Long Description: The Wine Menagerie *The Wine Menagerie is a murder mystery set in the wine country of California’s Central Coast. The description of place, the taste of the food and wine, provide contrast to the heinous murders. Stunning landscapes and venues provide a backdrop for the quirky protagonist private investigator, Dash Ramblar. *The brutal slaying of a Wine Sister prompts the hiring of Dash Ramblar by Winery owners. Dash follows the usual suspects and motives finding an elaborate subterfuge. The victim’s lifestyle, complicate the investigation, by her dalliances across the wine industry.
*The investigation takes Dash from winery soirees to homeless encampments. Dash’s style is more flaneur than forensics, more discovery than deduction, an untidy process than culminates in a compelling resolution, much like the making of a fine wine. This closed mystery evokes the travel journals of Paul Theroux, the culinary descriptions of Anthony Bourdain, the erudition of Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith. *Dash’s investigation illuminates a cast of characters: The feminist Wine Sisters who defy convention, the homeless man who leads a double life, an opera loving police detective, a martini drinking wine writer, and the developers who ensnare local politicians and winery owners. The fictional town of Great Oaks lies at the head waters of the Salinas River and rests atop a massive aquifer. The victims become collateral damage as the unsavory suspects battle to procure water rights while masquerading as competitors for high scoring Cabernets.
*The Wine Menagerie is a suspenseful drama that takes the reader on a roller coaster of intrigue, danger, and plot turns. No one is exempt from the action including Dash’s dogs, an Australian Shepherd and an Anatolian Shepherd. The unlikely climaxes occurs after a Rotary meeting, a pool side in Cabo San Lucas, and at an Italian cypress lined private winery drive.