Deadly Vintage (First Edition)

After a career as a Treasury agent, Jack Donne had become a vintner in southern California's wine country. As a job, it wasn't much easier, but it was safer. At least for a while. As the quality of the wines improved, however, and as the prices rose, so did the desire of some to take advantage.
Ozzie Cole's label was gaining in popularity, something Cole himself was notably lacking. No one liked him - certainly not his competitors - and even his family wasn't upset to know he was having trouble ... in the form of someone counterfeiting his prized, and increasingly valuable, pinot noir. When he comes to Donne for help, Donne is less than enthusiastic. But when Cole's father is found murdered, and everyone's finger points at Ozzie, Donne looks a little more closely. And when his own father is threatened, Jack Donne gets on with some rather pressing business that has little to do with grapes.

Fantasy writer Relling steps firmly into the mystery genre with an engaging sleuth, Jack Donne, a former Treasury agent who runs a California vineyard with his father, a retired architect. Neighboring vintner Ozzie Cole shows Jack two apparently identical bottles of wine-one his award-winning 1990 Pinot Noir Special Reserve, the other a fake-and asks him to find the counterfeiter. Jack declines. He changes his mind, however, after learning that Ozzie's father, Perry, a premier wine-maker now suffering from Alzheimer's and estranged from Ozzie's two older brothers, hopes the former T-man will help his youngest son. Using his connections in the Treasury Department and canvassing upscale wine shops, Jack begins his search for the counterfeiter only to be called home when Perry is murdered and Ozzie is arrested for the crime. Unconvinced that Ozzie killed Perry, Jack finds himself tracking a murderer and a counterfeiter. Wine-manufacturing lore, a deftly handled plot and touchingly rendered family relationships will have Relling's readers looking forward to his next Jack Donne mystery.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.