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Fiddler and Fiora Mystery #3
Gatsby's Vineyard
While visiting his old flame, a vineyard owner in Napa Valley, Fiddler and his gorgeous ex-wife, Fiora, investigate some mysterious disturbances in the vineyards, and the duo must catch the culprits. By the author of Money Burns. Reprint.
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
19 people are currently reading
73 people want to read
About the author
A.E. Maxwell
18 books20 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
(1)
collaboration of Ann Maxwell and Evan Maxwell
also aka Lowell Charters, Elizabeth Lowell, and Annalise Sun
(1)
collaboration of Ann Maxwell and Evan Maxwell
also aka Lowell Charters, Elizabeth Lowell, and Annalise Sun
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 23, 2019
”Jay Gatsby would have loved the Napa Valley--until someone found him face down between the vines. And they would have found him that way, make no mistake about it. There’s more than wine, prestige and carefully nurtured romance in Napa. There’s money. Real money. The kind people kill and die for.”
Fiddler, fresh off a case involving the PLO and a rogue Mossad agent, is not really looking for more trouble, but when his friend Sandra Autry is in trouble at her legendary estate in Napa Valley,...he can’t say no.
After all, they used to doink, and he has more than a few gossamer wrapped memories regarding his time with Sandra.
His ex-wife, the Scottish dynamo and dreamer of vivid dreams, does not want him to go. Whenever Fiddler inserts himself into a situation, things tend to get violent. They don’t like the very things that drive them as individuals, but they are crazy about each other. ”I didn’t understand her fascination with money shuffling when we didn’t need any more bucks. She didn’t understand why I’d take on jobs that were dangerous when we didn’t need the money. In the end she left, pursued her paper castles and never stopped loving her ex-husband. And me? Well, I took more than my share of lumps from various kinds of thugs and never stopped loving my ex-wife.”
This is one of those times in their on-again, off-again relationship when they are actually living together. Fiddler convinces Fiora to take some time away from her high finance kills and go with him to see Napa. ”Unlike Iowa or Kansas, where farmland has the utilitarian aesthetics of a John Deere tractor, Napa has an enormous, fecund beauty. The hills are sexy, like black eyelet lace smoothed over tanned skin. There is a sensual fullness to the country that is palpable. The feeling comes from the contrasts of cool and heat, damp and dry, and from the visual impact of heavy, bushy vine heads along straight trellises in row on row of field on field of grapes.”
This comparison is interesting because I’ve spent a lot of time in all three states. Most of Kansas is too flat, devoid of geographical detail, but I grew up in the rolling foothills of North Central Kansas where there is a certain beauty in the exposed chalk rock hills, grasslands, and the black dots of Angus cattle. In Iowa, there are the beautiful farmsteads painted white and red and miles and miles of gorgeous deep-green corn fields. Napa has such a variety of valleys and hills of which none look the same. Wineries rise like mirages of castles, shrouded by fog or glimmering in the sun. The vines themselves are in orderly rows as if beauty of this magnitude can be tamed.
I’m thrilled that Fiora is going with Fiddler on this little adventure; we didn’t see much of her in the last book...they were off, but now they are on. Sandra has had a particularly bad run of bad luck, spectacularly bad, but if she can hold things together until grape harvest, she will find some breathing room. She owns the most celebrated piece of land in Napa, called Deep Purple. Of course, I couldn’t help but put on Smoke on the Wateras well as the deeper catalog of the band while hanging out with Fiddler and Fiora in Napa.
Big money men are circling around Deep Purple like a volt of vultures. They don’t care about the aesthetics of Napa as it is; all they see is prime real estate that can be cut up into small acreages for weekend homes. Let Joe Finance from LA have a slice of the pie, raise a few grapes, produce a few bottles of wine with his name on it to give as gifts to clients, and make him feel like his life has more meaning than a soul cratering life of shifting finances.
Good thing Fiora is along. She knows these rat bastards, and she knows their tricks and schemes. They will stop at nothing to get in on the action, and that is where Fiddler, with his particular gifts for mayhem, might prove to be the prick that pops the balloon.
