Uncorking a Lie

March 27, 2017
At the start of Nettman’s sprightly sequel to 2016’s Decanting a Murder, Katie Stillwell, who works as a sommelier at a San Francisco restaurant and is studying for an advanced wine-tasting qualification, attends a dinner party at the Sonoma mansion of wine collector Paul Rafferty, who’s eager for his eight guests to sample a 1975 bottle of Chateau Clair Bleu. After the wine is decanted with great ceremony and poured, Kate takes one long and thoughtful sniff and realizes that it could not be a ’75: its color and fruit-forward nose tell her it’s a much younger wine. What’s she to do? As a guest, she doesn’t want to spoil her host’s moment of glory, and no one else at the table seems to realize something’s wrong. She conveys her concerns to Rafferty’s assistant, Cooper Maxwell. Some minutes later, Maxwell is found dead in the wine cellar. Fake wines, charity auctions, collector obsession, and a splash of romance enliven the blend. Nettmann, a certified sommelier, certainly knows her stuff. Agent: Danielle Burby, Hannigan Salky Getzler Agency.

March 1, 2017
A California wine expert uses her famed palate to uncover a fake and solve a murder.Sommelier Katie Stillwell is thrilled to receive an invitation to dinner at the home of wealthy Sonoma wine collector Paul Rafferty. She knows that Rafferty, a regular patron of the restaurant where she works, has recently purchased a bottle of 1975 Chateau Clair Bleu, which he intends to serve at the dinner. Although Rafferty's assistant, Cooper Maxwell, greets Katie warmly, the other guests are less friendly. Her nervousness turns to horror when she realizes the $19,000 bottle of wine is a fake. After she shares her news with Cooper alone, he's found badly injured at the foot of the wine-cellar steps. When he dies in the hospital, Katie, suspecting his apparent accident is something more sinister, begins to investigate, her inquiries financed by Rafferty. It turns out that Cooper was poisoned and Katie is one of the suspects. Though it's not easy to find the identity of the person who consigned the fake wine to the auction where Rafferty purchased it, Katie gets help from an unlikely source, the detective she calls Dean who worked with her on her first murder (Decanting a Murder, 2016). Busy with work and studying for the next sommelier test, she's been ignoring Dean's phone calls. But now she finds him more appealing on both social and professional levels. In real life, Dean's help would probably land them both in big trouble. But how can he refuse charming Katie? A good mystery with a limited group of suspects and unlimited wine lore.

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