Like fine wine, Jean-Pierre Alaux and Noël Balen get better as the “Winemaker Detective Mystery” series get older (translation – more books are written).
In “Nightmare in Burgundy 
To use an American vernacular, the wine in Burgundy might be to die for; but the grand cru is innocent when two teenagers were shot to death. Still, that crime is a cut and dried case – the teens were caught writing graffiti and a drunk shot them.
What caught Benjamin Cooker’s attention were the graffiti themselves. Written in Latin with biblical references, it looked more like an erudite person would write it than a teenager. Unsure of his translations, Cooker visited his old mentor at the Citeaux Abbey who explained to Cooker that everything was not what it seemed.
Needing help both for the wine tasting and the mystery of the Latin graffiti, Benjamin Cooker asked his assistant Virgile to come to Burgundy. Together, the two amateur sleuths were able to piece together the puzzle but the more they know, the more they don’t like what they were uncovering.
While Benjamin Cooker and Virgile remain central to the story line, the sidebars like the history of the locale and the wines make the series more than just a whodunit. It also becomes a fountain of knowledge.
Another thing that makes the series stand out is the piousness of Benjamin Cooker. British by birth but a Catholic and living in France which is predominantly Catholic, as a character Benjamin Cooker exudes faith and piety.
And though some readers of Christian books might disagree with me, I can honestly say that I see more religion and Christianity in the “Nightmare in Burgundy
Still, the best part of it all is that the books are written in lyrical prose that though I am reading it in English, the poetry of the French language has not been lost in translation.
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