Bordeaux: The Bitter Finish: A Vengeance in the Vineyard Mystery ($24.95) begins with NYPD detective Max Maguire returning to France as bodyguard to a famous American wine critic. Max is not just escorting the critic, she's also keeping an eye on a very expensive bottle of wine whose authenticity is in dispute, a pawn in cut-throat wine wars. Checked into their Paris hotel, it's not long before Max discovers her client dead in her room and the bottle stolen from the hotel's safe. She has no choice but to team up with Olivier Chaumont, the man she had fallen in love with the year before. Max has no police role in France but she stays a step ahead of the French investigators, while Olivier weaves in and out of Bordeaux society where he is certain the murderer lurks.

Is this something local, or is there really a counterfeit wine operation in play? Moving back and forth from Bordeaux to Manhattan among vintners, restaurateurs, auctioneers, collectors, and other characters, everyone is propelled towards a shocking climax.

Janet Hubbard was born in South Hill, Virginia and received degrees from Virginia Intermont College and New York University. She worked in publishing in New York for ten years before moving to Vermont. She wrote non-fiction books for Chelsea House Publishers under the name Janet Hubbard-Brown, and had a writing, editing and teaching business in central Vermont. Her Vengence in the Vineyard series is the result of annual trips to France over a twenty-year span to visit French friends, and a love of wine and the wine culture that led to extensive stays in some of the wine districts, including Champagne and Bordeaux.