The Winemaker Detective Mystery is a new obsession. With its fifth book, “Cognac Conspiracies 
As always in a series, be it in books, movies or on television, the heroes are as much a part of the storytelling as the plot. Jean-Pierre Alaux and Noël Balen has successfully crafted Benjamin Cooker and Virgile to be very lovable characters yet also made them more human with their frivolities.
For the fifth book, Benjamin and Virgile were faced with moral dilemmas as they tackle the very competitive and very small world of cognac. When a death occurs, our heroes find themselves in the middle of a controversy.
Not only the need to solve the crime; they also have to make sure that France’s oldest Cognac estates do not fall to a hostile takeover.
Cognac Conspiracies
The heirs to one of the oldest Cognac estates in France face a hostile takeover by foreign investors. Renowned wine expert Benjamin Cooker is called in to audit the books. In what he thought was a sleepy provincial town, he is stonewalled, crosses paths with his first love, and stands up to high-level state officials keen on controlling the buyout. Meanwhile, irresistible Virgile mingles with the local population until a drowning changes the stakes.
