The Lie of the Land

Sonoma County, California, is famous for its wine, and as its vintages grow more highly acclaimed, small family wineries are being snapped up by the rich and famous. In this tale of greed, deception, and death, one such offer leads not to wealth but to murder. The Kepler family is currently contemplating a bid from a rich New York City hedge fund manager to buy their winery, and they've hired Ned Robertson to represent them in the transaction. To Ned, the beautiful vistas of Santa Rosa, California, are a welcome change after years in the cutthroat world of corporate law in New York. After he takes the Keplers' case, however, he discovers that he was hired because their last lawyer ended up dead! Ned teams up with native San Franciscan Joanne Andrews to get to the bottom of the previous lawyer's unnatural demise. As the two accidental sleuths explore the world of wine, tourism, and big business, bodies begin piling up. California may be sunnier than New York, but Ned is finding out that there is a different kind of "cutthroat" culture out here-and he does not want to be the next victim!