BOOKS & STUFF

Ah, Valentine’s Day. Woe to the gentleman who fails to present his love with flowers, chocolates, a dinner out or, at the very least, a nice card. I’m all for romance and romantic occasions, but something in me just can’t handle “romance” novels. The whole idea of a damsel in distress rescued by the white knight makes me cringe. But I know that many readers really enjoy reading happy ending romances. I’ll take a nasty murder instead.

This week, I chose a rather light mystery from my long list of e-books, “Pasta, Pinot and Murder,” by Jamie Lee Scott. This is one of her Willa Friday series, and I think it might be fun to read others. I liked Willa Friday because she sounds real. She is somewhere around 40, slightly overweight and tends to be snippy when riled.

The action takes place in Pear, California, where the main industry is wine and all things connected to wine. One of the biggest producers is Vendredi’s (French for Friday). It is owned by Hattie Friday.

Hattie is fit, savvy, domineering, 70 years old and Willa’s former mother-in-law. Their relationship is complex. Willa divorced Peter Friday after he had a fling with a young waitress but still lives in the same house and works in a studio on the sprawling Friday property.

Willa once worked in Peter’s restaurant, but now she has a “food styling” business and a food blog that is doing well. Food styling is setting up food so that it looks good in photographs. Since many foods don’t photograph well, stylists use dish soap, glue, soy sauce and glycerin to fake it.

Willa has just hired Jake Johnson as her assistant. He seems to be a natural with foods, so she has high hopes. As they rush to finish a session, Hattie waltzes into the studio to remind her she has a meeting with Alice Parker about an upcoming charity event. Alice owns another large winery. She is bossy and extremely hard to work with, but she’s also one of Hattie’s best friends.

Willa rushes to get to the meeting on time but must pick up a check from Alice’s husband, Bruce, at Parker Investments. His secretary, Paula Osborne, says he’s out for a few days and has no check, but something about Paula’s behavior seems off to Willa.

When she reaches the Parker mansion, she’s surprised to see the security gate is open and the front door ajar. Within minutes, Willa finds Alice in a pool of blood. The big dent in her head tells Willa that this was no accident. Willa knows that this is a matter for the police, but she feels compelled to investigate on her own.

As she pries into Alice’s private life, Willa finds plenty of potential suspects. Since the husband is often the culprit, Bruce is first on the list. Jake Johnson is there because Alice accused him of theft and swore she’d ruin his career. Worst of all, Hattie had been at Alice’s, where they had a terrible argument, just before she was killed.

Willa dutifully reports everything she finds to the sheriff, but he already knows most of it. In most books the police don’t want or need help from civilians, but in this case Willa’s snooping is reluctantly accepted. The case comes to an abrupt conclusion when Willa unknowingly confronts the killer and is nearly run off the road.

As she relates the event to the sheriff, they both realize who the killer is. Arrests are made, confessions taken and Alice’s estate is settled in a satisfactory manner setting things up nicely for book No. 2.

You’ll find lots of books in series or ones that stand alone at your public library. The crummy weather makes this a perfect time to use that library, so check it out.

AT A GLANCE
BOOK: “Pasta, Pinot and Murder”
AUTHOR: Jamie Lee Scott
PUBLISHER: LBB Company
PUBLISHED: June 11, 2017
PAGES: 170