Deadly Dram (Whisky Business Mystery, #3)

by Melinda Mullet

[Mystereity Reviews]

One of the last of the reviews I have to make up from Netgalley

I can't believe this is the third book in this series already, seems like only yesterday Abi showed up to take over her uncle's whisky distillery. In this book, Abi and the distillery gang heads to a whisky competition and on the first night, a competition judge turns up dead, poisoned. As Abi races to discover how is behind the poisoning, another judge is found dead, also by poisoning. As she closes in on the killer, her partner Grant is poisoned after borrowing Abi's toothpaste and is hospitalized. There was no shortage of suspects in this one, most of whom had their own interrelated paths that wove a tangled web into the investigation. Bit by bit, Abi untangled the knots but not before two men died and her business partner (and romantic interest) nearly died. I liked the police inspector, Michaelson, had more background added, making him more a part of the story than in the other books. The addition of Breanna, Grant's ex-girlfriend also added another layer and looks like she will be in further books.

The explosive ending was by far the best part. I had an inkling who the murderer was around halfway or two thirds through the book, and I wanted to smack Abi and tell her she was on the wrong track. Still, it was an exciting ending and a great cap to a great book.

I have one small complaint: No, you cannot go to the store and buy a bottle of vape juice and poison someone with it. Also, vape juice is not nicotine with flavoring added, there also PG (propylene glycol) and VG (vegetable glycerin) added. Nicotine is also already diluted when you buy it, usually with PG, but sometimes with VG and in varying concentrations. With all the hoopla in the news lately about how "vaping is killing people" it isn't and considering how many people have stopped smoking cigarettes with vaping (I'm one of them) I hate to see misinformation being spread. It's bad enough in the media, but I've read a couple of books with this as a plot device and it's unacceptable.