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A winery to die for

Thursday, 30 June 2005

Murder Alfresco,by Nadia Gordon. Chronicle Crime, 2005. 264 pages, $23.95. A local writer, who calls herself Nadia Gordon, has just published her third murder mystery novel, Murder Alfresco. Like its two predecessors, this novel features chef Sonya Sunn? McCoskey, and is set in the Napa Valley. Also, like its predecessors, it is a lot of fun to read. As Murder Alfresco opens, McCoskey is walking home from a party at her potential new boyfriend’s house when she sees a pickup truck pull out of a dark winery, keeping its lights off. Curious, she walks towards the winery to find the body of a beautiful young woman artfully tied up and very, very dead. Feeling both frightened and somehow responsible, Sunny gets involved in the murder investigation. What makes a murder mystery work best in this day and age is not the plot, although no one wants to read one with a bad plot, but character and color. The Sunny McCoskey mysteries have both to spare. Sunny herself is charming, feisty and funny. She is surrounded by a small cast of friends who recur from book to book. For Bay Area readers, the local color is a bonus. Ms. Gordon describes places that we have all seen – Sausalito, Napa Valley, the Golden Gate – with precision and affection. All of this is set around the Napa Valley culture of food and wine. Sunny McCoskey owns and runs a restaurant, Wildside, that has a foodie following, but she is determined to stay closed on the weekends. There is a set piece in this novel that starts out at Sears Point Raceway (I know, I know, it has a corporate name now) with Ferraris circling the track, and concludes with a vinous dinner party at the Niebaum-Coppola Winery; a good time was had by both reader and writer. Another local writer has a book out that should be noted. Stephen Damon, the owner of the Fillmore’s own Browser Books, has just published his first book of poetry. Since I know Stephen and consider him a friend, I can’t really write an objective review. The book, Rhyming the Hours (Codhill Press, 2005. 118 pages, $16, paperback) consists of poems written around the occasion of his 50th birthday. It is full of strong and heartfelt meditations, both physical and metaphysical. Just for the record, in spite of its title, the poems don’t rhyme. It is definitely worth checking out. Mark J. Mitchell’s poetry will be seen in the anthology Oenopoetica, due out this fall.

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