Compelling Tale Publishing

I'm thrilled to announce that my new Vinophile Mystery, Pinot Mort, is now available for pre-order, starting with the E-Book version. The official release date is October 18th, 2026. 

 

Description:

Jay Mitchell got caught up in a murder once in the past and can tell you once is enough for anybody. Even though he eventually uncovered the murderer and proved his own innocence, things were never the same. Becoming notorious city-wide, when all the tabloids used his love life for prurient and libelous headlines, was bad enough.  In addition, negative social media poisoned his workplace relationships, and his girlfriend abruptly dumped him. That explains why he moved to British Columbia and bought a vineyard in a major mid-life career change.

 

Escaping to one of Canada’s premier wine regions doesn’t mean you can escape your trials and tribulations, however. Yes, the scenic recreation and tourism area of the Okanagan Valley is a great place live and work, as long as you don’t run into challenges. Challenges like climate-boosted rainfalls, mildew infestations, or toxic clouds of grape-tainting wildfire smoke. Jay is finding he has no time for recreation, trying to stay ahead of natural disasters, when the unnatural disaster of a dead body is added to the mix.

 

He inadvertently exposes a victim’s remains in the wine cellar of Arabesque Winery, the new mega-winery that was supposed to purchase his entire crop of grapes at harvest time. It’s clearly murder, and the discovery threatens both Jay’s livelihood and his freedom. It propels him on a desperate search for clues to unmask the person social media nicknames the ‘Shiraz Slayer’. The more he discovers, the greater the danger from a killer who wants to keep their mask firmly in place.