Linda Barnes: Bitter Finish (USA 2015)

From the Publisher:
To save his winery, independently wealthy actor and former PI Michael Spraggue investigates a Napa Valley slaying
Shooting on location in Boston for a new film, Michael Spraggue has just tumbled down a flight of stairs when a call comes in from California. On the line is Kate Holloway, Michael’s on-again-off-again lover and partner in a fledgling California winery. It’s harvest time and their winemaker has disappeared. Right after Kate reported him missing, the police found a corpse on their property, the victim so savagely murdered that identification is close to impossible. Now Kate is in jail.

Soon after Michael arrives in Napa, a second body turns up and the police become convinced that Kate is the killer. To save his winery and free his girl, Michael will have to find the real killer before the harvest comes in.

Bitter Finish is the 2nd book in the Michael Spraggue Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Linda Barnes: Bitter Finish. A Michael Spraggue Mystery. Open Road Media, ISBN: 9781504014502 (July, 2015), eBook, 1.28 MB (ca. 198 p.), $7.99.

Linda Barnes: Bitter Finish (USA 1991)

From the Publisher:
Michael Spraggue, a wealthy private eye turned movie actor, is in the middle of making a trashy Hollywood movie about -- what else? -- a private eye, when he gets a phone call from his sometime lover and current business partner in a California winery, Kate Holloway.

Kate has troubling news. Not only has Lenny Brent, their volatile winemaker, vanished, but an unidentifiable corpse has appeared -- and Kate's the prime suspect!

Spraggue hurries over in time to discover a second dead body -- that of Lenny. Can Spraggue solve this vintage mystery before he finds himself corked?

Linda Barnes: Bitter Finish. Murder at a Vineyard. A Michael Spraggue Mystery. Fawcett Crest, ISBN: 0449206904 (Febuary, 1991), 196 p., $4.95.