Welcome! A Charming Corpse by Tonya Kappes and What to Expect When Your Demon Slayer is Expecting by Angie Fox (not available for pre-order at this time) will be released on April 20. Dead Girl Running by Christina Dodd will be published on April 24. It is the first book in the Cape Charade series.
A Riesling to Die is the first
novel in The Wine Trail Mysteries.
Norrie Ellington, a screenwriter, has reluctantly agreed to oversee the Two
Witches Vineyard, in which she is a co-owner, for a year while her sister and
her husband go off to Costa Rica on a research trip. Norrie believes that with the experienced
winery staff, her role will be minimal which will leave her plenty of quiet
time to write. The day after Francine
and Jason leave the local crank is found dead in the new Riesling vines. Norrie decides to investigate the matter
because the winery cannot afford to lose money or have bad publicity. She starts asking questions and believes she
has discovered the guilty party. Norrie hatches
with a plan to get the individual to confess.
Unfortunately, things do not go quite as expected. Join Norrie at the Two Witches Vineyard in her
search for a killer in A Riesling to Die.
A Riesling to Die is a light cozy
mystery. Norrie is one of those main
characters that babbles when nervous and turns into a blithering idiot in front
of a handsome man. There was a lack of
development in Norrie’s character. The
author fails to provide her background which would establish the character (any
of the characters). There are some
unique people working in the tasting room of the winery. Glenda, Roger, Lizzie and Cammy provide comic
relief along with Cammy’s cousin, Marc and Enzo (they cracked me up). There is also a dog that manages to get into
smelly messes every day (it makes me wonder if these people have not heard of a
leash or a fenced in area for dogs) and Alvin, the spitting dwarf goat that is
an attraction for children (just what every vineyard needs when you have guests
wandering about). The mystery was straightforward, and the
identity of the guilty party came as no surprise. Norrie’s investigation was proceeding nicely
until she came up a harebrained scheme to reel in who she believes is the
killer (she jumped to conclusions instead of following the evidence and
thinking things through). The grand plan
jeopardizes the winery and reminds me of Lucy Ricardo’s schemes. Norrie’s spends a significant amount of time speculating
on who could have committed the crime.
You can really see her overactive imagination at work. All the loose ends are wrapped up at the end
of the story. A Riesling to Die had a
good start, but then it stalled out for a while and then it became foolish. There is some interesting information about
growing grapes, taking care of the vines, running a vineyard and producing
wines. I am curious how many dead people
will turn up in the area during Norrie’s year at Two Witches Winery (maybe the
author will throw in a burglary). A Riesling to Die is a quick read that will appeal to readers who prefer lighter
cozy mysteries filled with quirky characters.
The next book in The Wine Trail Mysteries is Chardonnayed to Rest.
Thank you for visiting today. I will be featuring A Charming Corpse by Tonya Kappes tomorrow. It is eleventh book in A Magical Cures Mystery series. I hope that you have a delightful day. Take care of yourself and Happy Reading!
Kris
The Avid Reader
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