Death On The Vine

SEATTLE – Normally, it would be the kind of no­toriety a small town wants to avoid: A murderer rents a home on a quiet leafy street as his base of operation to knock off a former lover and pin the blame on her ex- husband.

But that’s only if the story were true. In the case of “Killer Cuvee,” a new book by Steven Wells, it’s harm­less fiction and Waitsburg is merely an edge-of-the-wine country backdrop to a larger plot that unfolds thrillingly in Walla Walla, Seattle and London.

Wells, who lives in Se­attle, will be in Walla Walla for two book signings. The first is on Wednesday, Nov. 7, from 5 – 7 p.m. at Wild Walla Walla Wine Women, 19 North Second Ave. The second is on Friday, Nov. 9, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Book & Game Co., 38 East Main.

“Jim Oakes was halfway through the 18-hour drive from Phoenix to Waitsburg when his hands began to shake on the steering wheel.”

Thus begins chapter three of “Killer Cuvee,” which pur­ports to be “a powerful blend of 35 percent murder, 35 per­cent romance and 30 percent winemaking.” The reader learns Oakes is a Special Forces veteran who served in Afghanistan and displays post traumatic stress disorder symptoms. He also shows symptoms of vengeance against a former lover whom he plans to poison by stealing into her ex-husband’s wine operation in Walla Walla.

As a backdrop to the larger murder mystery, Waitsburg is not defined in great detail. It’s a convenient close-in venue for Oakes’ scheme, a place to hang his hat and visit a local which is described in just enough detail for local read­ers to take a wild guess.

“It’s a relaxed and idyllic little town that serves as a secondary location,” Wells said in an interview. Wells spent a day in Waitsburg to get impressions for the book. The town is mentioned in three of the 49 chapters. The model for the fictitious rental house Wells chose for the antagonist’s temporary home isn’t far from the “ac­tion” downtown, though the dwelling could be just about anywhere in town.

“He needed to walk only two blocks to reach Main Street and then two blocks more to find the center of town, where there were a number of bars and restau­rants on either side of the street,” Wells wrote about his character’s search for a wa­tering hole. “He picked the one with the liveliest crowd and walked inside. He im­mediately saw the two things he was looking for: a long bar with several tap handles used for pouring beers from a variety of craft brewers at one end, and two attractive women sitting alone at the other.”

Any guess yet?

The story returns to Waits­burg towards the end of the book, when Eric Savage, the protagonist winemaker, arrives at Oakes’ rental to help the Walla Walla County Sheriff and FBI search the suspect’s place for incrimi­nating evidence.

“There is a lot in this novel to enjoy – murder, midlife changes, a side trip to Lon­don,” according to a review by reader Steven Winnard on Amazon.com. “What’s not to love? For me the best part was the glimpse into winery life. Fun reading with or without a glass in your hand.”

Drawing on his own ex­perience as a Microsoft soft­ware engineer and on stints as a wine production assistant while studying viticulture, Wells describes Savage as an artisanal vintner who leaves his corporate career in Seattle behind for Walla Walla only to find his “agreeable” new life upended by a mysterious murder and the accusation he himself is guilty of the crime.

After eluding police, Sav­age flies to London and the scene of the crime in a calcu­lated attempt to find the real killer. There, he encounters a determined and attractive FBI agent who has her own reasons for investigating the murder.

It is evident from the de­tails about Savage’s trade that Wells incorporated lots of material from his time at the wine production program at Seattle Community Col­lege and internships with two Walla Walla winemakers.

He began working on his novel a year and a half ago when he decided that cap­turing the art and science of winemaking in fiction was preferable to a long-term career in the field.

“I thought ‘why not write about it,’” he said. “I was concerned that mystery read­ers might be turned off by the winemaking parts of the book (and vice versa). But the feedback has been good.”

Wells left Microsoft and the drudgery of penning cor­porate reports in the late 1990s. Among other post- corporate activities, he went through a creative non-fiction writing program at the Uni­versity of Washington to re­kindle his passion for writing.

He self-published his first book, “Ginger’s Story: A Golden Retriever Reflects Upon Her Life With Hu­mans,” which sold hundreds of copies without any mar­keting. He did the same with “Killer Cuvee,” his first full- blown novel which he hopes to follow with two sequels for a trilogy. He’s not sure if Waitsburg will return in “Harvest Homicide,” book number two, or the yet-to- be-named third in the series. For more details, visit: www.thewinemakerseries.com