I enjoyed this debut novel in a new series. Having grown up in Sonoma County, I had a very fun time watching the characters go from one landmark I've visited to another. The characters were interesting and pulled me in. There's a cheat sheet before the book starts that lists all the travelers in the story, and I used it frequently for the first few chapters to keep everyone straight. But once I got into the story, I found the characters had come alive enough that I didn't need to refer to that page any more. The only down side was the plot. The murder often seemed to take a back seat to the sub-plots involving the characters on the tour. Still, the story does advance consistently, and the author's choice to tell the story from multiple characters' viewpoints adds much to the overall effect.

Lynne Montgomery is a great new character in a potentially great series. A little tightening of the plot will make this series rise above other cozies. Either way, I'm already planning to book passage on the next trip in this series.