The Critic

By: Peter May

Narrated by: Peter Forbes

"This is a mystery with Gaillac flavor to be savored" (Mystery Scene Magazine)

"A finely crafted and surprising mystery" (Kirkus Reviews)

The body of Gil Petty, America's most celebrated wine critic, is found strung up in a French Gaillac vineyard, dressed in the ceremonial robes of the Order of the Divine Bottle and pickled in wine.

For forensic expert Enzo Macleod, the key to this unsolved murder lies in decoding Petty's mysterious reviews, which could make or break a vineyard's reputation.

As he digs deeper for the motivation behind the shocking crime, Macleod finds that beneath the tranquil façade of French viticulture lurks a back-stabbing community characterized by a deadly rivalry - and home to someone who is ready to stop him even if they have to kill again to stop the investigation.

©2007, 2013 Peter May (P)2019 Quercus

Critic reviews

"May knows how to create believable characters. Their fears, actions, and reactions sweep up the reader. May has won dozens of awards for his incredibly high-volume of high-quality writing. If you have never read one, this is an easy introduction to his satisfying mysteries." (Deadly Pleasures Magazine)

another great read from Peter May

a great story and a great narration. looking forward to the next book in the series

Problematic story in a great setting

Peter May is a master at creating unique settings for his murder mysteries and creating a strong sense of place in the mind of the listener. If only he was as consistently good at chracterization and plotting. It is not unusual to get sidetracked and have your mind wander from even the best book, but usually it is brief enough to not make you lose the story. When the murderer was revealed my immediate reaction was...Who? I can't imagine my mind wandered from the book every time the killer appeared. The character either only made a brief appearance in the story or made so little impression on me that I do not remember them at all. Either way it is a problem in a murder mystery. I listen to a lot of mysteries and that has only happened to me once before. The motive for the murders is a bit silly, so the killer is just called mad. Enzo is not developing into a believable character. All these women half his age seem to find him irresistible. I get the feeling the author uses Enzo as a projection of his own fantasies at times.
Peter Forbes is one of the best readers out there.

Enzo is sexis, arrogant and incompetent

I loved the Beijing series but I’m really struggling with this one. In the Beijing series, the two protagonists were evenly matched and showed us and each other their struggles that made us sympathize with them despite their imperfections. Here, Enzo is just kind of an asshole. I am not rooting for him or really anyone. I can’t connect. And the criminal and the motive were just too removed from the story. It all felt far-fetched, although there were interesting tidbits as usual about codes and other subjects (here it was wine). I feel a bit disappointed. Will try the Scottish series, I guess.

Great performance of a mediocre story

Peter Forbes, the reader was as wonderful as usual. I really only kept listening as long as I did because of him. I LOVED the Lewis Trilogy, but in this book at least, Enzo doesn't live up to that series. The objectification of women was constant, distracting and annoying. Enzo sees every woman as either his daughter or someone to sleep with. There was some of that in the first book of this series, but it was so much worse in this one. May actually wrote the phrase, "... sometimes a man just needs the company of a woman" to justify why Enzo slept with a woman he previously decided he shouldn't. May then had Enzo blame his unmanageable sexual needs and poor choices on a different woman because she hadn't committed to him yet. If the rest of the story was more engaging I might have been able to finish it.

Reader was terrific

Good story. Lots of detail. The reader did accents very well. American, French, Scottish

Loved it. One small complaint.

I’m a fan of writer Peter May and narrator Peter Forbes. This story was fun, fast and intricate. I enjoyed the detail about winemaking.
As usual, Peter Forbes’ beautifully paced narration in Scottish accented English and lovely French was a pleasure to listen to. I’d follow that voice anywhere. But, whoa boy, Mr Forbes needs to work on his American accent. The men and women of the USA don’t ALL have clipped, high, nasal voices. Has he been modeling his American accent on Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory? Still love ya Mr Forbes, but please smooth it out and bring it down a notch or two…😁

Wonderful book!

I love all Peter May’s works and have enjoyed all the books so far. It’s nice to hear a familiar voice narrating like a beloved family member comforting you.

Not terribly enjoyable

I enjoyed the backdrop of the vineyards and winemaking, but overall the story was clunky. The resolution came out of left field with almost nothing foreshadowing that direction. Also, the amount of untranslated French in the text was quite frustrating. I am an educated multilingual reader, but the amount of French was too much to pick up from context. Also, there was too much focus on boobs, and the main character was interested in too many women at the same time.

beware puppy lovers

i just dont do killed puppies, dogs or cats. dont care if they are fictional. ut wrecks my day. murdered puppies? seriously?
returning

A lazy job of writing

Hard to believe that this Peter May is the same writer as the Peter May of Blackhouse. Blackhouse was first of all well-written; this book isn't. Lots of clichés, lots of lame writing about what people's eyes are communicating. A plot that relies on a bumbling protagonist and shallow characterization. A obsession with women's breasts. Lots of information about the wine-making in the countryside near Cahors, but that's all. Silly mistakes of diction (using 'anxious' to mean 'eager' more than once). I really did double check that there weren't two Peter Mays. I can only surmise that he wrote this one in a hasty month or two.