Nectar of the Gods

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. (Aug.)