James Calder Knockout Mouse: A Silicon Valley Mystery Published July 2002 by Chronicle Bks, US at £16.99 ISBN: 0811834743

Bill, the protagonist, is a refugee from the boom days of Silicon Valley. He started as a filmmaker, got caught up in the dotcom tidal wave, and has been spit out the other end. Now he wonders what he's supposed to be doing with his life. While he figures this out, he's back to doing film work - industrials, which only serve to remind him of the bad old days he's trying to escape. He's a naturally inquisitive person and is repelled by the way science and invention were turned into hype and greed in the boom. His girlfriend Jenny is still part of the tech world. Her past dinner parties have tried his patience because they're all about networking. But at this one, Bill meets a couple of interesting biologists, one of whom (Sheila) intrigues Bill. She works in biotech, and he finds her views refreshing. Like him, she's a naturally curious person, more interested in how things work than how much money you can make from them. Bill and Jenny are horrified to learn the next day that Sheila died the night of the party - from anaphylactic shock. Did the food Jenny served cause Sheila's demise? This burning question draws Bill into an investigation of Sheila's life and the circumstances around her death. Was it really an accident? Was Jenny to blame? Or did someone want her dead? The investigation takes Bill into the world of transgenic mutations, knockout mice, and designer tomatoes. The more he digs into Sheila's work at LifeScience Labs, the more it appears she was up to some not so savory things herself - and the more possible enemies he finds. Might she have provoked the ire of the charismatic chief scientist, whose shortcuts in the race to patent a new antibody are in danger of being exposed? Was an oddly withdrawn manipulator of tomato genes seeking revenge? Or does the answer lie elsewhere, perhaps in a bitter love triangle?

Nadia Gordon Sharpshooter: A Napa Valley Mystery Published July 2002 by Chronicle Bks, US at £16.99 ISBN: 0811834980

Sharpshooter introduces readers to Sunny, the chef/owner of a local cafe in the Napa Valley.
Wildside is a funny little off-colour place where the food is exactly right, where a small but devoted band of insider foodies eat lunch. She's grounded, earthy, direct, and curious. 32 years old, single, pretty in a tough way, with a chef's burn scarred arms and iron callused hands. She knows what lives in a halibut, what a rabbit sounds like when it's neck receives a cleaver, and what poultry smells like before you gut and butcher it. She is renowned in the valley for her impeccable palette and nose. She drives a 1958 blue Ford truck that is frayed and faded and worn in like an old boot. She loves the nights when she and her friends cook and stay up late drinking wine and talking. Sunny is part of a small, close- knit community which includes: a gruff maverick winemaker; a stubborn organic farmer and his wife; a rugged and independent viticulturist/researcher who checks valley plants for bugs; the slick and wealthy owner of a large vineyard, his wife, and their handsome and ambitious 36 year old son; a wine critic with an acid pen; a local cop; an attorney; and a shifting group of others who work in and around the intoxicating world of wine and food. When the son of the wealthy vineyard owner is mysteriously murdered, and one of her friends is arrested, Sunny finds herself entrenched in a deep-seeded family feud that stretches back almost a century. (A sharpshooter is both the means of the murder and the nickname for a viticultural pest.)