I love this series the characters are always charming and the mystery always engaging. The animals are a definite plus.

This book is another good addition to the series. This series that is set at a winery with vineyard always provides me interesting facts about growing grapes and making wine.

The mystery was well-done and was well-written. I'm looking forward to visiting with Norrie in the future.

Divide and Concord is my first J.C. Eaton book. While this is the fifth book in the Wine Trail mystery series, I was able to jump right in. I really liked it. Norrie is so likeable. She comes up with such over the top schemes to find out the murderer that it’s hard not to. Glenda and Zendora, with all their chantings, spreading sage, and reading auras, made me laugh. Bradley, Norrie’s boyfriend, is a nice guy, but the one I really feel that Norrie should be with is Godfrey. There was chemistry there. This story brought me joy and I am looking forward to reading the next one in the series. Thank you to Netgalley and Beyond the Page Publishing for the copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

Divide and Concord

by J.C. Eaton

Norrie Ellington is a screenwriter who finds herself in charge of the family winery in the absence of her sister. Norrie’s producer decides that Norrie’s Two Witches Winery in New York is the perfect site for the filming of a small part of her current project. It will be for just a “few” days and “only” involves two crowd attracting stars, a camera crew, a diva director and her perfectionist assistant. Unfortunately this filming is scheduled to take place during the Seneca Lake Wine Trail’s Wine and Cheese Festival and occurs in the middle of a massive spring snow storm. Norrie has had run-ins before with the local sheriff, thought of by her as Grizzly Gary, so she is not happy to be the first on the scene of what could only be a murder. Norrie has a lot of balls to keep in the air while she tries to discover the identity of a murderer who seems intent on framing Norrie for the crime.

As usual with a J.C. Eaton book, in Divide and Concord I felt like I was in the middle of the dilemma and had to look outside a few times to make sure it wasn’t snowing. This writing duo is that good. Meanwhile, despite the seriousness of the subject, there are humorous moments and the plot moves quickly with the spotlight on various characters who might have wanted to kill the director. Actually, the woman was so unpleasant it was hard to find anyone who didn’t have a motive. Norrie and willing friends work together to trap the criminal in an Agatha Christie type of setup with a surprise ending.

I would like to extend my thanks to NetGalley and to Beyond the Page Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 5/5

Category: Mystery

Notes: 1. #5 in the Wine Trail Mysteries, but is excellent as a standalone.
2. The name Two Witches Winery should not put off those who do not like to read works that include the occult. The name is purported to have historical significance. There are two minor characters with mystical practices but our heroine rolls her eyes at them and manages to use them in the setup to discover the murderer.

Publication: April 30, 2020—Beyond the Page Publishing

Memorable Lines:

“It’s not an impending disaster,” I replied. “An inconvenience perhaps. Or maybe even a nuisance, but it’s not going to be a disaster.” Who the heck am I kidding?

Then, the unspeakable happened. Debora Dabrowski made her entrance into the Two Witches tasting room like Cruella de Vil. The only thing missing was a cigarette holder. She was tall with an angular face and layered black hair with one white streak that framed the left side of her face. Her tortoiseshell wingtip glasses, complete with jeweled rims, completed the look.

Priscilla’s kind of high strung and one Kleenex away from a full-blown sobfest.

I enjoyed this cozy read. The book was fun and well paced. The dialogue sparkled. A nice escapist read!

Winery Woes.....
A winery, a film crew and a murder. Norrie Ellington may have made the wrong decision in letting a film crew run amok at her winery. Entertaining cosy mystery with a likelikeable protagonist and a colourful cast of supporting characters. A fun read.

Great book I loved all the refers to Nancy Drew. Great series and definitely recommend this book and if you have not read any books in this series you can read this book and then go back and read from the beginning

Fun mystery set in the Finger Lakes wine region.
I received a free copy from the the publisher and Netgalley.

The first thing I noticed with Norrie was that she was very talkative and had a curiosity like a cat, which when you look at it, was the perfect recipe for an amateur sleuth. Things began looking sour when she became the number one suspect in the high profile murder at her winery. Norrie refuses to stay out of the investigation, as she sets about clearing her name. She had determination in a firm grip by the butt as she forges her way to the truth and the murderer.

Two Witches Winery is preparing for another Wine Festival but they get overbooked for action when Norrie Ellington's producer forces her to accept an unscheduled filming in the vineyards at the same time as crowds are expected. Having the director turn up dead on the second day doesn't help. As usual Norrie enlists her fellow winemakers to find out who culprit is before the reputation of the area is beyond repair.

What a fun well-written series with amusing characters and sparking story lines!

