A Glass of Wine and a Good Book – Wine and Crime in the Summer Murder Mystery Novel Pinot Envy
Baltimore, MD (PRWEB) July 19, 2013 -- There is an art to crafting wine, and an art to enjoying it. From the casual glass to an elaborate tasting ceremony, wine gives us the chance at every income level to enjoy something very fine indeed. This could only aid in wine’s historic popularity- the accessible luxury, the excellent glass.
The price range in wine is possibly the broadest of any consumable. Christie’s Auctions have presented bottles for over one hundred thousand dollars; a 1945 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild Jeroboam set one bidder back $114,614 and the 1787 Chateau Lafite fetched $160,000. Both were dwarfed by the Shipwrecked 1907 Heidsieck, actually retrieved from a wrecked ship, at $275,000.
Meanwhile the cheapest wine you can commonly find in the US is Two Buck Chuck, whose price has crept up over time but can still be found at $2.49 as of this date in parts of California. As far as extreme bargains go this is about as good as it gets, but it’s only one runner in a field that boasts Cheap Red Wine as a title. One need not go straight to the cheapest vines but frankly most wine lovers are not dropping a full paycheck nor a year’s GDP for a bottle of wine. The bottles in between the highs and lows cover every price, every taste, and every style we can think up.
Another treat to savor is the Good Story. Hours and days can be given to the pages of an excellent read, and rightly so; no other medium has the ability to draw a person in to a world of their own imagining with only the guidance of the distant author. To curl up with a glass of wine and a good book is such a universal joy that the phrase has been co-opted by writers, book clubs, blogs, and even photographers. Surely a book featuring wine as a critical plot element would be something to savor.
Fortunately there is a new literary arrival.
Pinot Envy, the cleverly titled new release from Bancroft Press, offers that exquisite combination in the form of a humorous murder mystery. Set in Napa Valley and San Francisco, the story follows a bon vivant, devil-may-care wine guru who specializes in investigatory work involving rare artifacts of a vinous nature. One of these rare wines, a bottle of burgundy formerly belonging to Napoleon Bonaparte, has gone missing, setting off a chain of events that sweeps the character up into a humorous misadventure involving history, romance, and the mob.
The book is the fiction debut of Edward Finstein, the prolific wine columnist known to fans as the Wine Doctor.
Beach Metro News raves "Pinot Envy crackles with wit, intelligence, and humour. Here's hoping that the Wine Doctor has more prescriptions on his pad.”
In a world thirsty for some delicious fun, this book leaves the glass better than half full. "From the title to the plot, this is one book that hits on all cylinders: humor, mystery, adventure. A really entertaining read, the history of wine is told in a thrilling, exciting way,” says Suspense Magazine.
Pinot Envy will be the just the first of its kind, if publisher Bruce Bortz has anything to say about it. "There are many reasons I did this book, which is planned as a series, one reason is there is very little wine fiction out there, in spite of wine’s huge and growing role in the popular culture. Ed is a witty and wise storyteller. I believe this story will be enjoyed by mystery readers and wine lovers alike."
As of July 16, Pinot Envy is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and bookstores everywhere as an inexpensive hardback and ebook.
Baltimore-based Bancroft Press has been a leading independent general interest publisher for the past 20 years.
Bruce Bortz, Bancroft Press, http://www.bancroftpress.com, 410-358-0658, [email protected]
Share this article