| Copyright © 2008, Sarita
Leone Reviews For VINEYARD MAMBO by Sarita Leone
"Vineyard Mambo was a great "palate cleanser". Ms. Leone tells the heartwarming story of family, community, and the love between a man, woman, and a cat. Anna was well known and loved in her community. She made sure her friends were safe and knew that they were important in her life. Tony was an alpha male and protector of his family. I loved the fact that he made sure that Anna was always protected and he did it in such a way that she never felt smothered. Their love for each other was genuine and the way Ms. Leone portrayed it made you feel like you were part of their community and a dear friend. The cast of secondary characters also wrapped you in and made you feel at home. I recommend this book for those days when you feel a little down and out because it will definitely surround you in a warm blanket of love and friendship." Rating: B+ - Reviewed by Shira, Simply Romance Reviews "Well described settings serve as the stage for interesting, lifelike characters whose interaction with each other moves the story along quite nicely. Talented author Sarita Leone has crafted a fun read that will please any mystery fan. Recommended as a worthwhile read that will satisfy the mystery fan looking for a story that offers something a little different. Definitely not a clone of other tales. Enjoy. I did." - Anne K. Edwards, Mysteryfiction.net 5 Angels and a Recommended Read from Fallen Angel Reviews! "Vineyard Mambo is a must read. Talk about a fun book. The first thing I noticed was the title of each chapter, for example Hot Waffle Kisses or how about Grilled Pizza and Cold Leads. Nonno has a secret romance going on with someone in town. The ending was a happy as well as a good one. As I was reading I could just about picture myself living in Milton Falls. Sarita Leone is such a wonderful prolific writer. I can’t wait to read more books by this author." - Reviewed by: Cheryl, Fallen Angel Reviews "Full of likable characters, Vineyard Mambo is like a glass of good wine. Its pace is slow and leisurely, letting the reader settle into Tony and Anna's life. Reminiscent of The Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew, pieces of the mystery are revealed throughout with Anna piecing it all together. While the writing and characters are good, the tension is low-key making Vineyard Mambo less of a page-turner than many mysteries on the market." - Vee, Night Owl Romance Reviews 4 Books! "Vineyard Mambo"
by Sarita Leone combines the best of the cozy mystery genre with romance.
Busy, multi-tasking heroine Anna does not need to take time out of her
busy schedule to gossip about gardening for heaven sakes -but when its
murder, she makes time. Well written, very readable, and “Somehow Anna solves the murder mystery of the town’s least-liked couple. I missed the clues. I knew the clues and solution just as Anna related them all…okay, so I didn’t actually solve it before author, Ms Leone, revealed her conclusion. BUT, everything made perfect sense and the clues were there. Good job! “Vineyard Mambo” is a lazy day read and I seriously hope Ms. Leone revisits.” ChrisChat Reviews Sample Chapter For VINEYARD
MAMBO by Sarita Leone
The phone was ringing as Anna turned the key in the front door lock. Thinking it might be Tony, she dropped her bag in the foyer and hurried across the floor to answer it. Her shoul-der slammed against the kitchen doorframe as she snatched the cordless from the handset. “Hello?” “Oh! Thank God you’re home!” Diane, Anna’s neighbor and best friend, sounded more breathless than Anna felt—and she’d been the one to scurry in to answer the phone! “What do you think? Do you have any ideas? Can you imagine? Some-thing like this in our town! Nothing ever happens here—or at least it didn’t, not until now. Nothing bigger than that blasted Zucchini Festival, anyway. So, who do you think did it?” The words came in a rush. Anna leaned her hip against the kitchen table, absently rubbing her injured shoulder. “Whoa, take a breath. I have no idea what you’re talking about, but you sound like you’re about to give yourself a coronary. Fill me in, please. But really, slow down, okay?” Anna and Diane had hit it off the instant they’d met. Diane and her husband Don lived in the house nearest Anna and Tony’s. Granted, the next house was half a mile away, but still, it was the closest. When Anna and Tony bought their seen-better-days farmhouse