It's a dream come true for Emmy Oak to be hosting the Sonoma Fall Food & Wine Festival at her family-run Oak Valley Vineyards...and even more exciting to have secured TV celebu-chef Tyler Daniels to MC the event! He's sure to bring in just the type of crowd her struggling winery needs to stay afloat. But when the demanding star is found shot to death in Emmy's vineyard, her dream quickly turns into wine country nightmare
Things only get worse when Detective Christopher Grant sets his sights set on Emmy's sommelier and friend, Jean Luc, as his prime suspect. Despite her growing feelings for the tall, dark, and dangerously hot detective, Emmy knows Jean Luc is innocent--and it's up to her to prove it. Along with her sidekick-slash-best-friend, Ava, she wades through the foodie crowd and finds no shortage of people who had a grudge against the TV chef. And no shortage of secrets worth killing for, especially when Emmy uncovers that Tyler wasn't exactly who he pretended to be. With her reputation on the line, her Food & Wine festival going to pieces, and the danger mounting, can Emmy catch a killer...before she becomes the next victim in the vineyard?
**Simple and delicious recipes included!**
"Ms. Halliday is the undisputed queen of the genre: she knows how to blend fashion, suspense, laughter, and romance in all the right doses."
~ Fresh Fiction
" I rank A Sip Before Dying as one of my favorite fun reads. I say to Gemma Halliday, well done!"
~ The Book Breeze
"The Wine & Dine Mystery series is a definite to read and keep an eye out for more to follow."
~ Cozy Mystery Book Review
Wine & Dine Mysteries:
A Sip Before Dying - book #1
Chocolate Covered Death - book #2
Victim in the Vineyard - book #3
Marriage, Merlot & Murder - book #4
Rating: This story does not contain any graphic violence, language, or sexual encounters. It's rating would be similar to PG-13 or what you would find on a Hallmark Channel movie or TV series. (Summary via Goodreads)
In The Wine & Dine Mystery series by Gemma Halliday Emmy Oak has a pretty good life in wine country in Sonoma running her family vineyard, Oak Valley Vineyards. She has a great best friend, Ava and some pretty awesome employees who are also family to her, and she has a growing relationship with the Detective of the Violent Crimes Investigation Unit of the local Sheriff's Office.....which is good and bad.
In the third installment in this series, Victim in the Vineyard, Emmy is getting ready to host the Somona Fall Food and Wine Festival, a four day event, at the vineyard and they will have a celebrity chef, Tyler Daniels, acting as MC of the event and do some cooking demonstrations. Tyler is the star of some Cooking Network shows as well as owning a chain of restaurants, Tyler's Place, with one of them being right there in wine country. And Jean Luc, the sommelier of the vineyard use to work with Tyler years ago so he was able to get Tyler to participate.
Emmy is excited to be doing this festival for many reasons, one of them being the vineyard could really use some extra money to fix some things around the vineyard. Unfortunately the one thing the vineyard doesn't need is bad publicity but when the MC is found murdered in the vineyard it looks like Emmy could lose everything !!!
And when there is a murder the local Sheriff's Office sends the Detective of their Violent Crimes Investigation Unit, Detective Christopher Grant, who Emmy has the pleasure and "not so good" pleasure of having met him through other murder cases. They are actually on a first name basis only because they have also gone on a date before and there is definite chemistry between the two of them but unfortunately there always seems to be a dead body between them also.
And when Detective Grant has his eyes on Jean Luc as the main suspect, Emmy and Ava step in to prove his innocence......
Even though Tyler was killed on the first day of the festival, they decide to keep the festival going for the rest of the scheduled time and see how things go. It seems that there are more reporters than actual ticket holders but that does not deter Emmy and Ava from questioning everyone that knew Tyler and there are a lot. Tyler's co-host on his latest show, Eat Up, Gabby, is there along with her boyfriend, Alec, and Tyler's ex-wife Ashley is also in attendance. Mark Black, Tyler's partner in the restaurants isn't far away as their one restaurant is there in town. And there is Jean Luc, who Emmy knows would never hurt someone, let alone kill them, but the police do have evidence that isn't good for his case.
You know Emmy is serious and will do anything to solve the murder when she goes to "friend" David Allen for help as they have a love/hate relationship. But when it comes to people Emmy loves, she will go to the ends of the earth to help them......even if it gets her knocked down a few times and yelled at by Grant a lot !!!
Halliday's story telling is very captivating and the reader will get lost hanging around with Emmy. There may even be times where the reader will find themselves reading faster and yelling out loud trying to warn Emmy. You get so involved your instincts will kick in !!! Halliday also teases the reader with just the right amount of romance to insure that you will be back to see if Emmy and Grant can actually make it all the way through a real date and hopefully without Emmy finding a dead body......but what would be the fun in that ????
Review by Missi M.
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