“Dragon Vine” a Novel by Steven Laine
Steven Laine’s latest novel Dragon Vine is a fun Summer read with a fast paced style and thriller intensity revolving around his protagonist Carmine Cooper, a would be architect, that takes over his dad’s wine estate. Everything is struggle after his father dies in a wildfire and Carmine is in a race to figure out how he’s going to do harvest, sell wines and deal with an ATF investigation! But the intrigue revolves mainly around a plot of a mysterious grape varietal that looks to be an ancient Chinese grape and that Carmine’s father was very guarded about, which may seems far fetched for those of us in the wine business, but adds some spice to the story. There’s a lot going on here and the characters are very interesting, plus in the background Laine, who’s put some time in at a few vineyards, has woven almost every issue that is a hot topic within our community, hitting home with current events from sexual harassment to climate change! There is plenty of witty prose to keep in you here and there’s also some thought provoking subjects touched on too, I’d give it a 7 out of 10, it is a step up from his first book Root Cause.