Mortal Zin

Mortal Zin by Diane Schaffer takes place in Santa Cruz County, California, and mixes wine history with family secrets and murder. The main character is Noli Cooper, a lawyer who comes back home after being away for ten years. She finds out that her mentor John Fitzpatrick (everyone calls him Fitz) has been found dead on Cruces Cove beach.

The book starts with a young girl finding Fitz's body while she's collecting sea palms. The seagulls have already gotten to his eyes, and his wine-colored boat called "Mortal Zin" is sitting nearby. At first it looks like he killed himself, but Noli realizes something's wrong when she hears Fitz was about to get married and was actually really happy lately. She ends up working with Luz Alvarado, a tough private investigator who used to work for Fitz, to figure out what really happened.

Their investigation takes them into California wine country, focusing on the Hanak family's zinfandel vineyard and some old family history with the Andolinis. There are all these buried secrets about Marco Andolini's vineyard from the 1800s, how they hid wine during Prohibition, and even connections to a massacre in Vietnam. Peter Hanak, who's Noli's godfather and owns the vineyard, turns out to be important because he testified in a court-martial against Mark Unocello, who was convicted for ordering the killing of women and children.

When Noli and Luz start digging into the case, they stumble across Varley, a shady businessman whose schemes have badly hurt the Hanak vineyard — and who might even be tied to Fitz’s death. Beyond the mystery, the book also raises questions about loyalty within families and the risks of telling the truth.

What I especially liked is how the setting comes alive. The coastal backdrop of Santa Cruz and the wine country makes the story more vivid. It’s a fairly quick read, carried by two determined women piecing together a murder while peeling back years of secrets and hidden corruption in the family business.