Inspector Cosulich is the first detective ever in Italian fiction to investigate the world of wine. And he is a teetotaler! Among such characters as French enchantresses, old luminaries, charming winemakers, impoverished aristocrats, shrewd managers, and unscrupulous businessmen, we find a wine expert with more secrets than we could ever have imagined.

"CLOUDY BACK PALATE,
BLOOD RED SHADE,
AN UNPREDICTABLE BOUQUET,
AND A SUBTLY IRONIC AFTERTASTE.
THIS IS AN EXCELLENT VINTAGE OF A THRILLER.
I RECOMMEND GULPING IT DOWN.

- Carlo Lucarelli -

 

MONTALCINO BLOOD

An investigation by Inspector Cosulich

Roberto Candido, an internationally renowned wine expert, has been killed. His body has been found among the Montalcino grape vines at the Abbey of Saint Antimo, under an ancient fresco of Saint Chritopher. Inspector Cosulich, a taciturn man of culture, is called to investigate the murder. He finds himself with big fish to fry: If the victim is a winemaker and news of the murder gets the attention of the international press and even the CNN, then the case must be much bigger than it initially appeared. It's a complicated wine thriller touching many, oftentimes murky, interests. But it is also a divine mystery since Candido had perhaps run into something forbidden and sacrilegious -- a truth buried deep in the soil; a truth that dates back to a very long time ago, when the First Grape was growing in the most ancient gardens. The book is a very pleasant read that narrates events that take place in some of the most beautiful places in Italy – from Barolo to Franciacorta and the Tuscan countryside – weaving into it fascinating historical and cultural facts as well as an amazing tale of fraud, money and astonishment. Cosulich, helped by the loyal and very Roman Inspector Mastrantoni, soon discovers that Roberto Candido, a wine expert whose career had been crowned with several awards, was in possession of some very important information that could have seriously damaged the public image of some internationally known corporations and hurt their business. Moreover, the wine expert was obsessed with the search of the First Grape – the mother of all grapes – in Mesopotamia, and with "swinging," which has nothing to do with sex but refers to an experimental method adopted in the production of grapes and wine. All this would be enough to endanger the interests of the wine establishment. But there is a lot more. The soil guards mysteries that Man is not aware of. "This is the truth," Candido had written. It is up to an introverted visionary, Cosulich, to discover what that mysterious truth is. "Montalcino Blood" is a classical thriller, fun and sharp, that through suspense and irony, opens up a window on the international wine world and its intrigues.

 

Serradenari estate owner and winemaker Giovanni Negri is also an author, a journalist and an entrepreneur. He has been a member of the Italian and European parliaments (1983-1992) and is author of several bestselling books whose subject revolves around the world of wines. Il Romanzo del Vino (coauthored with Roberto Cipresso and Stefano Milioni), Vinosofia and Vineide, published by Piemme Editore, have sold a total of over 50,000 copies in Italy. Il Sangue di Montalcino (Montalcino Blood) has been published by Einaudi and is currently being translated into German and Spanish. It is the first of a series of novels that combine a classical thriller with the mysteries of wine and taste and elements of a historic novel. Mondadori will soon be publishing Negri's "Roma Caput Mundi," a book on a page of history that the Italians are not aware of and the French do not want to hear. It explains how Rome was to wine what America has been to Coca Cola – Everything!