A Pairing to Die For (A Colorado Wine Mystery)

Product Description

A young winemaker is over a barrel when her new boyfriend is accused of murder in this delightful cozy mystery.

It’s fall in Boulder, Colorado, and the leaves aren’t the only things changing. Parker Valentine, owner of Vino Valentine, is finally settling in to her winery and her new relationship with Reid Wallace, a local chef. But their delicate pairing is endangered when Reid’s estranged family comes into town to celebrate the opening of his new restaurant.

Reid and his family are immediately at loggerheads, given their often acidic temperaments, but Parker still wants to make a good first impression. However, her efforts might be in vain when Reid’s sous chef is found dead in the alley behind the restaurant, and Reid is implicated in the murder. In order to save Reid, Parker will have to find the real killer, even if the truth is difficult to swallow.

Review

Praise for Kate Lansing and Killer Chardonnay

”
Killer Chardonnay offers a wonderful blend of suspense and humor. You’ll raise your glass to Parker Valentine, the charming sleuth at the center of this twisty and satisfying mystery. A most delightful debut!”—
Cynthia Kuhn, Agatha Award winning author of the Lila Maclean Academic Mysteries

“Parker Valentine…will steal your heart and pair it with a smooth mystery in this sparkling debut. A wine rack full of suspects won’t stop the determined sleuth and vintner from bottling up a killer and saving her dream. 
Killer Chardonnay has legs!”
—Leslie Budewitz, Agatha Award winning author of the Spice Shop Mysteries 

”
Killer Chardonnay is an engaging mystery filled with wine knowledge, romance, and a gutsy protagonist. Kate Lansing is a delightful new voice in the mystery genre and I can’t wait to read the next one in this series.”
—Nadine Nettmann, author of the Anthony, Agatha, Lefty, and Mary Higgins Clark Award nominated Sommelier Mystery Series.

“If you love a fun, intriguing, plot-twisty mystery, 
Killer Chardonnay has it all.”
 –Fresh Fiction

“Lansing’s brisk style and her heroine’s efficient approach make her debut a treat.”
–Kirkus

About the Author

Kate Lansing is an award-winning short-story author. Her work has appeared in the
Brave New Girls anthology and the
Crossing Colfax anthology. She lives in Denver, Colorado, with her husband, daughter, and a chair-napping tabby cat named Maple.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter
 
One
 
I should have brought flowers. A pacifying bouquet of lilies, hydrangeas, and daisies. Instead, foolishly, I brought wine, and left myself open to a world of criticism from my boyfriend’s judgy family. Because the wine isn’t merely some label I picked up at the corner store-pricey enough to impress but not so much to blow my budget-it’s my own craftsmanship.
 
“Colorado wines will never be as flavorful as Napa’s,” Camilla, the matriarch, says in a superior voice.
 
She purses her lips in disapproval. With her perfectly styled coiffure and Jackie cardigan, she hails from an era of class and sophistication that apparently doesn’t extend to present conversation.
 
“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion,” I say, my cheeks aching from the forced smile on my face.
 
“My wife is right,” Gary chimes in from across the rustic wooden table, his cable-knit sweater the same shade of burgundy as the pinot we’re tasting. “If you had done your research, Napa would have been the smarter choice.”
 
“Perhaps,” I say. “But I love Boulder, and the market is just getting going here. It gives me the opportunity to carve a niche for my business.” Which I’ve already done, I want to add.
 
My winery, Vino Valentine, is thriving. I can hardly keep up with demand thanks to a rave review from a popular food-and-wine blogger, monthly VIP parties, and, most recently, supplying varietals to the hip new establishment we’re dining at now.
 
And while I don’t own my own vineyard, the grapes I order from growers on the Western Slope of the Rocky Mount