Review
Tony Aspler - Death on the Douro
Headline £16.99.
Any wine lover and/or whodunit fan should read this , Aspler’s  third mystery featuring Ezra Brant, the wine writer whose occupation takes him to all kinds of  interesting locations where he inevitably gets drawn into the solving of a mystery. If you have ever wondered  about what various activities come with the job of wine tasting and writing about it then you will find the answers here, along with a lot of  information about the production of port wine, its history and the people who make it.
The book is worth reading if only for the descriptions of the Douro Valley, the "quintas", the vines, the people who harvest the grapes,  the buildings and the vegetation  which puts you there, in the sun with the scent of the gum sistus in the air.
The quinta where Brant is staying , a guest of the owner  Matthew Sykes, is the scene of  a number of accidents, too many to be mere coincidence, which threaten to ruin the approaching 200th anniversary celebrations , to be attended by prominent local figures and visiting wine experts. Brant himself finds that he appears to be the target in a particularly nasty incident in his bedroom at the quinta. His investigations take place under cover of his  stated research into the port industry for his forthcoming book on the subject and take him to the neighbouring Quinta do Coteiro owned by Alvaro Soares. Gradually truth about relationships among members of the Sykes family and their employees emerges, also about the  bad feeling that exists between Sykes and Soares.  A developing friendship between  Ezra and the wife of Soares adds tension to the plot.
Eventually there is a murder and a fairly wide range of suspects and motives.  The real explanation of the whole situation, the perpetrator and motive for the series of "accidents",  comes as a real and welcome surprise.
 "Death on the Douro"  is an enjoyable and informative read.  I now count myself as a fan of Tony Aspler and even bought a bottle of port since reading the book. I don’t think I shall be a fan of that though.
PED