Gatsby’s Vineyard is the first book that I came across in the series. It comes up on a list of wine mysteries I found years ago, and of course, with the F. Scott Fitzgerald title I knew I’d have to read it. This is the third in the series so I decided to go back and read the first two before venturing into the clinging vines of Napa. With all the literary distractions and the siren songs of various other books, I never leave my literary Homeric galley. It has taken me a good fifteen years to cycle back around to reading this book. My intention is to speed up my journey through the A. E. Maxwell canon, but that will depend upon the beckoning shores, favorable winds, and my own book besotted mind.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
Fiddler, fresh off a case involving the PLO and a rogue Mossad agent, is not really looking for more trouble, but when his friend Sandra Autry is in trouble at her legendary estate in Napa Valley,...he can’t say no.
After all, they used to doink, and he has more than a few gossamer wrapped memories regarding his time with Sandra.
His ex-wife, the Scottish dynamo and dreamer of vivid dreams, does not want him to go. Whenever Fiddler inserts himself into a situation, things tend to get violent. They don’t like the very things that drive them as individuals, but they are crazy about each other. ”I didn’t understand her fascination with money shuffling when we didn’t need any more bucks. She didn’t understand why I’d take on jobs that were dangerous when we didn’t need the money. In the end she left, pursued her paper castles and never stopped loving her ex-husband. And me? Well, I took more than my share of lumps from various kinds of thugs and never stopped loving my ex-wife.”
This is one of those times in their on-again, off-again relationship when they are actually living together. Fiddler convinces Fiora to take some time away from her high finance kills and go with him to see Napa. ”Unlike Iowa or Kansas, where farmland has the utilitarian aesthetics of a John Deere tractor, Napa has an enormous, fecund beauty. The hills are sexy, like black eyelet lace smoothed over tanned skin. There is a sensual fullness to the country that is palpable. The feeling comes from the contrasts of cool and heat, damp and dry, and from the visual impact of heavy, bushy vine heads along straight trellises in row on row of field on field of grapes.”
This comparison is interesting because I’ve spent a lot of time in all three states. Most of Kansas is too flat, devoid of geographical detail, but I grew up in the rolling foothills of North Central Kansas where there is a certain beauty in the exposed chalk rock hills, grasslands, and the black dots of Angus cattle. In Iowa, there are the beautiful farmsteads painted white and red and miles and miles of gorgeous deep-green corn fields. Napa has such a variety of valleys and hills of which none look the same. Wineries rise like mirages of castles, shrouded by fog or glimmering in the sun. The vines themselves are in orderly rows as if beauty of this magnitude can be tamed.
I’m thrilled that Fiora is going with Fiddler on this little adventure; we didn’t see much of her in the last book...they were off, but now they are on. Sandra has had a particularly bad run of bad luck, spectacularly bad, but if she can hold things together until grape harvest, she will find some breathing room. She owns the most celebrated piece of land in Napa, called Deep Purple. Of course, I couldn’t help but put on Smoke on the Wateras well as the deeper catalog of the band while hanging out with Fiddler and Fiora in Napa.
Big money men are circling around Deep Purple like a volt of vultures. They don’t care about the aesthetics of Napa as it is; all they see is prime real estate that can be cut up into small acreages for weekend homes. Let Joe Finance from LA have a slice of the pie, raise a few grapes, produce a few bottles of wine with his name on it to give as gifts to clients, and make him feel like his life has more meaning than a soul cratering life of shifting finances.
Good thing Fiora is along. She knows these rat bastards, and she knows their tricks and schemes. They will stop at nothing to get in on the action, and that is where Fiddler, with his particular gifts for mayhem, might prove to be the prick that pops the balloon.
