Sinfandel — Gina Cresse

When the body of a young apprentice winemaker is discovered while Kate Cimaglia's Zinfandel grapes are being harvested, Kate has no idea there is a connection between the dead girl and her latest assignment to straighten out the California wine grape harvest database. The last thing Kate needs is a corpse to deal with. She already has narcotics Detective Obermeyer hounding her after a stand of marijuana plants is discovered near her vineyard, and she's sure her low-life neighbor is the culprit, but convincing Obermeyer isn't easy. On top of that, her lying, cheating ex, Roger, shows up after ten years and wants to pick up where things left off… yeah, like that's going to happen, especially now that Kate is convinced Roger is the Grass Valley sniper taking potshots at passing cars in the middle of the night. But too-nice Kate can't bring herself to turn him in until she knows for sure. To make matters worse, she can't balance the records she's been hired to fix and it turns out she's uncovered a massive case of fraud being committed by… well, she doesn't know who, exactly, but she's determined to find out. And then there's Kate's vineyard manager, Andy Carmichael, who must have been in the chiseled-jaw line when God was handing out charm. The two of them didn't hit it off from the start, and Kate's not sure they ever will, but there are times when she could just… punch him or kiss him, depending on her mood. When Kate finally unravels the mystery of who forged millions of dollars worth of Zinfandel grapes, she discovers that the dead apprentice winemaker figured it out, too. If Kate doesn't want to suffer the same fate, she has to act fast to save herself.