Mark Rollins is not your average retiree. He is wealthy, tech-savy and has friends is high places. Living in Nashville and the owner of Women’s Health Club, an exclusive club for women only, which conveniently provides the cover for his high-tech “private” investigation company. Just a little something he does to keep himself busy in his retirement.
Mark tells the story of his latest adventure by introducing characters a chapter at a time. It is up to the reader to put together the puzzle of how they will all fit together. The cast includes Howard J. Taylor, a long dead, unpleasant old man introduced to us on the last day of his life. A group of attorneys, one of whom contacts Mark for protection from a possessive soon to be ex-husband, and the rest of whom are unpleasant and greedy. Among them Ann Sim, the attorney needing the protection of Mark Rollins’ firm, and Eli Campbell, managing partner of Chambers and White, may not be all that meets the eye. We meet her possessive, money-grubbing husband, Paul Walton. We meet her uncle who has come to Nashville to attend a Tea Party Convention and decides to look-up his niece whom he has not been in contact for years. Then there is the suave Englishman Lord Deed Millhouse with whom Ann is planning a Society function. Add to that a secret room in the dilapidated mansion of Howard J. Taylor, the “murder” of Ann’s dog, and the storm of the Century causing massive flooding in Nashville. Oh, and then there is the wine connection, which you must read about, I’ll not give it away.
This engaging page-turner keeps you guessing about the identity and motives of its characters to the very end. The author, Tom Collins, succeeds is intertwining his real life interests of technology and great wine into a mystery adventure worth reading. Pick it up if you have the chance. I read it while traveling by car to the Wine Bloggers Conference in Portland a couple of week ago. It is a fun, engaging read.
The Claret Murders is available for the Kindle or as a paperback and on the Nook and iTunes so you can read it wherever and however you like.
Kindle edition: Paperback Edition:
If you like this book Tom has three other Mark Rollins adventure, though unrelated to wine. They are “Mark Rollins New Career & The Women’s Health Club”, “Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker” and “Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer”, all found in the usual outlets of course.
Disclaimer: This book was provided as a sample.