Imserba Webstore - The Vintage Caper

	List Price: $24.95 Our Price: $16.47 Your Save: $ 8.48 ( 34% ) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Manufacturer: Knopf
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Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914 EAN: 9780307269010 Feature: ISBN13: 9780307269010 Format: Deckle Edge ISBN: 0307269019 Label: Knopf Manufacturer: Knopf Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 240 Publication Date: 2009-10-20 Publisher: Knopf Release Date: 2009-10-20 Studio: Knopf
Features ISBN13: 9780307269010 Condition: NEW Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
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Editorial Reviews: Set in Hollywood, Paris, Bordeaux, and Marseille, Peter Mayle’s newest and most delightful novel is filled with culinary delights, sumptuous wines, and colorful characters. It’s also a lot of fun. The story begins high above Los Angeles, at the extravagant home and equally impressive wine cellar of entertainment lawyer Danny Roth. Unfortunately, after inviting the Los Angeles Times to write an extensive profile extolling the liquid treasures of his collection, Roth finds himself the victim of a world-class wine heist. Enter Sam Levitt, former corporate lawyer, cultivated crime expert, and wine connoisseur. Called in by Roth’s insurance company, which is now saddled with a multimillion-dollar claim, Sam follows his leads—to Bordeaux and its magnificent vineyards, and to Provence to meet an eccentric billionaire collector who might possibly have an interest in the stolen wines. Along the way, bien sûr, he is joined by a beautiful and erudite French colleague, and together they navigate many a château, pausing frequently to enjoy the countryside’s abundant pleasures. The unraveling of the ingenious crime is threaded through with Mayle’s seductive rendering of France’s sensory delights—from a fine Lynch-Bages and Léoville Barton to the bouillabaisse of Marseille and the young lamb of Bordeaux. Even the most sophisticated of oenophiles will learn a thing or two from this vintage work by a beloved author.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Another Mayle caper Comment: Peter Mayle once more riding his hobby horses: suave food, suave wines, suave women, business as usual: money no object. The story is more than a little predictable if not disappointing - too much of a muchness, really. Perhaps if you didn't know any other of Mayle's novels you might say, rather entertaining! But in the context of his literary pursuit as a whole the book doesn't add anything new to speak of (or read). Not a patch on, say, Anything Considered or Hotel Pastis... Burn-out syndrome? Customer Rating: Summary: Thin and flabby Comment: Peter Mayle really ought to be ashamed of this one. A very short story with a feeble, unconvincing and easily predictable plot and a genuinely silly ending, this has all the characteristics of a last minute job. Customer Rating: Summary: Mayle does it again! Comment: I own most of Mayle's books and they have given me great pleasure over the years. At first, I enjoyed his nonfiction but that tide turned with "A Good Year" which I found to be his fictional work that I enjoyed the most. While "The Vintage Caper" isn't quite up to that standard it is enjoyable if you like food, wine, France, and the French or any combination of those things. His writing has inspired me to try foods I wouldn't have considered and to dream of places I want to go. Now I have to add Marsaille to the list. Customer Rating: Summary: Bubbly, frothy, yet unpretentious Comment: Peter Mayls'e "Vintage Caper" is first and foremost vintage Mayle. The novel is mostly set in the south of France, the characters are chatty, the wine flows. While it's not the most intricate or intriguing caper one could read, that's not the point. The point is it's Peter Mayle writing lighthearted, accessible fiction again, and his hand is as cunning as ever. To measure this book by comparing to traditional best-seller capers is to do the book a grave injustice. Once you accept that the caper is merely a vessel holding Mayle's literary mousse, you're in for a joyous ride. Customer Rating: Summary: complete waste of time Comment: Not just Mr. Mayle's worst book, but one of the worst in the universe of literature. From the vapid, almost non-existent plot to the completely detached characters, this book offers nothing to the reader. Does "caper" imply a modicum of suspense? Literally none is found here. Mr. Mayle owes me a Cotes du Rhone for this one.