Good Grape Wine Company

Multiracial, multicultural, multilingual, and multitalented, Chet Lake is an urban planning consultant of Native American, African-American and Mexican-American background who speaks Spanish, French, and Arabic. Born in Oakland, California, Lake was a star athlete at Oakland Tech and later at UC Davis -- where he majored in economics and anthropology -- enjoys the Napa Valley and Chez Panisse, sometimes sports an Oakland A's baseball cap, and maintains his offices for urban planning consulting in a location on the Oakland-Berkeley border.

But that's just Chet's storefront and day job. Under the cover of overseas consulting, Chet is an operative on foreign missions for the CIA, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the State Department. Danger is no stranger to this urban planner.
Chet's undercover work brings him to the Australian wine country, where an old, multi-million dollar wine fortune has become the center of family infighting, international plotting, and murder. The twists and turns of the plot are ripped from today's headlines, mixing the old, traditional world of the Australian outback with the new, dangerous world of biowarfare and terrorism.

Through Chet's eyes, the reader experiences situations loaded with racial and sexual tension that often span different classes and cultures. In these situations, Chet Lake is a maestro. Mustering to his advantage his varied educational and professional experiences and training along with his multifaceted personal background, Lake moves like a chameleon across cultures and classes. That skill, combined with his familiarity with and access to modern spy technology, gives Chet a remarkable ability to navigate situations that would confound others.

Again and again, the Chet Lake character delights the reader with his ability to solve difficult problems in unconventional ways.


Rules of the Stream   August 22, 2003
 2 out of 3 found this review helpful

I loved the way the story played out in this book! Completely unexpected turns--I could not put the book down. Great job building the characters. I feel like I know them. Waiting for the second book in the series....


A Real Winner - I Wish it Hadn't Ended   May 14, 2003
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

While I've always loved horses and love to ride, this book was my introduction to the world of showing horses. Everything in the book was written in a way that was easy to understand. The book did NOT read like some frilly novel steeped in fantasy. It was very real to me and grabed me right into the world the authors had created. I'm really looking forward to the next book by these two. I certainly hope that they haven't put their pens to rest. The only problem I did have was having to put the book down to go to work. I wish I had started it on the weekend.


Waiting for Part II   May 14, 2003
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I couldn't put this book down. I loved all of the details involved in showing horses. In some of the chapters I felt like I was actually in the barn with them. I highly recommend this book to anyone, horse lover or not, for a good story.