Villain in the Vineyard - The Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series #4 by Judy L Murray is a Spring Into Books Festival pick #mystery #newrelease #giveaway
- N. N. Light
- Apr 16
- 6 min read
Title: Villain in the Vineyard - The Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series #4
Author: Judy L Murray
Genre: Amateur sleuth/cozy/traditional detectives Mystery
Book Blurb:
Chesapeake Bay’s favorite sleuth unearths a vineyard’s poisonous secrets.
Real Estate Rule #4: Beware a house covered in tangled vines, for they conceal deceit.
Realtor Helen Morrisey is smiling. Her family is close. Her business solid. Her feelings for a local detective stronger than ever. When a string of her clients’ homes are graffitied, Helen writes it off as petty efforts by bored teenagers. Until they raise the stakes.
One by one ‘Your agent is a crook’ is splashed across houses in blood red letters. Her hometown’s growing distrust in Helen chips away at her resolve, and her business. Overnight, she’s fighting a vengeful vandal to protect her name. Why is she a target?
Her phone rings. Her heart sinks. A local business leader and friend is dead. Last to see him alive, Helen convinces police her friend’s death is no accident. It’s murder. Days later, she discovers an eccentric vineyard owner slashed with a bottle of his prized wine. Two distinctly different backgrounds. How can these two crimes be related? Or are they?
Helen is long on loyalty but short on time. Retreating is not in her DNA. She faces two choices. Does she track down the person out to destroy her? Or dig into the dead men’s list of enemies to expose their killers? Can her sleuthing smarts outwit them? Or will Helen be the next victim?
Award-winning author Judy L Murray weaves Villain in the Vineyard, fourth in her Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series, with enduring characters who band together to insure good overcomes evil. Find more at www.judylmurraymysteries.com.
Excerpt:
Dwarfed by a half-ton red snow plow, Helen Morrisey tapped the breaks of her navy-blue Mini Cooper and followed it down the narrow main street of the flourishing little water town of Port Anne, Maryland, toward her real estate office and second home. Port Anne sat at the very top of the enormous Chesapeake Bay, its watershed stretching over five hundred miles and six states from New York to Virginia before spilling into the Atlantic Ocean. Helen never got tired, winter or summer, of gazing across its endless expanse of moving water. This February it was mostly blue, gray, and white ice. It was the coldest winter in twelve years.
Her windshield wipers scraped across her window as the winter sun struggled to announce morning. Helen didn’t notice. She’d reached what she considered a momentous decision. She was excited.
Her cell rang. She smiled. Perfect timing. It was Joe, man of the hour. She punched the Bluetooth call button on her dashboard.
“Good morning, Detective McAlister. I was thinking about you.”
“Hi. Got a minute?” Joe sounded tense, distracted.
She frowned. “Sure.” Helen could hear Joe’s car radio squawking in the background. “Hold on. I’m sitting at the red light coming into Port Anne.” She gave a wave to a pedestrian on the sidewalk and stopped in a nearby lot. “Okay, what’s up? Need to cancel dinner tonight?”
“Most likely.” The detective hesitated. “Do you know a Bill Elison?”
“Yes, I know Bill. He’s a client of mine and a friend. We’re meeting this afternoon. He lives outside of Port Anne off Lara Cove Road, not far from Captain’s Watch B&B. He’s the owner of Bayworks Cleaning Services in town. Why?”
Joe cleared his throat. His voice dropped. “I’m sorry, hon. There’s no easy way to say this. He’s had an accident. He fell down his basement stairs. Might have broken his neck. Coroner is on his way.”
“Oh, no.” Helen choked on her words. “I’ve known Bill for years. He is the nicest man.” She bit her tongue. “Was. Why did you think to call me?”
“We found your Safe Harbor Realtors business card in his shirt pocket.”
Silence. Helen tugged her coat up around her ears. The first of February on the Chesapeake Bay could be cold. Today was bitter, a record breaker. She cranked up the heat in her coupe, her nod to the tenacious Nancy Drew. Hot air blew across the dashboard and onto her face. She pushed her short dark hair out of large green eyes and stared with blurry eyes at the narrow street coated in salt mix in front of her.
“Helen, are you there?”
She blinked. “Yes, I, I’m in shock. I can’t believe what I’m hearing.”
“When did you last see him? And where?”
“Geez, we met at his house on Tuesday. Two days ago. About three o’clock. He wanted to sell his house. We were meeting again this afternoon to go over my numbers and decide on the price.” She tugged off her leather gloves and blew on stiff fingers.
“Does he have family nearby? I need his next of kin.”
“I’ll send you his daughter’s number.”
“If you could come right now, I’d like you to walk through the house before more people tramp through it. You can tell me if you notice anything different since you were here. Can you do that?”
“Of course. Let me make a call and put off my ten am appointment. I’ll be there in about ten minutes. This is so sad.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” Joe hung up.
***
Port Anne was home to Helen. College years in Washington D.C. to earn undergrad and master’s degrees was exciting, but big cities could never replace her little town on the bay. She felt lost when she couldn’t see the water. In her late twenties, she came back and nursed her mother until she passed away. Down on the docks of Port Anne Yacht Club, she met her true love Andy Morrisey. With his background in site engineering and her fascination with rehabbing old houses, they became inseparable until he died five years ago.
Over the past ten years, Port Anne began morphing from a tiny, one light crossroads to a newfound tourist destination with fancier pocket books discovering its charm. McMansions started popping up along the Bay’s shorelines, razing summer cottages. Old timers often resented these newbies. It was an ongoing tug of war between those who resisted any change and newcomers with new money and new ideas. Slowly, slowly, some of Port Anne’s young people were heading to colleges, while others stepped off the crab boats of past generations for new technical skills. It wasn’t an easy transition for anyone who’d grown up on the Chesapeake.
The scent of crabcakes wafted down the street from The Blue Crab as she passed two sandwich boards sitting on the sidewalk. Port Anne’s shops sold goods ranging from sweatshirts to luxury handbags. Store owners and restaurants depended on loyalists seeking local delicacies rather than discounts. Water Street Market, a gourmet mini grocery store, had revamped a sixties era abandoned gas station and sat catty-corner to the only intersection with a traffic light. Their fresh seafood and Italian specialties were to die for. A foodie who hated to cook, Helen made a regular stop to pick up premade dinners she could pop in her oven. She pretended they were homemade.
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What’s your favorite thing about springtime?
The sense of hope, joy and renewal it brings. The pleasure of enjoying the outside world after being in hibernation.
Why is your featured book a must-read this spring?
“Between the fast-paced mystery and the extremely likable characters, I was enthralled with Villain in the Vineyard. Helen Morrisey is the sassy sort of true-blue friend you would want. Thoroughly enjoyable.” Kings River Magazine Review
Giveaway –
One lucky reader will win a $100 Amazon gift card.
Open internationally.
Runs April 1 – 30, 2025
Drawing will be held on May 1, 2025.
Author Biography:
Winner of eight awards, Judy L Murray’s Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series promises enduring, believable characters who band together to insure good overcomes evil. A former Philadelphia real estate broker and restoration addict, Judy has worked with enough delusional sellers, jittery buyers, testy contractors, and diva agents to fill her head with back-office insight and mystery. Judy lives atop a cliff on the bay with her husband. They’re buffeted by winds in winter and invaded by family and dogs in summer. She began her professional writing career as a newspaper reporter and magazine columnist. Sign up for her newsletter at https://www.judylmurraymysteries.com
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