Wine and cheese is a combination that rarely fails to please, and they certainly make for a great story with this book.
When winery owner and screenwriter Norrie finds a dead body in her irrigation pond, not surprisingly she’s upset and also wants to get to the bottom of the mystery. There’s a festival going on in town and so there are an awful lot of possible suspects. Plenty of enjoyable red herrings!
There’s lots of humour in the writing, and great interplay between the characters. There’s the juxtaposition of the serious, down-to-earth (literally) affair of wine-making and the flighty, shallow universe of film-making. Norrie manages to live in both but generally they appear as confusing alien species to each other.
It’s an enjoyable, steadily-paced read with plenty to entertain the reader.

Curled up with a glass of wine and had myself a delicious romp through this cozy mystery. Cured my insomnia (that is an endorsement not a jab) and let me forget the troubles on our collective doorstep.

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Murder rears its ugly head again near Two Witches Winery and this time it involves a film crew filming a scene from one of Norrie Ellington’s screenplays. When the over-the-top director is found dead the entire cast and crew find themselves in the police spotlight. Surprisingly Norrie finds herself there too due to a public altercation. The victim’s husband, a candy magnate bringing his business to the area also plays a key role. First, bringing excitement to the area with his expected need of concord grape juice but also could he have been in the area and killed his wife?

To help catch the real killer Norrie enlists the help of her friends from the neighboring wineries. They all know their businesses depend on putting the murder behind them as quickly as possible especially when it looks like the killer’s sights are now set on Norrie.

With this installment, the series has moved to a new publisher and I am so happy about that because I was definitely not ready to see these character’s stories end.

All the recurring characters are strong and Norrie is a great protagonist. I really appreciate the relationships she has built with everyone around her especially because her time at the winery is basically limited to the year her sister and brother-in-law are in Costa Rica studying a very special bug. I could see her lengthening her stay though because of these friendships and her new romantic relationship, but we will have to see. I do enjoy the way her personal life story continues to evolve and grow.

The mystery was an entertaining one to follow and solve. The nods to Miss Marple and Nancy Drew were a nice touch. There were plenty of twists and turns. The social media research done to investigate the suspects felt very current. I did enjoy the big reveal and thought it was pretty funny that is didn’t play out as planned. There was also a Wine and Cheese Festival the wineries are hosting and the staff at Two Witches have to deal with all the fans that show up because actors Priscilla McCoy and Gavin Chase are now filming in the vineyards. The authors blend all the drama and day to day activities very well.

Divide and Concord is a delightful addition to this series. Engaging characters and a stirring mystery kept me captivated from the first page to the last. I am hoping for many more books in this series.

The 5th installment of the Wine Trail Mysteries. Norrie Ellington is a screenwriter turned vintner who runs Two Witches Winery. She agrees to let a producer she knows film some scenes at the winery but wants to make sure no damage to the property etc. What she did not expect is a director who is out of control and with whom she has a very visible argument the day before he is murdered. This of course puts Norrie at the top of a long suspect list and she knows if anyone is going to clear her name it must be her. Good solid mystery which reads well and you learn the identity of the killer when the author wants you too. The story was well paced and kept me engaged. I enjoyed it.

Wine and Cheese, Yum. Throw in a film crew and you have the background for a mystery. Fun and entertaining read as always when visiting Two Witches Winery.

I really enjoyed reading this fun cozy mystery. Norrie is getting ready for a wine and cheese weekend when a film crew arrives to film a scene in the vineyards. When a member of the crew is found dead and they frame Norrie she sets out to solve the crime. I really liked the characters and the Finger Lakes wine trail setting. The mystery was good with enough suspects to keep it interesting and the solution made sense. I am looking for word to reading more in the series. Enjoy

Divide and Concord is the fifth book in The Wine Trail Mysteries by J.C Eaton. I highly recommend this series. Norrie is a fun savvy protagnist who always solves her cases. Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for the opportunity. My review opinion is my own. The authors are husband and wife writing team of Ann I. Goldfarb and James E. Clapp.

Norrie is a winery manager and screenwriter. She has allowed a film crew to come to the winery to film just as a wine and cheese festival they hold annually has begun. When a body turns up in her irrigation pond Norrie wants to find out what happened as she is a sharp investigator on prior murder cases. With the amount of people at the winery for the events the list of possible suspects is many. The case has red herrings at every turn as Norrie try's not to interfere with the local police and solve the mystery.

I enjoy this series for the well crafted sleuths, the enjoyable setting and the dash of humor the author's incorporate into every book. I look forward to the next in series.

Divide and Concord book in J.C. Eaton’s (the husband and wife writing team of Ann I. Goldfarb and James E. Clapp) The Wine Trail Mysteries series. The story flowed smoothly with a steadily paced plot, twists and turns, and a well-developed cast of characters. This is a quick and easy read with an interesting mystery.

