Killer Chardonnay: 07/20/21

Killer Chardonnay by Kate Lansing is the start of the Colorado Wine mystery series. On the opening day of Parker Valentine's Boulder, Colorado winery, a ruthless food critic ends up dying. Turns out he was poisoned and it looks like the poison was in the chardonnay he was tasting. So save her reputation, Parker decides to investigate on her own.

The Vino Valentine winery offers blends from locally sourced grapes. It's too small of an operation to have its own land and its own crop. Living near a wine producing area I find this set up strange.

Regardless of the winery's set up, the mystery its self is one of who had a reason to poison the critic and who had the opportunity. Like so many mysteries, the list of people who had a beef with him is nearly infinite. No, maybe not that long but it's enough people to keep things interesting.

That said, I was fairly certain who had done it early on. While the winery isn't a locked room, it's small enough to narrationally serve as one. There were only so many people on the much longer list who could have done the deed, assuming that it was a quick acting poison. The fun, then, was figuring out why the particular person did the deed.

The second book in the series is A Pairing to Die For which came out in January.

Four stars

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