with its vineyard acreage, Diane had been the unofficial welcoming committee. The two women had been as close as sisters for the past five years, de-spite Anna’s calm, quiet nature being in sharp contrast to the other woman’s exuberant personality. Anna heard a deep breath from the other end of the phone line, first pulled in slowly, and then let out in a whoosh. “Where have you been all day? How could you not already know?” “I’ve been where I usually am, in the library. You know, my job? Remember?” “It’s hard to believe you haven’t heard by now. Hasn’t anyone told you?” Anna sighed, shaking her head. She walked over to the back door, unlocked it and pulled it open. A soft breeze flut-tered a curl against her cheek as she stood before the old-fashioned screen door. “I haven’t seen anyone all day long. The place was silent as a tomb. Now—what are you talking about?” “The Pilchards,” Diane answered. Her voice caught on the name, and Anna felt her gut twist. Whatever this was, it couldn’t be good. “Marge and Sam?” “That’s right. They were found this morning at their house. The newscaster on the radio said they suspect foul play. I don’t know; some sort of intruder or something. Sam is in Good Samaritan Hospital. No one knows yet if he’ll pull through.” “And Marge?” “Marge is dead.” A sheen of perspiration broke out on Anna’s brow at the same instant she felt her body temperature drop. Funny how shock does that, makes a person feel an immediate chill just as sweat first appears. Anna forced herself to concentrate on what Diane was saying. She listened with growing dismay. The Pilchards were nobody’s favorite couple but this was shocking. Crime was to be expected in large cities, but in a place like this? It was terri-ble, regardless of who the victim was. One of the reasons Anna and Tony had decided to move back to Milton Falls, where Anna had grown up, was because it seemed the sort of spot least likely to be the setting for any-thing not small-town, middle-America, apple pie-and-baseball-ish. This? This was decidedly un-Gomer Pyle-ish. Anna swallowed hard, waiting for a break in the flood from Diane’s end. “—you believe it? Murder? Here? Good God, I can barely stand it. I’ve got the kids locked inside the house and I’m just waiting for Don to get home. I won’t feel entirely safe until he’s here, too. Although there’s an old hunting rifle…it was his father’s… Don keeps it in the back of his closet, on the shelf way up high. Do you think I should get it down?” “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Really, just keep the doors locked,” Anna said hurriedly. The idea of Diane, espe-cially in such a flustered state, toting a loaded rifle around was enough to give her the shivers. She swept a hand along her up-per arm, taming the goose bumps that had risen on her flesh. “Have you ever shot a gun before?” “You know I haven’t. I can hardly stand to have the old thing under my roof.” Anna smiled. She’d known the answer to the question be-fore she’d even asked it. “Then I suggest this isn’t the time to take up the sport, Diane. Keep the kids inside; I know that’ll make you feel better. And keep the doors locked, but I don’t think Don’s father’s old hunting rifle is something you should toy with. Not now.” “You’re right, I know you are. It’s just that this is so aw-ful. So gruesome. I hate feeling scared like this.” Scanning the backyard, looking for signs of something—anything—out of the ordinary, Anna asked, “Who could have done it? Are there any leads? Did anyone see anything near their house? And Sam—what did he say?” Dozens of questions shot through her mind but Anna forced herself to ask only a few. “Nobody knows anything yet. Sam’s not saying a thing. He was unconscious when the sheriff broke the window to get inside. Kelley Perrine told me they carried him out on a stretcher. She said he looked really terrible. I guess her kids were playing in her yard when the sheriff pulled up. She said it scared her half to death. I can’t imagine how she felt when she saw the police cars. I would’ve lost my mind.” Diane was fiercely protective about her large brood and the sight of a pa-trol car speeding toward her house would probably push her over the edge. “How did the sheriff know to go to the house? Why did he think there was trouble?” It didn’t make any sense. None of it did, but Anna struggled to turn Diane’s garbled explanation into something logical. “Sue called over there from Jed’s all