Sat, Jan 23, 2016
Benjamin Lebel and his assistant Sylvère Dugain go to Angoulême because Benjamin has been invited to the opening of a new cellar by Arthur Salacrou.Benjamin is quite angry because Arthur Salacrou wants to present him as his new partner for new vodka prepared with grapes of the Angoulême region.Now the night of the opening has come, Benjamin and Arthur are in the cellar and suddenly Arthur Salacrou is shot down by a arrow shot by an underwater rifle.
Sat, Jan 3, 2015
Swiss investment banker insists that Lebel must assess a Chateauneuf-du-Pâpe estate, once reputed, slipping since the later owner Castelnaut's daughters fired wine-maker Francis Ollier, who now runs a friend-partner's smaller estate. Benjamin rightly suspects the supposed reason given by the only rich heiress-sister, Kate Weller, who returns from abroad, is a front, and starts digging in the murky family and staff history even before vineyard sabotage and murder strike.
Sat, Dec 1, 2012
Lors d'une séance de dédicaces dans une librairie du Sauternais, Benjamin Lebel, nologue et auteur de guides sur les vins, est abordé par un couple de sexagénaires. Ceux-ci lui demandent de venir expertiser leur cave, qui abrite une quarantaine de bouteilles d'un Sauternes très réputé, véritable rareté pour les amateurs. Benjamin promet de passer les voir, et charge Silvère, son assistant, d'aller faire l'inventaire de ce trésor dès que possible. Quelques heures plus tard, le couple est sauvagement assassiné, et les précieuses bouteilles ont disparu. Pour la gendarmerie, il ne fait aucun doute que le vol du vin est le principal mobile du meurtre. Benjamin mène l'enquête.
Sat, Jan 10, 2015
Benjamin Lebel is flattered that his youth-days poetry about the Cathar castles are to be published by a small firm in the Languedoc department Aude, so the drives there with assistant Silvère, who was promised a castles tout. They stay with Lebel's old friend, oenologist and former fellow 1960s revolutionary Janny Verniaud, who now leads a cooperative for biological wine-growing, but her young partners -especially hothead Arthur Gassard- are tired of her stickler obstacles to profitable production. The Montepelleir professor who piloted the Lebel poems projects, Janny's former colleague, has been killed in a car crash, which Benjamin finds suspicious even before his home is found ransacked, so he digs in the professor's other projects too.
Sat, Jan 14, 2017
Benjamin and Mathilde arrive in Beaujolais to advise on the possible sale of vineyards between bickering parties. They rich main estate owner is murdered. Benjamin and the police must look into both his heirs and passed-over gay playmate with AIDS Eric Beaujeu as well as a bunch of less wealthy, scheming locals, one if which gets 'accidentally' killed in a nocturnal boar elimination campaign in non-hunting season. Benjamin unravels a web of infidelity and manipulation, while his semi-rival Edgard Loewen is brought in after he's ousted form the consultation job, only intriguing him further.
Sat, Dec 10, 2011
Oenologue Benjamin Lebel, eagerly accompanied by his slick assistant Silvère, travels to the Cognac region to counsel a prospective Japanese buyer Hiroshi Tanaka about the possible take-over of legendary brandy family firm Aludel. He's shown the door by partner-siblings Pierre-François and Garance, but their apparently gay brother Baptiste, who has an eye on Silvère, shows Benjamin around. That night, Baptiste drowns in what may be an accident. Benjamin finds that his English old Paris flame 'Soho Rose' Shirley is involved, as well as her doted son Jonas and popular barman Gautier, as Baptiste was their bar's silent main investor, but also had more intimate relations. Only another murder convinces Barbaroux that Lebel stumbled upon another vipers nest, but it's not the last fatality.
Sat, Jan 28, 2012
Benjamin Lebel is startled to find his daughter Margaux back from New York, actually for her boyfriend, prestigious Château Belfleur's communications director Antoine Rinetti, whose proposal she announces to accept to spite daddy. For her sake, assistant Silvère is eager to help investigate the new ownership and wine-maker Séverin. Unlike Benjamin, his lover-colleague France Pelletier accepts to help the Russian mob-presumed owner Valéry Tchernakov research acquisition options. Shortly after, Rinaldi is fatally wounded by sports car sabotage, Margaux gets off lightly wounded. While Banjamin digs in the château's past and its present legacy, more criminal violence is lurking.
Sat, Feb 4, 2012
Benjamin was to prepare a Californian conference as key note speaker with his lover France, but she ends up writing the speech with his eager assistant Silvère as Lebel prefers more wine estate snooping. Denis and Jeanne Laville's wine-maker was murdered in their Pessac winery. The victim was co-heir to a tiny, yet potentially priceless breakaway top quality estate. Benjamin becomes a target as well as prime suspect while he and commissioner Barbaroux conduct parallel investigations for the families, staff and other players involved in shady games over potential takeovers and revenge, spiced with romantic liaisons and illegitimacy. Next murder victim is genealogist Francis Morin.