Wildfire, Wine Country Mystery number 1, is now live on Amazon and ready for pre-order on Smashwords.
I’m very excited about this book. It’s a new direction for me: the first mystery I’ve written entirely set in my own fictional universe. Inspired by a trip my wife and I took to California wine country last fall, it has a number of real-world references in it.
What’s it about?
Wildfires swept across California wine country in 2017, destroying thousands of homes and businesses, and killing dozens of people. Law school grad and single mother Tara Rezeck finds herself in the middle of the catastrophe. When she returns to her job at the most award-winning vineyard in Sonoma County, she finds her employer’s body in the ashes.
The question that challenges her brains and her legal training is: was it an accident? Or was his body burned to hide evidence of murder?
Read some excerpts
- Chapter 1, An open door, on Wattpad
- Chapter 2, Smoke and ash, on Wattpad
- Tara meets Charlie, the dog, on C.A. Newsome’s Barking blog
- Tara meets a handsome man, on Dawn Torren’s Daily
- Emergency evacuation treatment, on Corinne O’Flynn’s blog
- Neighbors stick together on Raine Thomas’s blog
- Tara investigates a mysterious light, on Claude Bouchard’s blog
- Knife fight, on Alan McDermott’s Jambalian blog.
Once again, I have indulged my habit of naming characters after friends and people I know. Some of you will recognize names of other writers, some may recognize a name from my personal life (you can glean some of that from my author descriptions and social media). I had fun putting them in there, and I hope you’ll also enjoy it when you find them.
Just a quick note here about some of the excerpts: At the very last moment, I decided to change some of the characters’ names. “Veronica” became “Nicole,” “John and Jana Rezeck” became “Ken and Marie,” and so on.
If you pre-ordered Wildfire, thank you very much. You have have received the older version, which did not include the special recipe. I have worked with Amazon to ensure that your version will be automatically updated.
Join me
I’m hosting a party on Facebook today, March 22, 2018, at from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. Come to hear me (try to) read passages from Wildfire and maybe some other books, too. Chat with me. I’ll answer questions and give away a lot of prizes.
Just follow this link: https://www.facebook.com/events/131302330927338/
I’d love to see you there!