mother erupting daily into paroxysms of grief.

Max realized much later that she carried enough guilt to keep the Catholic Church in business for the next fifty years. No one had addressed her self-blame: Had she picked her brother up and walked home with him instead of hanging out with her friends, the accident never would have happened.

Ellen interrupted her thoughts. How about a quick course in wine? I don’t know how much your mother taught you, but as with painting, there are layers upon layers of color and complexity. The more you understand of this, the more you can enjoy.

Max wondered if Ellen had any idea how strained her parents’ finances were. If her mother hadn’t married an Irish cop, causing her parents to disown her, Juliette would have inherited a small fortune when her father died.

I’ve never tasted a rare wine, Max said. But, sure. Let’s begin my education.

After a brief tutorial, Ellen announced that she needed to sleep, reaching for her mask and moving her seat into the horizontal position. Max pulled the latest Cara Black mystery novel out of her backpack. Tucked in its pages was the last email that she had received from Olivier. Dated February 12, it read: I’m sorry I went incommunicado back in November. I was struggling with lots of things, and I’m afraid I was a lousy friend and correspondent. I trust that life is going well. I hope to hear from you. Fondest, Olivier. Max folded the piece of paper and stuck it in her jeans pocket. She had been hurt when he suddenly stopped emailing and, when he started again, she didn’t respond. She wished now that she had.

Being with Joe on a daily basis hadn’t helped. They had to remain partners and live with their broken relationship each day, or one of them would be sent to a new precinct. In Max’s mind it was a little like staying in a bad marriage because neither spouse wanted to move out. Joe was cajoling one day, sarcastic the next, yet as work partners they still clicked, and were known for their boldness.

Max pulled out her little notebook that she used as a journal and wrote: Note #1 for therapist: Why is my trust level around men at an all-time low? Note #2: Why do I carry a printout of an email from Olivier around with me like a lovesick teenager? Note #3: Once I get to France, will I have the courage to call the grandmother I’ve never met?

She put her seat back and glanced over at Ellen, who was snoring lightly, her precious cargo on the floor between them. Max sighed and closed her eyes.

Bordeaux, France, April 2012

Chapter Two

April 1

Olivier Chaumont scanned the headlines in Sud Ouest, Bordeaux’s daily paper, while waiting for his assistant to show up. It was the start of the en primeur, when retailers and importers from places like the U.S., Hong Kong, Singapore, and Russia arrived to purchase futures after the first wine-tasting, then waited three years for the vintage to arrive in bottles. After the tasting, a courtier, or broker, connected with a négociant, or trader, who then sold it to an importer in another country. A distributor finally sold the wine to a retail store and other outlets.

Spring 2011 had been extremely hot, with drought conditions. Summer had been like autumn, then autumn like summer again. Olivier knew what that meant. The wines would not be as round and voluptuous as they were in 2009 and 2010. Already critics were up in arms because the négociants were quoting the same prices for the inferior 2011 wine. It smacked of greed, which came as no surprise when Olivier considered the vast sums of money involved in the fine wine trade.

Bordeaux had over centuries produced the most sought-after wines in the world, and in the global community the more established vineyards were selling at higher prices than ever before. Olivier had read about the rich Chinese who arrived with fistfuls of cash with the intention of purchasing the most precious vintages, which they were rumored to mix with soft drinks. Some had gone on to purchase châteaux. Before the Chinese arrived, the Americans exhibited their lust for the best vintages, driving prices up, and making the wines unaffordable for all but the most elite collectors.

To add to these concerns, a new ratings system on the Right Bank demoted some winegrowers in the area while promoting others. The slightest changes in ratings could either raise profits significantly or bring a vineyard to ruin. A couple of vintners had sued over their loss of status, the most vocal being François Laussac. At the same time as Laussac’s vineyard was ranked lower by the appellation committee, Ellen Jordan had lowered his 2010 tasting score, and he had taken to publicly blaming her for all his woes. Olivier found him insufferable, but he had a lot of clout in Bordeaux.

A light knock on the kitchen door, and Commissaire Abdel Zeroual entered, wearing the traditional blue Police Nationale uniform. Now thirty, Abdel had been involved in a bad crowd back in Paris as a teen. Olivier had taken him under his wing, shaped him up and gotten him a job out of the city. They had been together in Champagne, where Abdel’s grandmother, Zohra, housemaid to the Chaumont family, lived. Both had decided to move to Bordeaux when Olivier was assigned there.

"Bonjour, Abdel, I was just reading about the en primeur event starting this evening. I predict there might be an arrest or two due to excessive drinking."

To a teetotaler it sounds like a lot of fuss over nothing. Something smells delicious, by the way.

It’s a joint effort of your grandmother’s and mine, using a recipe from an old friend named Bruno, the local police chief over in Saint-Denis.

Abdel sniffed the air. "Gigot?"

"Oui. Lamb shanks cooked for hours in a bed of red onions and red wine. I have guests coming for dinner. Olivier handed Abdel the newspaper. Page three contained an article on the American wine critic, Ellen Jordan. She called me to say she had something to discuss that couldn’t wait. Of course the Laussac dinner is this evening, but she declined his invitation, a blasphemous act. I invited her here for dinner instead, an even more blasphemous act."

Abdel glanced up from the paper. I saw on the news that her nose, like the critic Robert Parker’s, is insured for a million. She also said publicly that Monsieur Laussac’s wine was not much better than…piss.

Olivier winced. No wonder she wasn’t interested in his posh gathering this evening. I’m curious what’s so urgent. He got up and headed to the oven to check the lamb.

Abdel stuck his head into the dining room. She must be pretty special for you to go to all this trouble.

