Book Review-The Vintage Caper

Ever since I found "A Year in Provence" by Peter Mayle, I have been reading his books.  They are usually light, funny, and interesting.  The Vintage Caper is no exception.  What happens when the victim turns out to be the bad guy, and the robber turns out to be the good guy, and the man investigating everything was once himself a bad guy but is now a good guy?  Throw in some delectible French meals, and lots of wine descriptions and you've got a great read.

The Vintage Caper By Mayle, Peter 2009-10 - Knopf Publishing Group 9780307269010 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title Set in Hollywood, Paris, Bordeaux, and Marseille, Mayle's newest and most delightful work is filled with culinary delights, sumptuous wines, and colorful characters. …More

A Year in Provence By Mayle, Peter 1990-04 - Knopf Publishing Group 9780394572307 Check Our Catalog They had been there often as tourists. They had cherished the dream of someday living all year under the Provencal sun. And suddenly it happened. Here is the month-by-month account of the charms and frustrations that Peter Mayle and his wife -- and their two large dogs -- experience their first year in the remote country of the Luberon restoring a two-centuries-old stone farmhouse that they bought on sight. From coping in January with the first mistral, which comes howling down from the Rhone Valley and wreaks havoc with the pipes, to dealing as the months go by with the disarming promises and procrastination of the local masons and plumbers, Peter Mayle delights us with his strategies for survival. He relishes the growing camaraderie with his country neighbors -- despite the rich, soupy, often impenetrable patois that threatens to separate them. He makes friends with boar hunters and truffle hunters, a man who eats foxes, and another who bites dentists; he discovers the secrets of handicapping racing goats and of disarming vipers. And he comes to dread the onslaught of tourists who disrupt his tranquillity. In this often hilarious, seductive book Peter Mayle manages to transport us info all the earthy pleasures of Provencal life and lets us live vicariously in a tempo governed by seasons, not by days. George Lang, who was smitten, suggests: "Get a glass of marc, lean back in your most comfortable chair, and spend a delicious year in Provence." …More