CHAMPAGNE: THE FAREWELL

Twenty-nine-year-old NYPD detective Max Maguire flies to France to attend her friend Chloe Marceau's wedding at a grand estate in the Valley of the Marne in Champagne, an hour and a half east of Paris. There she meets the older and more urbane Olivier Chaumont, a juge d'instruction, or examining magistrate, and experiences a fairy tale evening. But when Chloe's widowed aunt, the beautiful and successful Lea de Saint-Pern, is found murdered after the wedding, Max and Olivier are shocked back into their respective professional roles. After another family member is found dead on the day of Lea's funeral, Max puts her career, and her tentative relationship with Olivier, in jeopardy as her determination to find the murderer - and prove herself in the process - takes over.

Sequel BORDEAUX: THE BITTER FINISH just published in hardcover by the Poisoned Penn Press. Avalable upon request.