By: Tony Aspler
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Tony Aspler’s peripatetic wine writer/detective, Ezra Brant, cannot avoid getting mixed up with murders when he travels to Napa Valley to attend the annual charity wine auction and to hook up again with his beautiful winemaker friends-with-benefits, known as C.C.
Tony Aspler has been writing about wine for 45 years. He has authored or contributed for eighteen books on wine and eleven books on food and written eleven novels. He was awarded the Order of Canada (2007) and was the first Canadian to be inducted into the New York Media Wine Writers Hall of Fame. Tony was awarded with the “Queen’s Jubilee Medal” and in 2017, he was awarded Spain’s Officers Cross of the Order of Civil Merit. In February 2001, Tony co-founded a charitable foundation, Grapes for humanity (www.grapesforhumanity.com), which raises money for the victims of landmines and children with disabilities.
A fantastically written thriller from start to finish. I would definitely recommend it.
A WHODUNIT IT WITH MORE RED HERRINGS THAN A FISH SHOP!
Ever get into trouble by minding your own business?
I bet you have.
That’s what happens to Brant, a portly wine writer from Toronto with a detective’s soul.
He’s in California for a wine convention and somebody he just met winds up dead in a culvert with a bag over his head.
Brant happens by and is suddenly in the thick of a murder investigation.
As an amateur detective.
And a suspect.
What follows is a mystery within a mystery with a decent but suspicious cop, Brant’s sometimes woman friend, CC, an opportunistic lawyer, some unpleasant bikers cum thugs, and two crying sisters with a land claim who are also accused of murder.
Aspler blends in wine information but he doesn’t hit you over the head with it. If you drink wine, you’ll relish the references. If you are new to wine take notes on bottles to try. (Bring money for some of them!)
Aspler is a strong writer, engaging and succinct with a light touch and fashions a fast-paced mystery. Many of the characters have more than one side to them. You know, like human beings do, but you rarely meet them in genre fiction. You do here.
Good plotting too and sharp dialogue in a nice setting.
Ezra Brant is not a hero but he has brains, compassion, and a sometimes-unhealthy passion and concern for doing the right thing. Gets him into trouble.
Did that ever happen to you too?
Thought so.
If you ever find yourself in the mood to solve a murder, have a drink instead.
A fast-paced, plausible, diverting evening’s read with the likable Ezra Brant.
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