SWEET POISON

The guest of honor at the North American Epicurean Society's annual banquet is the single most influential critic on the West Coast. Augustus Poole is known by everyone. A thumbs up or down from Poole - especially where a new restaurant or winery is concerned - could make the difference between success and withering on the vine. Poole agreed to attend the banquet and demanded, in lieu of a fee, a bottle of '47 Yquem. That, and a bodyguard: retired BATF agent and private investigator Jack Donne ... whose own vineyard was batting .500 with the obnoxious critic. While he'd prefer to concentrate on the vintner's art rather than the craft of gumshoe, Donne agrees to help at the urging of friends for whom the banquet is a chance to make their mark.
According to Poole, someone is trying to kill him, though no one is taking his fears seriously; the shots are discounted by the police as a random drive-by. During the banquet, though, it becomes clear that any number of people might very well want the critic dead, and later that night, the threats become something more than idle.
It isn't Poole found lying on the floor beside the open bottle of Yquem, however, and that makes him one of several suspects. The poison in the wine is another matter.
Now it becomes Donne's job not only to clear his client's name but to find the person or persons responsible for a bottle of sweet poison.

In an agreeable blend of wine, food and murder, Jack Donne, former Treasury agent and PI who now grows wine with his father in Southern California, makes his second appearance, following Deadly Vintage (1995). Powerful and obnoxious wine and restaurant critic Augustus Poole is scheduled to be the featured guest at a weekend gathering of the snooty NAMES (North American Epicurean Society) at a friend's vineyard. Poole is convinced, however, that someone is trying to murder him and will attend only if a bodyguard is provided to protect him and his secretary. Reluctantly, Donne agrees. Poole?obese, egotistical, caustic and, at least in his own mind, brilliant?bears resemblance to Nero Wolfe (the book carries an epigraph by Rex Stout). When verbal violence leads to a confrontation and a death, Donne finds himself investigating the many NAMES members who would be only too happy to see Poole dead. Meanwhile, the still living Poole unhelpfully decides that he himself must solve the crime. Relling makes appealing use of the beautiful Santa Ynez countryside and its vineyards. The plot goes down smoothly accompanied by descriptions of fine cuisine, including some tempting red herrings, and many vintages, some of surprising potency.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Though he intended a permanent quietus to his p.i. business, Jack Donne (Deadly Vintage, 1995), now a partner with his father in a California winery, finds himself in gumshoes once again. Sort of. To help a friend--and because the fee is irresistible--he agrees to accept a bodyguarding assignment. The subject is Augustus Poole, a viperish but powerful food critic who makes enemies as naturally as grapes make wine. Two recent attempts on his life have convinced Poole that his body's at serious risk and in urgent need of guarding. Donne's mission: to keep him alive until he completes his guest-speaker stint for NAMES (North American Epicurean Society), that snootiest of gourmet clubs. Which isn't easy. Poole truly is heartily despised--for his overweening arrogance in general, and in particular for the merciless, often unfair reviews that through the years have disparaged worthy products and destroyed hard-earned reputations. ``Dirty Poole,'' cry a variety of vengeance-minded victims. And so, as the members gather for their annual banquet--57 of them, if you please--Donne eyes them uneasily, fully aware that the task he's taken on is no piece of cake. But it is all so familiar, with a plot line that was old when Agatha Christie wasn't. Moreover, the characters are cardboard, the dialogue wooden, and even the wine lore seems watered down. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.