From eidelweiss
The fifth in the series, and Benjamin is finding himself in uncharted territory and he's not entirely comfortable. One of the oldest Cognac producers (the Lavoisier Chateau) has found itself with a minority shareholder in the form of the Chinese. Benjamin has been hired to do an audit of the winemaking capability to allow the Chinese to bring the business into the modern world. They have not appreciated the history of the French Winemakers and that modernity takes a long time to trickle through. Not only is Benjamin getting nowhere with Marie-France (the primary one of the three siblings who own the business), but he is also having quite meetings in churchyards from the French Government and getting pressure to scupper the deal.

Meanwhile there is an undercurrent of secrets, rumours and sexuality within the family, and Virgile, Benjamin's assistant, is bearing the brunt of it. Where Benjamin makes no headway with the Little Pierre, the younger brother, Pierre takes a fancy to Virgile, and things are progressing well until Pierre is found drowned one morning.

Having left Virgile to see what he can find out, Benjamin is having lunch when he meets his first love, a British woman who has been living in France for over 10 years. His happy marriage with Elizabeth is no deterrent to Shelia, who repeatedly comes onto Benjamin – he declines the offer, and realises over the next few days that she is another person with secrets, including a son (Nathan) that is never mentioned in any of their conversations.

In the end the threads are pulled together in a rather more satisfying way than some of the previous books in the series and the book feels a little more rounded. This is technically a Benjamin Crocker book, but Virgile is finding out much more than Benjamin is now, and is central to finding out what's going on.

Cognac Conspiracies is the fifth book in the Winemaker Detective Mysteries series and the first one I have read in the series. But I had no problem getting into the story, there are not many characters to keep track on and the main characters Benjamin Cooker and Virgile made an interesting duo. But I must say that I preferred Virgile as a character rather than Benjamin. At least in this book. Since this is the first book I have read about them perhaps my view will change when I read the others. But one of the reasons to why I liked Virgile was that not only do women fancy Virgile but in this book he had some problem with a man desiring him. But that is perhaps something he is used to, I don't know. But that was quite fun reading. Trying to work with women and men undressing one with their eyes was tough for poor Virgile.

But, I wish I had to get to know the characters a little more than I did in this book. A little more background. That's the drawback to reading a book in the middle of a series. On the plus side, I now have a couple of books to read.

Now about the story. It wasn't really a surprise that something was fishy about the drowning, this is a crime novel after all. Also, This isn't a thick book, so there wasn't really much time for red herrings or many suspects and that was too bad because that meant that there wasn't really a big surprise when everything was revealed at the end of the book. I wished there would have been more twists to the story because I liked the writing style and the main characters in the book.

In the end, will I say that I liked the book. It was a nice cozy mystery book and I would very much read more in the series. Especially the previous books. But I have to deduct a half star because of the lack of a more surprising ending.

2.5 stars

I received a copy from the publisher and france book tours in return for an honest review! ( )

Book received from Edelweiss. Read for March Mystery Madness.

This is a book in a series of translated mysteries, they do not have to be read in order, I have had no problems keeping up while reading them piecemeal. This book takes place in France where the oenophile and main character of the book is called in by the buyer of a Cognac maker to look over the business. Of course, while he's doing that someone dies and he has to figure out how it's connected. I really enjoy these books, though they're so short they're more like novellas. I believe that they're on KU and if you enjoy cozy mysteries you should give them a try. ( )

(Fiction, Mystery, French, Translated [by Sally Pane], Series)

This is the fifth installment in the Winemaker Detective series featuring (fictional) renowned wine expert Benjamin Cooker, set in France. The heirs to one of the oldest Cognac estates in France call in Cooker when they face a hostile takeover by foreign investors.

There is a passable mystery, but the appeal of the series is the wine and the setting, and would be particularly interesting to oenophiles, or Francophiles with an interest in wine-making.

I suspect that each entry in this series stands well alone.

I received a complimentary ecopy of Cognac Conspiracies from the publisher. This did not affect my review.

3 stars ( )