The Cabernet Conspiracy
(2025)(The fourth book in the Grape Expectation Mystery series)
A Story by Maisy Marple and Wendy Winchester
When a prestigious wine competition turns deadly, amateur sleuth Vivian Barnes and her extraordinarily intuitive cat Shakespeare must uncork the truth before more lives are lost...
Vivian Barnes has successfully transformed her life from big-city publishing executive to small-town vineyard owner, creating literary-themed wines that are gaining recognition across the region. When she's invited to judge at the prestigious Gold Cluster Wine Competition hosted at Hawthorne Hills Vineyard, it seems like the perfect opportunity to establish Prose & Vines in the competitive wine world.
But the elegant event turns sour when renowned wine critic James Wellington collapses during the Cabernet judging, followed by several other judges falling mysteriously ill—including Vivian's own vineyard manager. The specially commissioned crystal judging glasses are quickly identified as the murder weapon, containing a toxic coating that reacts with certain wines.
As Detective Reynolds reluctantly accepts Vivian's help with the case, she discovers the wine world is filled with decades-old vendettas and family secrets worth killing for. The imperious Victoria Hawthorne and her enigmatic business partner Dr. Phillip Grayson seem to be hiding something about their "Purity Project," while competing vintners each harbor motives for wanting Wellington silenced.
With Shakespeare repeatedly escaping his carrier to discover crucial evidence, Vivian and her Mystery Mavens book club friends piece together a complex plot involving sabotaged formulas, hidden laboratories, and a vendetta twenty years in the making. But as they get closer to the truth, someone decides Vivian needs to be eliminated from the competition—permanently.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Vivian Barnes has successfully transformed her life from big-city publishing executive to small-town vineyard owner, creating literary-themed wines that are gaining recognition across the region. When she's invited to judge at the prestigious Gold Cluster Wine Competition hosted at Hawthorne Hills Vineyard, it seems like the perfect opportunity to establish Prose & Vines in the competitive wine world.
But the elegant event turns sour when renowned wine critic James Wellington collapses during the Cabernet judging, followed by several other judges falling mysteriously ill—including Vivian's own vineyard manager. The specially commissioned crystal judging glasses are quickly identified as the murder weapon, containing a toxic coating that reacts with certain wines.
As Detective Reynolds reluctantly accepts Vivian's help with the case, she discovers the wine world is filled with decades-old vendettas and family secrets worth killing for. The imperious Victoria Hawthorne and her enigmatic business partner Dr. Phillip Grayson seem to be hiding something about their "Purity Project," while competing vintners each harbor motives for wanting Wellington silenced.
With Shakespeare repeatedly escaping his carrier to discover crucial evidence, Vivian and her Mystery Mavens book club friends piece together a complex plot involving sabotaged formulas, hidden laboratories, and a vendetta twenty years in the making. But as they get closer to the truth, someone decides Vivian needs to be eliminated from the competition—permanently.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
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