The Wine Menagerie

The Wine Menagarie, is the first book in the Dash Ramblar mystery series. A gruesome murder of a celebrant following a Wine Sisters dinner event leads to hiring of Dash Ramblar, by a heartbroken winery owner. In his investigation, Dash learns that the idealistic victim led an active social life, linking major players in the wine industry to developers. The gold rush to the bucolic wine centric town of Grand Oaks is not just about producing a premium cabernet, but about a vast untapped aquafer, under their crepe soles. The Wine Sisters, squeezed ranchers and the homeless become collateral damage in the battle to secure valuable water rights. Follow Dash, as he untangles the web of guile, romance, and murders in the alluring landscape of the Central Coast of California. "Wine's for drinking, water's for fighting." Dash Ramblar: Dash Ramblar is a small wine grape grower, private detective, bon vivant, and flaneur. His detective style is more intuitive than forensics, less deliberate and more organic. Dash is single living alone with his two dogs, Bixby and Barnaby, in a little hacienda on a ranch in fictional Great Oaks. Randolph Rogers: Fiction writer, Randolph Rogers, grew up in Bad Axe, Michigan. Following college and a short stint in the Merchant Marines, Rogers moved to the West Coast. He obtained an M.A. in 1990 with the publication of his first mystery, "The Blue Hour." Rogers was a food writer for ten years, under the pseudonym of Randolph Wolf, for several San Francisco Bay publications. Rogers first two collections of short stories were published in Carmel by Distorted Visions. His novel, The Luminous Fish, was published in 2019 with critical acclaim. The Wine Menagerie, 2020, is the first of three Dash Ramblar mysteries set on the Central Coast of California. Rogers resides in Paso Robles, California.

Long Description: The Wine Menagerie • The Wine Menagerie is a murder mystery set in the wine country of California's Central Coast. The description of place, the taste of the food and wine, provide contrast to the heinous murders. Stunning landscapes and venues provide a backdrop for the quirky protagonist private investigator, Dash Ramblar. • The brutal slaying of a Wine Sister prompts the hiring of Dash Ramblar by Winery owners. Dash follows the usual suspects and motives finding an elaborate subterfuge. The victim's lifestyle, complicate the investigation, by her dalliances across the wine industry. • The investigation takes Dash from winery soirees to homeless encampments. Dash's style is more flaneur than forensics, more discovery than deduction, an untidy process than culminates in a compelling resolution, much like the making of a fine wine. This closed mystery evokes the travel journals of Paul Theroux, the culinary descriptions of Anthony Bourdain, the erudition of Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith. • Dash's investigation illuminates a cast of characters: The feminist Wine Sisters who defy convention, the homeless man who leads a double life, an opera loving police detective, a martini drinking wine writer, and the developers who ensnare local politicians and winery owners. The fictional town of Great Oaks lies at the head waters of the Salinas River and rests atop a massive aquifer. The victims become collateral damage as the unsavory suspects battle to procure water rights while masquerading as competitors for high scoring Cabernets. • The Wine Menagerie is a suspenseful drama that takes the reader on a roller coaster of intrigue, danger, and plot turns. No one is exempt from the action including Dash's dogs, an Australian Shepherd and an Anatolian Shepherd. The unlikely climaxes occurs after a Rotary meeting, a pool side in Cabo San Lucas, and at an Italian cypress lined private winery drive.

Fiction writer, Randolph Rogers, grew up in Bad Axe, Michigan. Following college and a short stint in the Merchant Marines, Rogers moved to the West Coast. He obtained an M.A. in 1990 with the publication of his first mystery, "The Blue Hour." Rogers was a food writer for ten years, under the pseudonym of Randolph Wolf, for several San Francisco Bay publications. Rogers first two collections of short stories were published in Carmel by Distorted Visions. His novel, The Luminous Fish, was published in 2019 with critical acclaim. The Wine Menagerie, 2020, is the first of three Dash Ramblar mysteries set on the Central Coast of California. Rogers resides in Paso Robles with his Aussie, Woody.