Savannah’s detective agency has been hired to help provide security for the Miss Gold Coast Beauty Pageant, which is being held at the local Villa Rosa Winery. Savannah’s looking forward to an uncomplicated job of breaking up catfights over hair mousse. After all, how much trouble can a bunch of self-involved beauty contestants be? Big trouble, it turns out. Especially when she discovers one of the contestants is her younger sister, Atlanta.

Atlanta is not at all pleased to find out her big sister will be handling security at the pageant and she’s having a major teenage snit about it. An attitude that abruptly changes when it’s discovered Atlanta’s roommate, Barbie Matthews, has been murdered.

Finding the murderer is no easy task. Barbie was rude, obnoxious and alienated everyone that had the misfortune of coming in contact with her. The suspect list is endless. But with Atlanta as Barbie’s roommate, it is imperative that Savannah find the culprit to keep suspicion and danger away from her baby sister.

Savannah has assistance from retired FBI agents Ryan Stone and John Gibson, as well as her old partner on the San Carmelita police force, Dirk Coulter. It’s obvious this group has a long history together, but I couldn’t help feeling as if I came to the party a bit late and hadn’t been introduced. I know I would have enjoyed the interaction much more had I read some of the previous books in the series.

But it’s Savannah herself who’s the real treat. From what I could glean of her background, she’s a forty-something, full-figured, ex-police officer with a troubled childhood. Dropping her into a group of narcissistic, waif-like teenage beauty contestants is delicious fun.

Things move along fairly quickly, with lots of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing. With the plethora of possible suspects, the murderer was a puzzle to me right up until the end, when all the loose threads came together nicely.

For fans of the Savannah Reid series, Sour Grapes is another you’ll not want to miss. If you’re new to the series, I might recommend you start with some of the earlier books and work your way up to this one. Although this book stands perfectly well on its own, I couldn’t help feeling as if I was missing some good stuff that had happened in the characters’ pasts. And with such a dynamic character as Savannah Reid, catching up with the previous books in the series will be lots of fun.

--Karen Lynch