A Year in Paradise

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When the world's most powerful oil minister is found shot dead in the middle of a French vineyard, a London oil trader is first on the scene, swiftly followed by the charming daughter of a viticulteur from Cognac's finest growing region and a police officer whose task, at first urgent and career-defining, comes to seem "as as futile as trying to investigate the killing of ants squashed beneath his heel." A year in Paradise is doubly genre-busting, taking a swipe at romantic happy endings and neatly soluble crimes. Its satisfactions include the discoveries on the way and reflections on the poignancy of France's rural traditions as they struggle to resist an assault from global pressures and a heartless cynic.