Gatsby's Vineyard

Private eye Fiddler (The Frog and the Scorpion is back in another dandy caper. When his marriage fell apart some years back, Sandra AutreyNapa Valley vinter, cook and lover extraordinaireknew how to put him back on his feet. Now Sandra is in terrible trouble. She's mortgaged the family wine business to the hilt in order to finance a restaurant venture, and things are going very wrong: the help is robbing the till, a chef turns out to be a hepatitis carrier and an arsonist nearly burns the place down. It adds up to a deliberate campaign, Fiddler thinks. Then the phylloxera root louse (the parasite that wiped out the French wine industry a century ago) turns up in the Autrey vineyard, the newspapers broadcast the threatwhich has the potential to destroy Napa Valley's viticultureand the bank threatens to foreclose. But by this time, Fiddler, whose specialty once was the violin and now is fiddling around in other people's business, has taken a hand in the game. Maxwell manages a slam-bang climax here, and the California wine business background is unusual and entertaining. (June 5)