Book Review: "Black Odesa" by Peter Stafford-Bow

“I jumped clear of his kicking legs, looking around frantically for a sturdy weapon - an empty Champagne bottle, or perhaps a premium Argentinian Malbec.”

Felix Hart is back in Black Odesa; the fifth book of the Felix Hart series by Peter Stafford-Bow! It all started with Corkscrew back in 2017 where we follow Felix through his early career as a wine buyer at Gatesave and his journey to becoming a Minstrel of Wine, with some whacky hijinks and globetrotting along the way. Brut Force continues his career and Minstrel-ing, amping up the hijinks all while Felix desperately tries to avoid getting whacked (by wine barrel drowning). Firing Blancs gets grounded in story and theme as Felix finds himself stuck in South Africa while trying to fix some shady winery contract business for Gatesave, and it's just a hands-down phenomenal book. Eastern Promise delivers Peter's best wit in the series, as Felix becomes the victim of video deep fakes in Hong Kong. (you'll never leave the seat cover up when flushing ever again)

You'd think that after the events of Eastern Promise, Felix would stay away from the digital world... but not this guy. In Black Odesa he enters the realm of influencers as Buff Bacchus!

“To my horror, I was informed that the courts did not consider basics such as restaurants, a personal trainer, weekend city breaks, and fine wine to be legitimate expenses, which I felt showed just how out of touch the legal profession has become.”

Felix is penniless. His bank accounts have been frozen as his finances are under investigation for his previous shenanigans. In a whirlwind of events, he goes viral being caught naked on camera when the police are attempting to apprehend him, he's fired from Gatesave, and then he kills a would-be mugger by hitting him in the head with a board... that has a nail through it. It's not looking good for Felix, honestly. 

Now with plenty of free time, the Minstrels of Wine assign him a mission to go on a luxury tour by the Crimean Tourist Board. This will bring him and a group of popular influencers through Georgia and the Ukraine. The intent of the tour is to glamorize the Crimean wine industry, but the intent of his mission is to gather intel on their winemaking and growing practices.

Then he meets Katja, who will also be on the upcoming tour, and she pretty much forces him to use his newly found viral fame to become an influencer. You see, she's an influencer too. They start doing risky videos together, made to look like they're the new hot couple, with some supposed to be "educational wine videos" and others not so much. Katja insists that this romantic relationship is only for social media and ends when the camera stops, but if you know Felix then you know that he winds up falling in love with her, of course.

“Just do not fixate so much on the flavour. Everything is visual now, Felix. No-one tastes, no-one reads, no-one even thinks. People just want to look. And, of course, they want to be seen.”

While waiting for this tour to begin, Felix gets a new job as the wine buyer at the very strange Sauvage & Sons. Although... he's really not even that. At the restaurant, he finds that the wines are dull on purpose, as that's what people want now. Most of the meals come back uneaten after the customer has taken photos of it. "Food means fat", as it's explained to him. And, as we know, people love to look like they're living it up. So if they don't want him to buy wine, what do they want him for? I'm not going to go further than that as far as the plot, so you'll have to read the book. But I will say this:

Black Odesa is more than fun romping around. It has real stakes and real moments that stop and make you reflect. The restaurant is a statement on how appearances are more valuable than the actual service, now more than ever. The influencers demonstrate how engagement and views are now as good as money and even integrity. In Georgia it shows how strangers are willing to take risks by bringing you into their lives, even if you don't speak the same language. It also makes you think about how you may not know somebody as well as you think you do, because you have not lived through their experiences, so how can you fully understand the lengths they will go to because of them? And it’s all because it’s seen through the eyes of this specific character, with all his own flaws. Felix goes through a lot here, and I can't wait to see how he implements what he's learned moving forward. I stand with Ursa.

THE FELIX HART SERIES

Book 1: Corkscrew (reviewed 1/8/17)

Book 2: Brut Force (review 12/18/18)

Book 3: Firing Blancs (reviewed 12/3/20)

Book 4:  Eastern Promise (reviewed 7/9/23)

Book 5:  Black Odesa (reviewed 7/21/26)