Pinot Red or Dead? is the third installment in The Wine Trail Mysteries series set in vineyards of Seneca Lake, New York and featuring Two Witches Winery owner, Norrie Ellington. Christmas season is approaching and Norrie and her neighboring wineries are getting ready for the annual "Deck Halls around the Lake" festivities, a two weekend event where folks can come sample the foods and wines of each location along the Wine Trail.
The community is shocked when a truck transporting cases of wine to retailers is hijacked and all of the Pinot Noir is stolen. Not long after it's discovered that someone is sneaking around the wineries at night and sabotaging the oak barrels that contain Pinot Noir waiting to be bottled. Norrie and the other winery owners begin to think somebody is deliberately trying to cause a shortage of Pinot which will in turn drive the prices sky high, but unfortunately the only one to benefit from a price increase would be their wine distributor.
The morning after the first Deck the Halls event, Norrie's plott hound, Charlie comes in through the doggie door clutching a soggy wallet between his jaws belonging to Arnold Mowen, owner of the Lake-to-Lake Wine distributing company. A brief call to his home reveals that the man had not returned home the previous night and his girlfriend, Lavettia Lawrence begs Norrie to go look for the man and his fancy car. A walk from Two Witches to the neighboring Grey Egret owned by friends Theo and Don, leads Charlie to the discovery of Arnold's body in a roadside ditch. While Deputy Hickman is quick to call the death a hunting accident, Norrie is convinced it was murder and sets out to stamp down a killer.
Quite a few people had a stake in Arnold Mowen and his vast estate and the suspect list of people hoping to inherit is a long one that includes his girlfriend Lavettia, head wine salesman Miller Holtz, Mowen's personal secretary Clayton LeVine and a local cloister of nuns. For some reason Mowen has instructed his attorney to hold the reading of his will at Two Wineries, something Norrie doesn't understand since she'd never met the man, but having all of the suspects in one location should help to flush out the guilty party.
A fun, fast paced plot with well developed and returning characters (and pets) lends to a delightful afternoon read. I just hope the closing chapter does not mean that the author(s) are heading towards the dreadful love triangle with Norrie at the center.
The community is shocked when a truck transporting cases of wine to retailers is hijacked and all of the Pinot Noir is stolen. Not long after it's discovered that someone is sneaking around the wineries at night and sabotaging the oak barrels that contain Pinot Noir waiting to be bottled. Norrie and the other winery owners begin to think somebody is deliberately trying to cause a shortage of Pinot which will in turn drive the prices sky high, but unfortunately the only one to benefit from a price increase would be their wine distributor.
The morning after the first Deck the Halls event, Norrie's plott hound, Charlie comes in through the doggie door clutching a soggy wallet between his jaws belonging to Arnold Mowen, owner of the Lake-to-Lake Wine distributing company. A brief call to his home reveals that the man had not returned home the previous night and his girlfriend, Lavettia Lawrence begs Norrie to go look for the man and his fancy car. A walk from Two Witches to the neighboring Grey Egret owned by friends Theo and Don, leads Charlie to the discovery of Arnold's body in a roadside ditch. While Deputy Hickman is quick to call the death a hunting accident, Norrie is convinced it was murder and sets out to stamp down a killer.
Quite a few people had a stake in Arnold Mowen and his vast estate and the suspect list of people hoping to inherit is a long one that includes his girlfriend Lavettia, head wine salesman Miller Holtz, Mowen's personal secretary Clayton LeVine and a local cloister of nuns. For some reason Mowen has instructed his attorney to hold the reading of his will at Two Wineries, something Norrie doesn't understand since she'd never met the man, but having all of the suspects in one location should help to flush out the guilty party.
A fun, fast paced plot with well developed and returning characters (and pets) lends to a delightful afternoon read. I just hope the closing chapter does not mean that the author(s) are heading towards the dreadful love triangle with Norrie at the center.
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