The Dark Vineyard: A Mystery of the French Countryside

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Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Jul 26, 2011 - Fiction - 336 pages
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
 

Selected pages

Contents

Section 1
3
Section 2
14
Section 3
19
Section 4
32
Section 5
37
Section 6
43
Section 7
51
Section 8
59
Section 23
162
Section 24
172
Section 25
182
Section 26
189
Section 27
196
Section 28
203
Section 29
208
Section 30
214

Section 9
70
Section 10
76
Section 11
82
Section 12
87
Section 13
92
Section 14
101
Section 15
109
Section 16
114
Section 17
120
Section 18
126
Section 19
132
Section 20
141
Section 21
146
Section 22
157
Section 31
219
Section 32
224
Section 33
230
Section 34
237
Section 35
247
Section 36
252
Section 37
263
Section 38
274
Section 39
282
Section 40
288
Section 41
300
Section 42
305
Section 43
309
Copyright

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About the author (2011)

MARTIN WALKER, after a long career of working in international journalism and for think tanks, now gardens, cooks, explores vineyards, writes and travels. His series of novels featuring Bruno, Chief of Police, are bestsellers in Europe and have been translated into more than fifteen languages. He divides his time between Washington, D.C., and the Dordogne.

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