Bordeaux: The Bitter Finish: A Vengeance in the Vineyard Mystery

In Bordeaux: The Bitter Finish, thirty-year-old, NYPD detective Max Maguire returns to France as bodyguard to a famous American wine critic. But when her client turns up dead in her hotel room, and a precious bottle of wine goes missing, Max has no choice but to team up with examining magistrate and former lover, Olivier Chaumont. Max, using aggressive tactics learned from her homicide detective father, stays one step ahead of Olivier in the investigation. Olivier's more elegant approach takes them into the heart of Bordeaux society where he is sure the murderer and some fine dining lurks. Is a counterfeit wine operation with ties to New York somehow connected to the critic's murder? Readers are introduced to the fascinating world of fine wine, and to a cast of characters (and suspects) sure to keep even the most discerning critic on the edge of her seat. "Thirty-year-old Max Maguire, detective with the NYPD, finds herself in France again as she is sent as a bodyguard to one of America's most famous wine critics, who is traveling to Bordeaux, France to taste some of the most expensive wines in the world. In the tragic circumstances that follow, Max is paired once again with French examining magistrate, Olivier Chaumont, with whom she had had a fling the year before while solving a case in Champagne. In the bi-cultural duo's pursuit of a murderer on the loose, they run headlong into a counterfeit operation that has them entering the fabulous chateaux on one side of the Atlantic, and extraordinary New York apartments, wine clubs, and auction houses on the other side as they desperately try to prevent more violence. Max and Olivier, sip fine wines and dine in fabulous restaurants as they interrogate both French and Americans, the majority of whom comprise the one percent. Readers will want to know: Will Max unite at last with her French family? Will she and Olivier heat up the night again? Will they, considering their cultural and personality differences, be able to solve the crime without wanting to kill each other?"--Publisher's web site