Death on Tap (Sloan Krause #1)
My Rating:
When Sloan Krause walks in on her husband, Mac, screwing the barmaid, she gives him the boot. Sloan has spent her life in Leavenworth, Washington becoming an expert in brewing craft beer, and she doesn’t have time to be held back by her soon-to-be ex-husband. She decides to strike out on her own, breaking away from the Krause family brewery, and goes to work for Nitro, the hip new nano-brewery in the Bavarian-themed town. Nitro’s owner, brewmaster Garrett Strong, has the brew-world abuzz with his newest recipe, “Pucker-Up IPA.” This place is the new cool place in town, and Mac can’t help but be green with envy at their success.
But just as Sloan is settling in to her new gig, she finds one of Nitro’s competitors dead in the fermenting tub, clutching the secret recipe for the IPA. When Mac, is arrested, Sloan knows that her ex might be a cheater, but a murderer? No way. Danger is brewing in Beervaria and suddenly Sloan is on the case.
Trigger Warnings:
Major (large part of the plot): Murder, Infidelity
Minor (small mentions): N/A
Characters
- Sloane – grew up in the foster system, has the nose for beer. Head brewer at her cheating husbands family’s brewery
- Mac – Sloane’s husband that is caught cheating
- Alex – Sloane’s teenage son
- Hans – Mac’s brother, doesn’t want to be a part of the brewery and would rather be a contractor or sorts
- Otto and Urusla – Mac’s parents, Sloane has a very good relationship with them; they won Der Keller, the biggest brewery in the area
- Garrett – New to town, trying to start a nano brewery in his deceased Aunt’s old place
- Van – hops grower/seller
- Edie – Brewer for Bruin’s brewery
- Bruin – Owns a local restaurant and brewery, off the main road so is able to have a more rugged woodsy business
- Chief Myers – police Chief
- April- obsessed with the German heritage of the town, town gossip, also a realtor
- Amber? – the woman Mac was cheating on Sloane with, she was a bar maid at their brewery
My Review
The town seems like such a delight to visit – it’s a real place! This is from their website – what a beautiful, cute town. Might just need to be on my bucket list of places to go visit now.
The book starts off with a bang, walking in on Sloane’s husband, Mac with their new bar maid. The majority of the book centers around Sloane finding her own way at a new brewery in town while also trying to figure out being on her own.
The mystery itself seemed to take a backseat to the brewing and the character development/understanding the relationships between the characters. The ending was so rushed. It almost seemed anticlimactic.
I will be reading the next books in the series – I have a Kindle Unlimited subscription going right now so can pick get them whenever instead of having to wait for the library.
Spoilers/Summary
Van was the murderer. He killed Eddie because Eddie had found out that he was not actually growing hops but had been stealing them
Mac had given Van a lot of money for his hops, but there were no hops – he had been stealing from Bruin.
Garrett and the police chief were setting up a sting to catch Van. Van had conned people in a town over. Van came back to find some money he stored and ended up getting caught.
The woman that Mac was cheating on Sloane with was stalking Sloane. She was obsessed with Mac.
Sloane grew up in foster care so ended up having a very good relationship with Mac’s parents and was more sad about losing them than Mac, necessarily. Ursula ends up falling and breaking her hip, she will need to step back and might accelerate their retirement. They gave a third of the company to Sloane, a third to Mac, and a third to Hans.
The ending – Sloane looks at a picture that Garrett found that was from Leavenworth in Garrett’s deceased Aunt’s things.. The picture is of a woman that looks just like Sloane, she thinks it might be her mom and somehow she ended back in Leavenworth for a reason. She decides to hunt down answers about her past.