A murder most French
(Book)

Joining Julia at a tasting during a monthly meeting of her wine club at L'Ecole du Cordon Bleu, her neighbor, friend, and amanuensis Tabitha Knight is on hand to watch Chef Richard Beauchene taste his very last wine, an 1893 Volnay Clos de la Rougeotte that he samples just before keeling over. Cyanide, thinks Tabitha, whose determination to stay away from anymore murders is on a collision course with her sense that she's channeling Agatha Christie. Although Inspecteur Etienne Merveille wholeheartedly endorses her reluctance to get involved, she's left with little choice after she recognizes Louis Loyer at another event as the chef who was arguing with Beauchene on the evening of his last libation only moments before Loyer uncorks an 1871 Sauternes that turns out to be his last round as well. Assuming that the two poisonings (more will follow) can't be a coincidence, Tabitha wonders if it's a coincidence that she's been on the scene for both of them and begins to make a cautious list of other people who were present for both deaths. Considering that she's not much more interested in the suspects than her author, Tabitha does a highly effective job of identifying the culprit and tipping her hand in a way that forces her once again to employ her Swiss Army knife to rescue herself from certain death.