Just don't call it a midlife crisis.

Everett Vaughn divorced his husband, quit his job as a Chicago attorney, and spent a year wandering the country as he tried to decide what to do with the rest of his life. Now he's landed temporarily in the former gold rush town of Deadman Gulch, California, where he's helping his sister open a new bookshop just in time for the annual celebration of local wineries.

When property developer Blake Cannon is in need of a handyman, it seems like an easy way for Everett to pad his dwindling bank account-until Cannon balks at paying him. As if that wasn't bad enough, Everett soon discovers him dead in Cannon's wine cellar.

Eager to remove his name from the list of suspects, Everett starts to do a little nosing around, much to the displeasure of his sister and the insufferably smug and handsome investigating sheriff, Sergeant Cole McBeth. In a town where most people are happy to see the last of Cannon but otherwise seem like very nice folk, Everett faces a challenge bigger than any of his courtroom battles.