Gatsby’s Vineyard is the first book that I came across in the series. It comes up on a list of wine mysteries I found years ago, and of course, with the F. Scott Fitzgerald title I knew I’d have to read it. This is the third in the series so I decided to go back and read the first two before venturing into the clinging vines of Napa. With all the literary distractions and the siren songs of various other books, I never leave my literary Homeric galley. It has taken me a good fifteen years to cycle back around to reading this book. My intention is to speed up my journey through the A. E. Maxwell canon, but that will depend upon the beckoning shores, favorable winds, and my own book besotted mind.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
June 12, 2015
A.E. Maxwell knows how to put wit, fun, danger, adventure, love, friendship, all together and make it fast pace. The story just runs and you are caught up in what will happen next. Fiddler goes to Napa Valley to help and old friend, (and lover), Sandra, who's world renowned winery is having problems and they seem like there's more to it than a bad year of grapes! Fiona, Fiddler's ex-wife, or wife, or ex-wife???? ahum. Fiona, Fiddlers soul mate, who is currently living with him, goes with Fiddler to Napa to help Sandra out. Sandra just thinks she had a bad run financially, but really someone's plotting to take her beautiful, award winning winery, Deep Purple, away from her. Fiddler's on the trail, and Sandra is happy to have him there. Fiona is looking into Sandra's finances and between the two of them, they hope to figure out what's going on. Till the last page, this book had me glued to it. Great read.
July 8, 2008
JUST ENOUGH LIGHT TO KILL - Ex
Maxwell, A.E. - 3rd in series
With his feet firmly planted in California wine country and torchy ex-wife Fiora at his side, what more could the inimitable, unflappable Fiddler desire? How about Sandra, ex-flame and Napa Valley vineyard owner, who is in dire need of Fiddler's detection talents? Sandra has had a run of bad luck and bad business. A rare and deadly blight has suddenly and suspiciously infested all the best vineyards, including hers. Every vine in the valley could perish, unless Fiddler can get to the root of a mystery ripe with danger. As clouds of financial doom thunder overhead, Fiddler follows a twisting trail of clues that leads to a millionaire developer with billion-dollar dreams, and vintage violence fermenting from a powerful brew of vengeance and greed.
Great series.
Maxwell, A.E. - 3rd in series
With his feet firmly planted in California wine country and torchy ex-wife Fiora at his side, what more could the inimitable, unflappable Fiddler desire? How about Sandra, ex-flame and Napa Valley vineyard owner, who is in dire need of Fiddler's detection talents? Sandra has had a run of bad luck and bad business. A rare and deadly blight has suddenly and suspiciously infested all the best vineyards, including hers. Every vine in the valley could perish, unless Fiddler can get to the root of a mystery ripe with danger. As clouds of financial doom thunder overhead, Fiddler follows a twisting trail of clues that leads to a millionaire developer with billion-dollar dreams, and vintage violence fermenting from a powerful brew of vengeance and greed.
Great series.
March 22, 2013
Fiddler and ex-wife together help Fiddler's former lover in Napa Valley who has a string of "bad luck" and is in jeopardy of loosing her vineyard and restaurant - or was it bad luck?
November 27, 2014
Highly recommended series. Read from the beginning.
April 13, 2017
Another good addition to this series. There is some info-dumping (which is kind of typical of Elizabeth Lowell if you've read some of her books) about Napa valley but I could deal with it. I'm a little wary of the reason Fiora won't stay with Fiddler. I'm willing to go with it for a few more books though.
October 23, 2018
Gatsby's Vineyard by A. E. Maxwell
“The writing is lean and restrained, and Fiddler...gives Travis McGee a real run for his money.”—*Los Angeles Times*
“Maxwell manages a slam-bang climax...and the California wine business background is unusual and entertaining.”—*Publishers Weekly*
“Evokes with grace, elegance and love the colors, smells and sounds of Napa Valley wine-making.”—*Vanity Fair*
“By far [Maxwell's] best, a California thriller with very realcharacters and dialogue and a violent, unexpected ending you won't soon forget.”—*Palo Alto Times Tribune*
**Back in print, the third Fiddler & Fiora crime novel. **
Five months into their rekindled relationship, Fiddler and his blonde dynamo of an ex-wife Fiora find themselves in Napa Valley wine country. It's there that Fiddler gets drawn into former flame Sandra's vineyard woes. A run of bad luck and bad business might seem like coincidence, but when a rare and deadly parasite suddenly infests all the best vineyards—Sandra's included—the entre valley's industry is counting on Fiddler and Fiora for help.
**A. E. Maxwell** is the pseudonym of Ann and Evan Maxwell. Ann is now best known as *New York Times* bestseller Elizabeth Lowell.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews