By Chip Schrader
Book Review Editor
Peter Mayle’s latest novel, The Vintage Caper, carries on the French themes and settings he wove into literary gold with A Year in Provence in 1989. With locales stretching from Los Angeles to the French Riviera, Mayle’s eye for beauty, and the tastes of the world’s most exotic wines, this novel is easily categorized amongst the world’s finest art.
This time, the novel begins in a Los Angeles wine cellar belonging to a wine collector named Danny Roth, who lives up to his post as an entertainment lawyer with his cantankerous and materialistic personality. As he commissions the Los Angeles Times to cover his three million dollar Bordeaux collection, of which many connoisseurs might insist he only understands the monetary value, he insists this story will bring him the attention and respect amongst elites that he so desires.
Needless to say, he comes home to a vanished wine vault. Investigators find security of his cellar was shameful, the methodology of the heist ingenious (including an ambulance that enters the gated community to cart the wine out without incidence), and Roth’s lack of poise annoying. Insurance claim agent Elena Morales has neither the patience nor the expertise to wrangle with Roth’s case, so she taps an old friend, Sam Levitt, to take the case.
Levitt, an appreciator of the finest wines and women, particularly French for both, is an investigator with a past. Even with his unsavory past dealings, there is plenty of scoundrel left in him as he charges the insurance company a trip to the Bordeaux region of France where he seems to be right at home. As he networks his way into the tight knit French billionaire community with the help of the beautiful mademoiselle, Sophie, he finds that the motive for the theft and the means of retrieving of the goods would need just the relaxed morality only Levitt can achieve.
All the while Sam’s eyes wander from one pair of lovely legs to the next as he sips and dines his way through the case. But, as the case winds down and closes, that wandering eye finds attention for one woman, and Levitt’s days as a scoundrel might very well be limited, but maybe not.
The novel migrates from the west coast to Paris, and winds around to Marseilles all within 227 pages bringing the reader on a delightful whirlwind voyage. There aren’t too many major twists to make the reader guess and marvel at the ride. Instead, the novel unfolds organically and logically, but with slight turns away from predictability. The outcome is satisfying and whimsical, much like the journey that takes the reader there.
Mayle’s prose is tight, pointed and airy, like the wines and foods he describes within these pages. The novel is like a whipped desert with hints of bitter cacao to balance the sweet flavor. While the humor is subtle, this book is the kind of story that aims to make the reader smile and experience a delightful vicarious life.
Photo caption: Cover to Peter Mayle’s latest novel, The Vintage Caper. (Courtesy photo)
Book Review Editor
Peter Mayle’s latest novel, The Vintage Caper, carries on the French themes and settings he wove into literary gold with A Year in Provence in 1989. With locales stretching from Los Angeles to the French Riviera, Mayle’s eye for beauty, and the tastes of the world’s most exotic wines, this novel is easily categorized amongst the world’s finest art.
This time, the novel begins in a Los Angeles wine cellar belonging to a wine collector named Danny Roth, who lives up to his post as an entertainment lawyer with his cantankerous and materialistic personality. As he commissions the Los Angeles Times to cover his three million dollar Bordeaux collection, of which many connoisseurs might insist he only understands the monetary value, he insists this story will bring him the attention and respect amongst elites that he so desires.
Needless to say, he comes home to a vanished wine vault. Investigators find security of his cellar was shameful, the methodology of the heist ingenious (including an ambulance that enters the gated community to cart the wine out without incidence), and Roth’s lack of poise annoying. Insurance claim agent Elena Morales has neither the patience nor the expertise to wrangle with Roth’s case, so she taps an old friend, Sam Levitt, to take the case.
Levitt, an appreciator of the finest wines and women, particularly French for both, is an investigator with a past. Even with his unsavory past dealings, there is plenty of scoundrel left in him as he charges the insurance company a trip to the Bordeaux region of France where he seems to be right at home. As he networks his way into the tight knit French billionaire community with the help of the beautiful mademoiselle, Sophie, he finds that the motive for the theft and the means of retrieving of the goods would need just the relaxed morality only Levitt can achieve.
All the while Sam’s eyes wander from one pair of lovely legs to the next as he sips and dines his way through the case. But, as the case winds down and closes, that wandering eye finds attention for one woman, and Levitt’s days as a scoundrel might very well be limited, but maybe not.
The novel migrates from the west coast to Paris, and winds around to Marseilles all within 227 pages bringing the reader on a delightful whirlwind voyage. There aren’t too many major twists to make the reader guess and marvel at the ride. Instead, the novel unfolds organically and logically, but with slight turns away from predictability. The outcome is satisfying and whimsical, much like the journey that takes the reader there.
Mayle’s prose is tight, pointed and airy, like the wines and foods he describes within these pages. The novel is like a whipped desert with hints of bitter cacao to balance the sweet flavor. While the humor is subtle, this book is the kind of story that aims to make the reader smile and experience a delightful vicarious life.
Photo caption: Cover to Peter Mayle’s latest novel, The Vintage Caper. (Courtesy photo)
