Review: Pinot Red or Dead? By J.C. Eaton

Genre:
Cozy Mystery

Format:
E-ARC

Publisher:
Lyrical Underground

Release Date:
March 26, 2019





Synopsis from Goodreads:

There’s a lot of noir surrounding this rare pinot.

As the vineyards in Seneca Lake, New York, prepare for the seasonal “Deck the Halls Around the Lake” festivities, someone is determined to keep pinot noir off the wine list. Hijacked trucks and sabotaged ingredients have made it a hard-to-acquire vintage for the six local wineries—including Norrie Ellington’s Two Witches Winery.

The case of the stolen and spoiled wines gets stranger when Arnold Mowen, owner of the company distributing the wine, is found dead, the apparent victim of a hunting accident. As Norrie tries to find the connections between the pinot’s problems and Arnold’s death, she uncovers a conspiracy among many locals whose hatred for the wine distributor was bottled up for far too long . . .

My Review

It wasn’t supposed to happen this way, but Norrie Ellington finds herself in charge of her family’s winery. It was supposed to be managed by her sister and her husband, but circumstances called them out of the country for a year. It’s up to Norrie to keep the business afloat in the small town in upstate New York.

When their wine distributor’s truck is hijacked and the pinot is stolen, things take an even more deadly turn when the owner of the distributing company is murdered. The police believe he’s the victim of a hunting accident, but Norrie suspects it goes much deeper than that. She’s determined to find out what really happened to the man.

I came in late to this series as this one is the third book in the series. However, I fell right into the action and didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything. The author gives some background info and the mystery itself is self-contained in this book. The storyline doesn’t carry through to each book. It’s a new one every time. I do want to read the first two books as I love seeing character growth from book to book.

The story moved at a nice pace. The characters are full of a life and interesting. The author gave us an intricate and explosive finale. Of course after I finished this book, I really wanted a glass of wine :)

For reading challenges:
Cruisin’ thru the Cozies Reading Challenge 2019
Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge 2019
Cloak & Dagger Reading Challenge 2019

FTC Disclosure: I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.