Olivier smiled at the sight of the table, covered with an ancient white linen tablecloth, fine Sevres porcelain, silver, and crystal. The centre de table, the yellow tulips that he had bought to display in the silver jardinière, an eighteenth-century relic he had found in a secondhand market, was perfect. He took a moment to admire the tapestried raspberry-colored walls that created intimacy, blending beautifully with the room-size Persian rug. He held up the bottle of wine he planned to serve at his dinner, and examined the label. A 1982 Cos Estournel. I was wise to have purchased a case of this fifteen years ago, he said.

At twenty-two you were buying cases of wine? Abdel chuckled.

"Wine is a living organism. When you taste, you are inhaling terroir, where you get a sense of the land that grew the grape, the rain that fed the roots, the wind that rustled the leaves, the sun that warmed the ripening fruit. It ends up on your tongue and finds a permanent place in your mind…"

Abdel interjected, "Sorry for interrupting, Monsieur, but you wanted to talk about a plan of action for this evening?"

Oh...right. I want you to keep an eye on things in Saint-Émilion. Check for drunk drivers. Stop in at the Hôtellerie Renaissance and make sure the Laussac evening is going smoothly. At 7:30, escort Madame Jordan and her assistant out the back door of the hotel and bring them here.

Why such secrecy?

The press knows Ellen Jordan is in town. I’d prefer that they, and Laussac, not know her dinner plans, especially since my other guests are Pascal and Sylvie Boulin.

Abdel said, It’s a rumor that Madame Jordan and Monsieur Boulin are in bed together with the promotion of his wine.

She is the reason for his success, after all.

And in bed together, literally. I read it on a local blog that pretends to be about the wine industry.

That’s absurd, Olivier said. From what I understand about this style of writing, and it is very little, anyone can write whatever they want, true or not.

Abdel, accustomed to Olivier’s prejudice against bloggers, and the Internet in general, steered the conversation back to the dinner. And the assistant Madame Jordan is bringing with her? A calm presence among all the renegades?

"You’re putting me in the renegade category?"

Compared to your peers, yes. I’ll bet you five francs the assistant’s a woman.

Olivier laughed. They had been making wagers since Abdel was a teenager, ever since Olivier had taught him to play poker. It wasn’t in Olivier’s nature to be silly, but somehow he felt at ease enough to be so with Abdel. I don’t see her as the type to travel with a doughy little secretary. A young man who has just awakened to his senses would be perfect for Madame Jordan.

Abdel gave a toothy grin. "So you think she’s a couguar, eh? I have to go. But don’t expect me to fit in with the people at the Laussac dinner."

Meaning you’ll be the only sober one?

The only Arab is more like it. I might get sent to the kitchen to wash dishes.

I hope that’s a joke.

I wish I could say it is. Don’t worry, I’m used to it.

That makes it worse. Olivier walked outside with Abdel.

This weekend is the perfect opportunity for us to launch Opération Merlot. Is everything in place?

Abdel came to attention. "Our agents have infiltrated all the export offices and are marking any suspicious cases with the letters OM on the bottom of the crate. A global alert has gone out to customs offices and importers where the wine is shipped."

Not that any of them will read it, but let’s see if we get a bite, Olivier said. Our biggest deterrent is our revered, and I’m being sarcastic, Minister of Justice Philippe Douvier, along with Minister of the Interior Katia Alban. Both claim that my request to pursue an international counterfeit wine ring smacks of self-aggrandizement and will cost the government too much. Of course, they are trying to make my job obsolete.

Olivier liked being a juge d’instruction, or investigative magistrate. He had dealt with a lot of political corruption, but only occasionally took on major murder cases like the Champagne murders of the previous year. Appointed by a procureur to those cases, he was one of the few judges who relished solving a crime. One of Philippe Douvier’s jobs was to oversee the major cases, and Madame Alban was in charge of the police and gendarmes.

The people believe in the judges, Abdel said. Without them, who would keep an eye on the elected officials?

"But

Reviews for Bordeaux

[catherine_dilts · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had recently watched a documentary on French wine explaining how the prices were being run up by investors, and some of the intrigue involved. So reading Bordeaux: The Bitter Finish was a perfect complement. I liked the main characters. The mystery led the reader through the vinyards and distribution networks for the world's finest wines. Just when I thought the murder had been solved, new complications arose. I will definitely be reading more of this series.

[eyes92c · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Vintages and Murder! A great combination.Travelling from New York to Bordeaux as a bodyguard for the famous wine critic and friend of her mother's Ellen Jordan, Max Maguire is not expecting her charge to be dead before the trip has barely started. The searing question, apart from the guilt Max feels is, did Ellen die of asphyxiation or was she murdered?Max has a french mother. Her father is a New York detective.Max is also a detective, although she's supposed to be chilling out whilst the controversy over her latest antics, caught on video, die down.France has further problems for Max.There's the fact that her mother and consequently Max have been estranged from their French relations for many years. Only now is that fence being mended. Max does make contact with her grandmother, but her uncle, the Minister of Justice Philippe Douvier, is somewhat unnerved by this contact.Maybe more tellingly, there's the renewal of her acquaintance with the investigating magistrate, Olivier Chaumont, whom she just happened to have an affair with last time she was in Bordeaux.So we have a murder and wines that are being re bottled and passed off as highly expensive vintages by an international counterfeiting ring and a stalled love affair. The counterfeiting problem is exacerbated by the fact that of none of the high flying vintners wants to admit this is occurring as this could negatively affect the wine sales of the region.The descriptions of the various wines, their bouquet and taste, are intriguing.There are interesting sidebars where Hubbard contrasts the traditional family life and approaches to life in general of the French over and against the more brash Americans.A story well played! A NetGalley ARC