morning.” “Over where? Kelley’s house?” That definitely didn’t make sense. What would Sue want with Kelley Perrine? “No, not Kelley’s. Sue called the Pilchards’ house. Marge never showed up for work. Sue was there alone with no one to relieve her. Of course if Sue couldn’t go home, there would be no one to take care of her kids. You know, when Tom had to leave for his shift. So she started calling Marge, but couldn’t get an answer. I guess she finally had to call Tom’s mom to watch the boys so she could track down Marge.” “Good thing Tom’s mother was around.” Anna knew Sue and Tom juggled their work hours so their kids didn’t have to go to day care. Sue said she’d been a latchkey kid and didn’t want the same thing for her own. Their families pitched in when they could, but it had to be hard to shift everything else around to accommodate an active family. Anna gave Sue a lot of credit for having such a strong commitment to mother-hood. “Exactly. Anyway, Sue phoned and phoned the Pilchard house, didn’t get an answer and thought it isn’t—oh, wasn’t—like Marge to simply not show up for work. Every-one knows how anal she is—was. It just wasn’t like her not to phone if she wasn’t coming in. Sue said she’d never done it be-fore, just not shown up.” “Yeah, she seems—oh, she seemed—punctual. Every time I’ve seen her she’s looking at that little gold watch she wears—wore.” Wow. It’s going to take some getting used to, think-ing of Marge Pilchard in the past tense. “Right. I think Sam gave it to her for their anniversary. I overheard her talking to someone about it one day while we were waiting in the deli line. She said-she-she said—” Diane sniffed loudly. Her voice trembled and became high and squeaky. In an attempt to head off the flood Diane was obviously fighting, Anna quickly put in, “Funny, thinking of Marge talk-ing to anybody in the deli line, isn’t it? Last week I saw her in there practically yelling at Jane for slicing her cheese too thin. Or was it too thick, and she wanted it thinner? I don’t know. But whoever she was talking to about the watch doesn’t know how lucky she was not to be listening to another of Marge’s complaints. Or tirades.” After a small, nervous laugh Diane said, “You’ve got that right. Marge was the Tirade Queen, wasn’t she?” “Uh huh. Remember last year’s Zucchini Festival planning meeting? She shot down every idea anyone brought up. Oh, the woman could be ridiculous sometimes.” Ordinarily Anna wouldn’t have spoken ill of the dead, but Marge had been truly loathsome. And she’d rather giggle over Marge and her endless complaints than listen to Diane weep. “So tell me how the sheriff got involved.” “Oh, Sue finally phoned down to the sheriff’s office. First she called the office supply store, but Sam wasn’t in, either. That’s when Sue figured something had to be wrong, when she realized neither of them had showed up for work. So she called Sheriff Maxwell and he went over. The police broke into the house when they spotted a foot through the kitchen window.” Anna shuddered. She couldn’t stop herself from asking the question that immediately came to mind. “Whose foot?” “Good question. Kelley thought she heard someone say it was a large foot, so it was probably Sam’s. He’s a big guy. He’s probably got feet to match. But no one is really certain. At least no one who’s telling.” Diane finally sounded composed, now that she had delivered the gruesome news. Anna could hear her taking deep breaths on the other end of the line. “Can you believe this? Murder? Here, in Milton Falls, the sleepiest town west of the Hudson? Can you really buy into it?” “Barely. I wonder when the police will know just what happened,” Anna mused. She smiled as Merlot, her decidedly spoiled cat, pressed against her ankle, then pushed her large, furry body against the screen door. The door wiggled, but re-mained closed. Anna double-checked the lock to be sure it was secure. “Or when they’ll tell us what happened.” “That’s probably a better question. For all we know, the sheriff’s solved the case by now.” Diane sounded hopeful but somehow Anna doubted Marge’s murder could be so cut and dry. Still, one never could tell… “Maybe,” she allowed. “But I’ll keep my doors locked un-til I know who did this to Marge and Sam. It’s not as if we were friendly with them or anything, but they still didn’t de-serve to have this happen.” “Makes me wish I was friendlier to Marge. More-more-oh, I don’t know. Maybe if I had been nicer to her—” |