The Two Witches Winery in Seneca Lake, New York, is joining in the seasonal “Deck the Halls Around the Lake” festivities but things aren't starting off on a good foot for the region. A Distribution truck was hijacked with several wineries production of Pinot Noir and the 2 witches has had it's production of Pinot sabotaged. Then the owner of the distribution company turns up dead apparently victim of a hunting accident. What more can happen?

Was it truly an accident or were the problems with the distributor and the Pinot issues connected? Can the Two Witches' Norrie Ellington save the regions reputation for a good Pinot or is the Pinot dead too?

Fun holiday twist with the wwine accents abounding! The characters continue to be fleshed out and grow more like fine wine! ( )

Norrie Ellington, is a screenwriter by profession and silent partner of Two Witches Winery. That is until her co-partner, her older sister, takes a year-long sabbatical to the tropics with her husband in search of rare entomological specimens. This leaves Norrie in charge and winging it. Thus starts The Wine Trail Mysteries series.

Pinot Noir and Dead? is the third book of this series and starts off with news that a truck owned by the area wine distributor, containing 40 cases of precious wines from the wineries on the eastern side of Lake Seneca, has been hijacked. Then the vintners at Two Witches Winery discover that their precious and valuable oaken barrel of pinot noir has been tainted with excessive calcium carbonate, thus ruining the remainder of the wine in the barrel. News spreads of another winery having had their wine syphoned off in the night. Meanwhile, all the area vintners have received notice that the distributor will be taking a larger fee for their services. Losing product and being squeezed by the distributor is just untenable and making all the winery folks a bit edgy and cranky.

Charlie, the Two Witches Winery hound, happens upon a body in the ditch between Two Witches and the adjacent Grey Egret Winery. Not just any-body but the owner of Lake to Lake Wine Distributors. Such news is not good for business as all the wineries are in the midst of the Deck the Halls winery tour event. Sadly, the list of suspects is long and growing - not only with angry vintners but also a laundry list of presumed inheritors of the deceased wine distributor's business and rich personal assets. In spite of admonitions by Sheriff's Deputy Hickman for Norrie to keep her nose out of this sordid business, she just cannot help herself. From this point on, "Let the sleuthing commence!"

The book offers a lot of interesting facts about the wine-making business. There is also some rather helpful information regarding the eradication of stinkbugs as we read about the infestation of them at a nearby convent. The good characters are charming and imperfect. The bad characters - greedy and misguided. This being my first foray into The Wine Trail Mysteries series, I found stable footing in spite of a few references to the earlier books. This book was complete and it can easily stand on its own. It is a classic cozy mystery - no graphic murder scenes and it has rather amusing characters. The good guys always win. Isn't that the way it's supposed to be? All in all, this was an enjoyable, light and easy read.

I am grateful to Kensington Books for having provided a free copy of this ebook through Goodreads First Reads. Their generosity, however, has not influenced this review - the words of which are mine alone. ( )