Cognac Conspiracies
Advance Reader Copy Uncorrected - For Review Only Release Date: February 18, 2015 Cognac Conspiracies A Winemaker Detective Mystery Jean-Pierre Alaux and Noël Balen Translated by Sally Pane All rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means, electronic, me- chanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published in France as Le dernier coup de Jarnac by Jean-Pierre Alaux and Noël Balen World copyright ©Librairie Arthème Fayard, 2004 English translation copyright ©2015 Sally Pane First published in English in 2015 By Le French Book, Inc., New York www.lefrenchbook.com Translator: Sally Pane Translation editor: Amy Richard Proofreader: Chris Gage Cover designer: Jeroen ten Berge ISBN: Trade paperback: 9781939474322 E-book: 9781939474339 Hardback: 9781939474346 “Droll Advice,” Selected Poems, Paul Verlaine, translated by C.F. MacIntyre, University of California Press, 1948 This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual per- sons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Drink to forget! cognac is one with her apron set to fetch you the moon Paul Verlaine 1 With almost childlike excitement, Marie-France awaited the luminous nights when the moon carved out eerie shapes and spilled its warm light on the lush Charente landscape. Following a cherished ritual, she would open the bedroom window wide and dreamily let her white muslin robe slip off her body and drift to the parquet floor. Then she would recline on the old sofa, which was loosely draped with Indian fabric, and for hours, sometimes the entire night, she would offer her nude body to the moonlight.
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