Sweet Poison (Jack Donne Mystery) [Paperback]

Relling (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In an agreeable blend of wine, food and murder, Jack Donne, former Treasury agent and PI who now grows wine with his father in Southern California, makes his second appearance, following Deadly Vintage (1995). Powerful and obnoxious wine and restaurant critic Augustus Poole is scheduled to be the featured guest at a weekend gathering of the snooty NAMES (North American Epicurean Society) at a friend's vineyard. Poole is convinced, however, that someone is trying to murder him and will attend only if a bodyguard is provided to protect him and his secretary. Reluctantly, Donne agrees. Poole?obese, egotistical, caustic and, at least in his own mind, brilliant?bears resemblance to Nero Wolfe (the book carries an epigraph by Rex Stout). When verbal violence leads to a confrontation and a death, Donne finds himself investigating the many NAMES members who would be only too happy to see Poole dead. Meanwhile, the still living Poole unhelpfully decides that he himself must solve the crime. Relling makes appealing use of the beautiful Santa Ynez countryside and its vineyards. The plot goes down smoothly accompanied by descriptions of fine cuisine, including some tempting red herrings, and many vintages, some of surprising potency.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

Though he intended a permanent quietus to his p.i. business, Jack Donne (Deadly Vintage, 1995), now a partner with his father in a California winery, finds himself in gumshoes once again. Sort of. To help a friend--and because the fee is irresistible--he agrees to accept a bodyguarding assignment. The subject is Augustus Poole, a viperish but powerful food critic who makes enemies as naturally as grapes make wine. Two recent attempts on his life have convinced Poole that his body's at serious risk and in urgent need of guarding. Donne's mission: to keep him alive until he completes his guest-speaker stint for NAMES (North American Epicurean Society), that snootiest of gourmet clubs. Which isn't easy. Poole truly is heartily despised--for his overweening arrogance in general, and in particular for the merciless, often unfair reviews that through the years have disparaged worthy products and destroyed hard-earned reputations. ``Dirty Poole,'' cry a variety of vengeance-minded victims. And so, as the members gather for their annual banquet--57 of them, if you please--Donne eyes them uneasily, fully aware that the task he's taken on is no piece of cake. But it is all so familiar, with a plot line that was old when Agatha Christie wasn't. Moreover, the characters are cardboard, the dialogue wooden, and even the wine lore seems watered down. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Worldwide Library; Reprint edition (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373263368
• ISBN-13: 978-0373263363
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,538,348 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Runaway Cars and Bullets and Poison Sauternes!, January 19, 2010

By 

John C. Legg (Charleston, WV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sweet Poison: A Jack Donne Mystery (Hardcover)

Remember the famous fictional teen sleuth Nancy Drew and how mysteries seem to throw themselves in front of her path. Well when it comes to murder mysteries, the same is true with Jack Donne, a "retired" detective now in business with his dad and uncle running a small vineyard/winery in Southern California. I must confess, I really wanted to read this book having recently discovered: 1) William Relling Jr., the novel's author, was a member of the second Pink Tea, and 2) from reading book reviews that the novel features a 300+ pound epicurean critic. Take it from a rather large person: Ain't nothin' more perverse that a fat person over-eating and making a good living telling about it! Also, I must attribute my extreme pleasure in reading about fat villainous characters to novelist extraordinaire Dean Koontz. Examples of such characters can be found in Koontz's/K.R. Dwyer's Dragonfly and Leigh Nichols' A Key to Midnight. I doggedly read Sweet Poison, appreciating that it is a well-written, finely-detailed novel containing far more knowledge and wisdom than would normally be expected from its relatively young author who at publication time would have been 44 year of age. But what I attribute to knowledgeable, wise details helps makes the novel plodding and dense. Sweet Poison is told in first person narrative from protagonist Jack Donne's point of view. Donne resembles Kelsey Grammer's TV character Fraiser Crane in that he has relatively no responsibilities, i.e., he is single: no wife and kids, lives at home with his cane-assisted, older father, and occasionally talks with (and perhaps even connects up with) a steady but extremely busy girlfriend. Donne prefers the safety provided by his family's wine business and is very reluctant to reenter the murderish detective world until Augustus Poole, an influential food critic and soon-to-be guest speaker at the North American Epicurean Society's annual banquet, offers him $900.00 a day to be his body guard while Poole is in town for the five day society's food-fest. During the first evening of celebration, Poole gets involved in a verbal dispute with the banquet's chef after being asked to open and share a rare 1947 bottle of Yquem he earned from being guest speaker. And later that night the same chef is by found dead by Poole after apparently stealing and drunking some of the rare Yquem which is later determined by the local police to have been laced with cyanide. Jack Donne eventually, out of necessity, resumes his detective role and solves the murder mystery.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun read, April 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Sweet Poison: A Jack Donne Mystery (Hardcover)

Ray Taylor is hosting the annual meeting of the exclusive North American Epicurean Society (NAMES) in the hope of becoming the newest member. The club is so elitist that only 57 people can belong to it at one time and someone's death is just about the only way to join. This year's guest speaker is the obnoxious 300+ pound food critic Augustus Poole, who is despised by much of the culinary community. In exchange for orating, Augustus has demanded a body guard and a special bottle of wine, a `47 Chateau d'YQuem.

Ray's son pleads with his buddy Jack Donne, a former law enforcement official now working in the family winery, to protect Augustus. The money and bennies are so good, Jack accepts the job even though he finds Agusttus to be an overbearing bore At the first night dinner, Augustus and the renowned chef Nicky Peoletti argue. The next morning, Nicky is dead and Augustus is the prime suspect. Though he was hired to be a bodyguard only, Jack begins to investigate who poisoned the chef.

The second Jack Donne mystery, SWEET POISON, is a well designed who-done-it that has superbly developed characters and interesting insight into the wine industry. As with the first novel, DEADLY VINTAGE, Jack remains a very intriguing protagonist, whose woes with his non-winery clients add much to the tale. The recurring secondary characters like Jack's dad and uncle also add flavoring. However, as in the first novel, it is the client, who drives Jack to distraction, that propels this story line into the higher levels of excellence in the "vintage" mystery section of the culinary sub-genre.

Harriet Klausner