“But someone’s trying to kill Uncle Jules, Morgan! You’ve gotta help me!” whines Kit in this faintly farcical “cozy” set at a full service, family owned, boutique winery in Northern California. Jules is Jules Romano, the uncle of Kit’s ex-wife Indie. He's also a Kit’s mother's cousin, and the aging king of Buckthorn Estate where Kit and Indie both just happened to grow up. Jules inherited Buckthorn from his father in the 1960s. His father was the one who pulled out all that invasive Buckthorn, back when Prohibition ended; then he planted vines like his parents had had in Tuscany. Many of the present day Romanos still live at Buckthorn, and they still make plenty of wine. Now Jules is ready to retire and pass on his scepter and orb, or maybe that’s his Jeroboam and corkscrew. . . At any rate, this investigation comes with plenty of conflicts of interest as well as lessons in the art of winemaking. And there’s magic, and mayhem, and maybe a bit of madness too. Who knew there could be so many motives for murder at a winery? Or so many deadly opportunities. So grab yourself a glass of your favorite drink and prepare to laugh, and then gasp at what our sleuths get up to as they try to save Indie’s Uncle Jules.
2020, 274 pages
Available as Kindle e-book only: $3.99
Trade paper: $13.99 
2012, 330 pages
Trade paper: $14.99
E-version from multiple sources: $2.99
"A recent widow investigates a murder involving child molestation and the death penalty in this ambitious debut novel Morgan Kendall, a part-time librarian, lives in Quarry Canyon, North of San Francisco--a hipper, West Coast equivalent of Murder, She Wrote's Cabot Cove, Maine. As she deals with her own grief over the recent death of her husband, a young local boy is murdered. A man named Will, long suspected of being a pedophile, is arrested, tried and convicted and sent to San Quentin's death row. Morgan's husband, a writer, had been interested in the case, so Morgan begins to investigate both the murder and the events that preceded it, with the assistance of her college-student son and her new love interest, a private investigator. . . A strong beginning for a new mystery series."  Kirkus Reviews
Meet Morgan Kendall, a single mom, a librarian, in a funk after losing her beloved husband and sending her son off to college. Then she becomes involved in a local cold case, whose initial outcome left some people less than satisfied. It all had seemed so simple at first--horrible, but simple. Then Morgan begins to uncover the lies, the rumors, the spin surrounding the murderer's trial, and the story grows more complicated, as it implicates some of the town's most prominent residents.