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Nadine Nettmann

Autor(a) de Decanting a Murder (A Sommelier Mystery)

3+ Works 83 Membros 8 Reviews

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Obras de Nadine Nettmann

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Conhecimento Comum

Sexo
female

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This is the first book in "A Sommelier Mystery" and I am ready to read the next one. The book opens with the protagonist, Katie Stillwell, failing the Sommelier Certification test. Hoping that attending the celebration of 100 years of Frontier Winery as the guest of her best friend Tessa will cheer her up, she tries to shake it off. The party starts off well, but shortly after the festivities get off the ground, a body is found in a vat of fermenting grapes. Tessa is the prime suspect, but Katie knows she would never kill anyone. Her goal is to prove her innocence. Katie's father is a well-known police chief and she had actually attended police academy with the intention of following in his footsteps so she is no stranger to solving crimes. Because of this, the detective in charge, Detective Dean, allows her to ride along and he listens to her when she has suspicions and gut feelings. It does not mean he will share everything, but he is a little freer with information than he should be. Of course as often happens, Katie ends up becoming a target as she gets closer to the truth.

Katie Stilwell is a great character. She’s level headed, smart, witty, charming, pays attention to detail, and proves that she does have pluck and sticktoitiveness. Tessa on the other hand, is the party girl who just wants to have fun. Unfortunately, this often gets her into trouble and she has difficulty holding down a job. I was not to impressed with her as a character, but the relationship between these women was very special. The author does a wonderful job getting us into their heads and developing their characters. The final character that I hope will be a main character in this series is Detective John Dean. He and Katie had a bit of a flirtatious relationship and I would love to see this develop. The mystery was well plotted with red herrings and real clues scattered throughout the story. I thought I knew who the killer was, then changed my mind multiple times as the story progressed. This makes for an enjoyable read to me. I loved the information given about the Sommelier process, wine pairings (although I would love to see food listed as well as atmosphere) and the Napa Valley area. There was just enough of this to make it an enjoyable read, but not overtake the story. A great cozy mystery, with enough suspense and description to make this a series that I will watch for.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
Carlathelibrarian | outras 3 resenhas | Feb 5, 2019 |
Katie Stillwell is back tasting wine and solving mysteries. Once again, she's hoping to study for the next level in her Sommelier Certification Program, continue her job at Trentino and make enough money to pay her bills. When Paul Rafferty, one of the regular customers at Trentino's invites her to his dinner party where he is going to open a $19,000 bottle of wine he just won at auction, she jumps at the chance. Once there, she feels a bit out of place, until it comes to the wine opening and tasting. What started off as a night of wonderful expectations, ends with a murder and a counterfeit wine. Paul asks her to investigate to find out who duped him. As the investigation continues, Katie needs to clear both hers and Paul's names. She hooks up with once again with Detective Dean who is able to assist her with some of her sleuthing. After a second murder, Katie and Dean are afraid the killer is definitely going after Katie.

This is not a long book and I read it in a few hours. The story was well paced and moved along quickly. One thing I really liked was that the clues and the investigation were all about wine, so it seemed realistic that a sommelier would be able to unearth them. As a protagonist in this story, Katie seemed to be more self assured but still took a lot of chances. Katie is a flawed character who has poor self-esteem caused by her past. I hope as her relationship with Dean flourishes, she might become more positive. My only question, is how does a person who has very little money, spend so much time driving around? Overall, this was a good mystery with some interesting characters and of course wine. I enjoyed it a bit more than the last one and look forward to reading the newest book in this series.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
Carlathelibrarian | 1 outra resenha | Feb 5, 2019 |
Katie Stillwell has been practicing for the Advanced Sommelier test but has taken the last week "off" to go to a food and wine festival with her boyfriend. She did volunteer to pour some wine on the last day which gave her special access to staff areas. The festival is being hosted by a Master Sommelier and when one of the attendees is found murdered outside his hotel room, Katie feels compelled to figure out who did it. Otherwise the Master will not be able to proctor her test the following week and she'll have to wait months.

I love mysteries, I love wine and these are a good combination. I especially like the wine pairing tips that were included as well as the characters tips on wine tasting.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
cyderry | 1 outra resenha | Oct 18, 2018 |
The first book in A Sommelier Mystery series shows Katie Stillwell immediately after the Certified Sommelier Exam when she is headed to a private party at the Frontier Winery. While at Frontier, she tastes some phenomenal wine but then later finds the owner of Frontier floating in a wine tank. Since her friend's personalized cork screw is found near the body, Katie feels she has to work to clear her friend of suspicion.

The idea of this mystery was good, and I had read a later one so I felt I needed more background. I'm glad I read the later one (unusual for me) because otherwise I probably wouldn't have read on. The characters needed work as well as the writing style. But the future holds promise.… (mais)
½
 
Marcado
cyderry | outras 3 resenhas | Sep 2, 2018 |

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Obras
3
Also by
1
Membros
83
Popularidade
#218,811
Avaliação
½ 3.6
Resenhas
8
ISBNs
14

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