{"id":7054,"date":"2026-05-20T05:36:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T12:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=7054"},"modified":"2026-05-20T05:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T12:36:20","slug":"danielle-postel-vinay-murder-most-delicious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/danielle-postel-vinay-murder-most-delicious\/","title":{"rendered":"Danielle Postel-Vinay: Murder Most Delicious"},"content":{"rendered":"

Series Debut<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There are several ways to judge a book.\u00a0 If three are present \u2013 plot, character, and setting \u2013 the book (to me) is good, if not great.\u00a0 The x factor is prose style.\u00a0 This novel has three excellent elements \u2013 character, setting and lovely prose.\u00a0 The plot is OK and I figured out whodunnit long before the last page, but the prose just sings as does the setting of the novel, and I was carried away.<\/p>\n

That setting is a tiny Paris neighborhood, Gros-Caillou, abutting the Eiffel Tower. The arrival of American sommelier Olivia Beech to a local anchor restaurant, Chez Jacques, is something of a sensation, becoming even more so when, during a wine tasting, the eponymous Jacques falls dead at Olivia\u2019s feet.\u00a0 While Olivia has been gifted with an extraordinary \u201cnose\u201d for wine, covid has taken away her sense of taste, which for a sommelier is a disaster.\u00a0 Surfacing from a career crisis in an attempt to reclaim her life, she\u2019s pinned her hopes on a resurrection at Chez Jacques.<\/p>\n

The stunned Olivia is immediately considered a suspect by the police, but the neighborhood cops on call think she\u2019s not guilty, and allow members of the neighborhood watch to whisk her away before she can be arrested. She\u2019s taken to the home of Auguste Dupin (a shoutout to Poe\u2019s character) who used to be the best detective on the police force, but hasn\u2019t left her home in years.\u00a0 Much like Olivia and her sense of smell, Auguste\u2019s ability to see subtle discrepancies marks her as different but also invaluable, making the combined powers\u00a0 of the two women formidable.<\/p>\n

Postel-Vinay also introduces the reader to the neighborhood watch, a motley group which includes a florist, a baker, a perfumier, a rebel who works as the American Library in Paris and the now former partner of the dead man.\u00a0 They almost immediately accept Olivia as one of their own, and she\u2019s able to continue to stay at Auguste\u2019s and enjoy the wonderful cooking, including a souffle, the description of which will leave your mouth watering.<\/p>\n

The police are willing to step back to a degree to let the watch investigate and in their gentle way, the group solves the crime, bringing everyone together at the flower shop for a d\u00e9nouement in the classic fashion.\u00a0 Nothing goes quite as smoothly as expected, but justice arrives in its own way, and the murderer is eventually caught. What makes this book a standout are the descriptions of food and wine, with the wine tasting especially revealing the kind of technical details that make a narrative memorable.\u00a0 Also standing out is the portrayal of a small slice of Paris that was so evocative it made me head to my computer to see it for myself.<\/p>\n

The final thing that makes this book memorable was simply the lovely prose.\u00a0 I was arrested, captivated, bedazzled \u2013 the writing lifts the book up in every way.\u00a0 You\u2019ll stop to savor as you read, just as you might with a wine or a pastry.\u00a0 The determination on the parts of the characters to embrace joy and beauty in a difficult world are the parts of the book that will stay with me.\u00a0\u00a0— Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

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Series Debut There are several ways to judge a book.\u00a0 If three are present \u2013 plot, character, and setting \u2013 the book (to me) is good, if not great.\u00a0 The x factor is prose style.\u00a0 This novel has three excellent elements \u2013 character, setting and lovely prose.\u00a0 The plot is OK and I figured out … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2498,328,2497,998,2087,2496,334,2499,1276,361],"class_list":["post-7054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-amateur-sleuths","tag-cozy","tag-danielle-postel-vinay","tag-first-in-series","tag-harper-perennial","tag-murder-most-delicious","tag-paris","tag-pastries","tag-robin-agnew","tag-wine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7054"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7056,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7054\/revisions\/7056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}