Jean-Pierre ALAUX and Noël BALEN

on  Tour

September 3-22

with

Authors Jean-Pierre ALAUX and Noël BALEN

are featured for the 8th time on France Book Tours!
After Treachery in Bordeaux,
Grand Cru Heist,
Nightmare in Burgundy,
Deadly Tasting,
Cognac Conspiracies,
Mayhem in Margaux,
Flambé in Armagnac

meet again the famous wine maker detective with this 8th volume!

Montmartre Mysteries

(cozy mystery)

 Release date: September 3, 2015
at Le French Book

146  pages

ISBN: 978-1939474476

Website | Goodreads

SYNOPSIS

Wine expert Benjamin Cooker travels to the French capital, where his is called to help care for some vineyards in Montmartre, a neighborhood full of memories for him. He stops in on an old friend. Arthur Solacroup left the Foreign Legion to open a wine shop good enough to be in the Cooker Guide. But an attempted murder brings the past back into the present. But which past? The winemaker detective and his assistant Virgile want to know more, and their investigation leads them from the sands of Djibouti to the vineyards of Côte du Rhône. [provided by the publisher]

An episode in a long successful French mysteries series
that is a hit television series now in its fourth season
and attracting an audience of over 4 million.
The series is a huge success in France, Belgium and Switzerland.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

©David Nakache

Jean-Pierre Alaux and Noël Balen,
wine lover and music lover respectively,
came up with the idea for the Winemaker Detective series
while sharing a meal,
with a bottle of Château Gaudou 1996,
a red wine from Cahors
with smooth tannins and a balanced nose.

 ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

TOUR QUOTATIONS

The Discerning Reader

Cooker returns igniting your senses as he conducts business from Paris. Food, wine, art, historical sites deliver a rich atmosphere.
I look forward to this delicious series immensely – more than a reading adventure, it’s a reading experience.
Another wonderful installment Alaux and Balen crafted. Never disappointing, always an especial delight to explore.

Queen of All She Reads

If you like books set in foreign countries with colorful characters and like to expand your knowledge of other cultures, this is a series you must read!
The story’s pace is fairly even and the author’s provide the reader with the history of the small vineyards located within the city of Paris itself along the way.

Book And Ink

Exotic location from France, Wine brewing and a good mystery – the perfectly intoxicating combination for a mystery lover like me.  The book proved to be just like Wine, the mystery brewed slowly and ended in a bang when tasted.

Griperang’s Bookmarks

This is one of my favorite series.
Each of the books in this series give us a lesson in winemaking and history of France, which is fun.
Although it is a shorter book it is full of punch and a great story.

Words And Peace

Short and suspenseful cozy mystery focusing on Montmartre, a unique neighborhood of Paris, with its special ambiance and its own vineyard!

LibriAmoriMiei

Another fun and interesting adventure of wine expert and detective Benjamin Cooker and his reliable assistant Virgil.
It’s the eighth book of The Winemaker Detective Series, you can read without difficulty as stand alone but also recommended to read the others, are short and pleasant readings.
If you love wine, its history and Paris, this is a book not to be missed.

I’d Rather Be At The Beach

It’s a short read and there are no lulls in the story, and all the characters are interesting.
A very good book if you like mysteries and/or Paris.

CLICK ON THE BANNER TO READ THE FULL REVIEWS
AND EXCERPTS

Sally Christie

on  Tour

August 31 – September 9

with

The Sisters of Versailles

(historical fiction)

 Release date: September 1, 2015
at Atria Book/Simon & Schuster

432  pages

ISBN: 978-1501102967

Website | Goodreads

SYNOPSIS

A sumptuous and sensual tale of power, romance, family, and betrayal centered around four sisters and one King. Carefully researched and ornately detailed, The Sisters of Versailles is the first book in an exciting new historical fiction trilogy about King Louis XV, France’s most “well-beloved” monarch, and the women who shared his heart and his bed.
Set against the lavish backdrop of the French Court in the early years of the 18th century, The Sisters of Versailles is the extraordinary tale of the five Nesle sisters—Louise, Pauline, Diane, Hortense, and Marie-Anne—four of whom became mistresses to King Louis XV. Their scandalous story is stranger than fiction but true in every shocking, amusing, and heartbreaking detail.
Court intriguers are beginning to sense that young King Louis XV, after seven years of marriage, is tiring of his Polish wife. The race is on to find a mistress for the royal bed as various factions put their best feet—and women—forward. The King’s scheming ministers push Louise, the eldest of the aristocratic Nesle sisters, into the arms of the King. Over the following decade, she and her sisters—ambitious Pauline; complacent Diane, and cunning Marie Anne—will conspire, betray, suffer, and triumph in a desperate fight for both love and power.
The Sisters of Versailles is a treat through and through – the characters are witty and engaging and come together to create an undeniable page-turner. Sally Christie has a wonderful sense of pace and the book unfolds in front of you like a delicious gift. Even as the scandals pile up and the intrigue mounts, you can’t help but fall in love with these sisters and their competing infatuations with the King.
In the tradition of The Other Boleyn Girl, The Sisters of Versailles is a clever, intelligent, and absorbing novel that historical fiction fans will devour. Based on meticulous research on a group of women never before written about in English, Sally Christie’s stunning debut is a complex exploration of power and sisterhood—of the admiration, competition, and even hatred that can coexist within a family when the stakes are high enough.   [provided by the publisher]

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sally Christie was born in England of British parents
and grew up around the world,
attending eight schools in three languages.
She spent most of her career working in international development
and is currently settled in Toronto.
A life-long history buff who wishes time travel were a real possibility
—she’d be off to the eighteenth century in a flash!
The Sisters of Versailles is her first novel.

Learn more about the sisters and the mistresses in the Versailles trilogy on her website
Become a fan to hear about her next novels!

Check her Pinterest page

Anne-Laure Thiéblemont

on  Tour

August 10-29

with

The Collector

(mystery)

 Release date: August 11, 2015
at Le French Book

211  pages

ISBN: 978-1939474445

Website | Goodreads

SYNOPSIS

Some people collect art, others collect trouble. Marion Spicer spends her days examining auction catalogues and searching for stolen works of art. She is a top-notch investigator when it comes to eighteenth-century art. But for her it’s just a job and her life is well ordered. All this changes when she inherits a huge and very prestigious collection of pre-Columbian art from a father she never knew. There are conditions attached: she must first find three priceless statues. That is when her troubles begin. Her father’s death sparked much greed, and Marion finds herself facing the merciless microcosm of Paris art auctions and galleries, with its sharks, schemes, fences, traps, scams, and attacks. Her quest draws her into a world where people will kill for a love of beauty. [provided by the publisher]
Reviewers: the book contains some sex and violence

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

An art reporter and trained gem specialist,
Anne-Laure Thiéblemont
is known for her investigations into stolen art
and gem trafficking.
She currently works as a magazine editor,
and splits her time between Paris and Marseille.

 ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

TOUR QUOTATIONS

France for me has been typically associated with everything romantic. The prospect of reading an art based mystery sounded even ‘more’ romantic for me. I’m a mystery addict. Needless to say, the book totally captivated me.
The writer’s experience as a stolen art investigator is apparent from the in-depth analysis and reasoning about art forgery/theft narrated from Marion’s perspective as a part of the story. To an art novice like me, that part of the book was nothing short of being enchanting.