I vinet ingen sanning review

Ramona Charles studied the blonde woman on the other side of the table. Another meaningless, generic, shallow, bloody new-world Sauvignon Blanc with no character whatsoever. Zero substance, zero depth or complexity. Just something to please the crowds. Simple, easy to digest, and quickly forgotten. Something that vanishes from the mind and palate the second it is swallowed.

But Ramona herself carries a secret trauma from her childhood that haunts her and disrupts her life and cocky, seemingly carefree, confident persona. Is that the real reason she split up with her partner, the kind, handsome and understanding photographer Filip Mårelöw, and left him so devastated he withdrew from work?

When Ramona’s investigation into rumours of potential serious wine fraud begins to reveal a pattern, she realises there is something seriously fraudulent and twisted going on behind the scenes of the Swedish wine industry. But the main suspect has disappeared. Until he turns up dead in her apartment. Naked.

Suddenly, Ramona becomes a target for the murderer, naturally, but also for the rival newspaper. In desperation she seeks refuge and help from Filip, who welcomes her, despite still nurturing his broken heart. Together they embark on a dangerous quest to find the faceless enemies and killers who have everything to gain from silencing Ramona. 

Andreas Grube has taken to crime writing like a duck to water – or sommelier to wine in this case. A first look at the bold vintage film art cover brings back memories of Mickey Spillane and Dashiell Hammett, read underneath a yellow floor lamp with a floral shade whilst the persistent rain kept us inside the cottage during ’70s summer holidays. And the writing does have the same slick, fast pace, but with more panache and elegance in a modern Stockholm city setting, which he describes in a way that makes you feel you are actually there – or want to be. It is a page-turner from the moment you hit the first chapter. But before you do, if you like wine, take a moment to select one to drink from the ‘Author’s Wine Tips’ on the first page, based on questions Andreas says he was asked by friends and journalists when the book was nearing its release.

‘Not such a strange question, considering it is a wine-crime, written by a wine journalist,’ he says.

If I were to take a leaf out of Ramona Charles’ wine book and describe the novel as a wine, I would say it is a rich, robust, dark, but elegant Burgundy red. The moment you open it a blend of many notes rush towards you: excitement, pace, humour, danger, blood, wine, courage romance, money and greed. It is complex and well-balanced and leaves you wanting more with every page. Fortunately there is already a sequel, Falsk som vin (As False as Wine) and a third in the making.

Keep on writing Andreas. Cheers!