When wine trade businesswoman turned sleuth Sarah Bennett stumbles upon an audacious plot to hijack the billion-dollar Australian wine industry, she uncovers a bloody trail of corruption and murder that threatens to destroy her.
In the bestselling tradition of Lynda La Plante and Clare Francis, Nectar of the Gods is a blistering debut novel from a bold new master of suspense.
With an insider's knowledge of the international wine business, Gwen C. Watkins has produced a dazzling psychological thriller to rival the best in contemporary crime fiction.
'Gwen C. Watkins’s debut novel delivers a formidable kick...a grand feat of storytelling
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- Paul Kane, The Compulsive Reader site [read the full review]
'bracing thriller debut... [a] heady mix of winery expertise and slick suspense'
- Publishers Weekly [read the full review]
British author Watkins brings her years of experience as a wine importer to her bracing thriller debut. When an American wine critic, Sam Somers, who gave a high rating to an Australian wine, a Macquarie Hawke Coonawarra Shiraz, asks Davis Hart, Hawke´s winemaker, about some inferior bottles of the shiraz, Hart doesn´t take kindly to having his integrity questioned. Later, at Atlanta´s Peachtree International Wine Festival, someone fatally stabs Somers. Shortly after Hart reports his wine´s falsified records to the Australian Wine Board, he dies in a suspicious airplane accident. Enter Sarah Bennett of Atlanta´s Cornerstone Wine Imports. What begins as a simple dispute regarding labels escalates into a terrifying game with Sarah as mouse and a gang of Hawke thugs as cat. U.S. importer Jake Malone, an old friend of Sarah´s, adds romantic heat in this heady mix of winery expertise and slick suspense.
Publishers Weekly
'Punchy, exciting, and skilfully plotted, Nectar of the Gods looks like being the first in an excellent new series.'
- Mark Campbell, Crime Time [read the full review]
'An amazing debut, ingenious plot – fast paced, with a fascinating insight into wine making.'
- Lizzie Hayes, Mystery Women Magazine [read the full review]
Sarah Bennett, owner of Cornerstone Wine Imports in Georgia, is facing a tough time financially after two of her wine distributors have gone into bankruptcy. She is proud of her wines and is hopeful of a good recommendation from wine critic Sam Somers, who is known as the world's leading authority on Australian wine. But Sam had rated Macquarie Hawke Coonawarra Shiraz ninety-eight points out of a hundred and given it as a 'best buy' and it's now flying off the shelves.
The story switches from Georgia in the USA to South Australia, and moves at a good pace. Sarah Bennett is an interesting protagonist. At the end of several chapters she is in a situation from which there is obviously no way she can survive, and heart in mouth you start the next chapter to find that she has miraculously managed to escape her fate - very reminiscent of the Flash Gordon films I watched in my early teens.
An amazing debut, ingenious plot – fast paced, with a fascinating insight into wine making.
Lizzie Hayes, Mystery Women Magazine
'A great read, keeps the reader on their toes to the end of the last bottle. Shows a serious insight into the structure and workings of the world wine industry that few people would know of or appreciate'
- M. Bruce Tyrrell AM, Managing Director, Tyrrell's Wines Australia