Murder with Wine: A Tori Winters Mystery by Anita Dickason is like stepping into a cozy home filled with the smell of coffee and spiced muffins. Definitely a winning combination in my book.
Book Title: Murder With Wine
Series: Tori Winters Mystery Series, Book 3
Author: Anita Dickason
Genre: Cozy Mystery | Suspense
Deceit Runs Deep
Danger Runs Deeper
What begins as a spine-tingling ghost tour, a night of unexpected thrills and chills for Tori Winters, quickly twists into something far more sinister.
Her free ticket, from an anonymous source, pulls Tori into the heart of a deadly conspiracy, entangling her in a treacherous web of murder and deceit.
While whispers of scandal ripple through Granbury, the unthinkable looms. Is Tori about to be arrested for a murder she didn’t commit?
As suspicion tightens its grip, something even more insidious lurks in the shadows, dragging her deeper into a maze of hidden motives and lethal deception.
Tori is the killer’s next target.
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Happy book birthday to Anita Dickason and Murder with Wine, the third in her Tori Winters Mystery series!
Y’all, I have loved Anita Dickason’s Tori Winters series since day 1 (check my reviews of Deadly Keepsakes and Murder’s Legacy). I was thrilled to get my hands on an early copy of the third in the series, Murder with Wine, and it continues the series in marvelous fashion!
Renovation of the Red Door Inn continues, and the team has all kinds of ideas to help the business thrive. Tori has hired an expert to appraise her grandmother’s wine collection, and maybe – just maybe – things are starting to settle down a little. But she finds a hand-addressed envelope in her mailbox containing a ticket to the Granbury ghost tour that very evening. She goes alone, and soon finds herself embroiled in a homicide case – as the prime suspect!
The tension is high. When a mysterious man Tori encountered at the ghost tour ends up dead shortly thereafter, Tori is as stunned as anyone. After all, she’d never seen him before. But law enforcement zeroes in on her because he had his name and address in her pocket, and as more “evidence” appears to come to light, the net tightens around Tori. Well, she’s not sitting still and waiting for her lawyer Lincoln Greer to save her. With the help of her business partner and best friend Mia and her head of security, Parker Hayes, Tori sets out to clear her name before she finds herself behind bars.
I literally inhaled this book in an afternoon. In Tori Winters, Anita Dickason gives us a likeable heroine who’s got grit, who wants to contribute to her community but won’t take crap from people intent on running her out. She also gives us plenty of good people who inhabit Tori’s world, and a handful who really need to get what’s coming to them. And she draws on her years of law enforcement experience to create a realistic portrait of a homicide investigation. I do love it when an author writes with the authority of real-life knowledge!
I don’t want to give any of the story away, and I might do that if I go into too much detail. Dickason weaves such a compelling tale and takes you on such a nail-biting ride that I want you to experience every bit of it for yourself. I will say that I enjoyed getting to know security head Parker Hayes better in this book. He’s a good guy for Tori to have on her side. We also learn that Tori has some unexpected talents, and sparks fly a little hotter and heavier between her and David here. There are also characters that you can’t really tell if they’re friend or foe until all is made clear at the end!
Dickason leaves the ending open for a fourth book in the series, and I am here for it. Tori Winters brings it all – a sassy protagonist, a mystery that draws you in until the big reveal, and characters that feel like old friends by the time you turn the final page. Plus, as with the other books in the series, Dickason gives us some interesting details about the places and events she writes about – always a plus! It is a big five-star winner of a book for me.
If you haven’t yet made Tori’s acquaintance, start with book 1, Deadly Keepsakes, and get the whole story. You CAN jump on into book 3 and be all right, but you really want to read the entire series. Trust me.
Other Books in the Tori Winters Mystery Series:
Deadly Keepsakes: Tori Winters Mystery Series, Book 1
The past becomes a deadly future.
When Tori Winters testifies as the star witness in a murder trial, she becomes a target. Someone wants her dead—and she’s not about to give them a second chance. With everything she owns stuffed into her car, she flees, desperate to disappear.
A cryptic phone call leads her to Granbury, a quiet Texas town where no one would think to look. But safety is an illusion. The historic house she inherits harbors dark secrets—ones tied to a past that refuses to stay buried.
A town full of strangers. A legacy steeped in deception. Who can she trust? The disinherited step-grandson? The lawyer and his enigmatic son? Everyone seems to be hiding something.
With a relentless killer closing in, Tori realizes her inheritance may not be a blessing. It could be her death sentence.
Find it on Goodreads, Amazon, and Bookbub.
Murder’s Legacy: Tori Winters Mystery Series, Book 2
Secrets that defy time!
An inconceivable disaster strikes, bringing Tori Winters’ plans to turn her historic house into a bed and breakfast inn to a traumatic standstill. A section of the escape tunnel built by her great-grandfather, a notorious Dallas gangster, collapses. Within the rubble, there is a gruesome discovery. A skeleton with a bullet hole in the skull.
The shocking cave-in sparks more than a police response. Accusations that the tunnel is dangerous triggers an ominous scheme to condemn her property.
Tori soon discovers more than the destruction of her beloved house is on the line. It seems she can’t escape the past. It keeps clawing its way into her life with deadly consequences.
Someone wants to permanently shut her down.
Find it on Goodreads, Amazon, Bookbub, and Barnes & Noble.
About Anita Dickason
Award-Winning Author
Anita Dickason
Anita Dickason is a retired police officer with a total of twenty-seven years of law enforcement experience, twenty-two with Dallas PD. She served as a patrol officer, undercover narcotics officer, advanced accident investigator, tactical officer, and first female sniper on the Dallas SWAT team.
See more about Anita Dickason by visiting her website https://www.anitadickason.com.
Yes, and yes, and yes! I just finished reading this too, and LOVED it. Like you, I’m ready for the next installment NOW. And I need to get my review posted today, too. So, off I go. Thanks for sharing the love. Anita rocks.
Thanks for sharing Lisa! Glad you enjoyed Murder with Wine and like you I am really hoping there’s a book four already in the works!