Norrie Ellington is a successful screenwriter and silent partner in Two Witches Winery, her family’s winery on Seneca Lake in Penn Yan, New York. Her older sister and brother-in-law, Francine and Jason, are spending a year in Costa Rica while Jason researches a bug, and Francine asked Norrie to temporarily move to the winery and oversee operations. Norrie reluctantly agreed since she can write anywhere, and the winery’s staff is experienced. Not only is Norrie dealing with the annual Wine and Cheese Festival on Seneca Lake, but due to a harsh winter in Canada, Renee, Norrie’s producer, sends actors, Priscilla McCoy and Gavin Chase, Director Devora Dobrowski, and a film crew to Two Witches Winery to film the final scene of Windswept Love, which Norrie wrote. When the body of Devora Dobrowski turns up in a neighboring wineries’ irrigation pond, Yates County Sheriff’s Deputy, Gary Hickman, aka Grizzly Gary, informs Norrie that she’s a person of interest in her death. Norrie, who has a tendency to get carried away with her sleuthing and making wild assumptions, is determined to clear her name and identify the real killer.

I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed it.

Divide and Concord
By J.C. Eaton
Beyond the Page Publishing
2020

Review by Cynthia Chow

With only three months to go until her sister and brother-in-law return to take over their Two Witches Winery in Penn Yan, New York, Norrie Ellington is eagerly anticipating the return to her full-time job as a screenplay writer. So far life in Seneca Lake has been inundated by too many corpses, and it doesn’t look like the near future will be any smoother. An unexpected snowfall has shifted Norrie’s current movie site from Niagra Falls to the winery, meaning that a Canadian film crew of celebrity actors and assistants will be descending on the town during the same weekend as the annual wine and Cheese Festival. The timing couldn’t be worse, but that’s nothing compared to the demands of the temperamental and obnoxious director Devora Dobrowski. Threatening both Norrie’s career as a screenwriter and as the manager of the wintery, the Cruella de Vil of directors leaves Norrie fuming and spewing a few threats herself.
She’s not the only one to have confrontations with the director, with the star actress Pricilla McCoy having one of the loudest. When Norrie’s Plott hound Charlie discovers a body in vineyard pond wearing Pricilla’s necklace, Norrie makes the obvious conclusions and calls the police alerting them of her discovery.

That’s not the first of Norrie’s rush-to-judgments, resulting in Yates County Sheriff’s Deputy “Grizzly Gary” Hickman habit of rolling his eyes and disregarding her many assertions. Her belief that the police are plodding along motivates Norrie to conduct an investigation of her own, enlisting her friends and staffers as researchers into the social media lives and backgrounds of the suspects. A law school-taught divorce case, rival directors, aspiring actors, and candy company investment become a part of Norrie’s growing investigative list as she leads the charge to track down a killer.

The quirky and entertaining characters of Penn Yan are the attraction for this light-hearted series, which has them enthusiastically engaging in off-the-books investigations. Norrie has no qualms about breaking-and-entering or in confronting suspects head-on, and while the deputy may be slow-paced he’s not stupid. His interactions with Norrie are as hilarious as the ones she has with entomologist Godfrey Klein. They may have exchanged a kiss, but their ability to converse without actually listening to one another is a delight. Norrie’s chemistry with attorney Bradley Jamison is far more fiery, but the time limit on her stay in Penn Yan curtails possibilities for their future. Norrie’s sense of self-preservation may be somewhat questionable, but what never waivers is her determination to solve the murder and track down the truth. This fifth in the series is at its best when it highlights the absurd nature of movie-making, along with fascinating details involved in running a winery. This is a fun-filled read that combines the chaos of the entertainment business with the nuance of crafting wine and growing grapes. Funny dialogue, an unexpected reveal, and thrilling conclusion make this a satisfying and intriguing read.

I thought that I felt like a cosy mystery when I requested this book and a cosy mystery it is. Interesting scenario - murder in a winery which was being used as a set for a film. The film director, an appalling character, turns up dead and Norrie, the screen writer and co-owner of the winery sets out to solve the murder, even more so when she becomes a suspect. The police are, typically for this genre, inept and bullying - but I'd be bullying with the interference by Norrie who just won't keep her nose of of anything. The characters are varied but always colourful and the scenery different. Plenty of description of a winter storm for example. Sometimes a bit repetitive as to how Norrie sorted out the clues but a reasonable read. Not a problem that it's number 5 in a series. I'd be happy to read more by the authors when I next feel a cosy mystery mood coming on. Thanks to NetGalley and Beyond the Page Publishing for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.