When book-restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright
temporarily
relocates to her parents’ place in Northern California,
she
finds that wooden barrels aren’t the only things buried in
the wine caves of Sonoma….
Excited to explore the secrets of wine country, Brooklyn
attends an excavation of the caves hidden deep under her
parents’ commune—and the findings are explosive. A room is
unearthed, and it contains a treasure trove of artwork,
rare
books, a chest of jewelry…and a perfectly mummified body.
A closer examination of the murdered man’s possessions
reveals a valuable first edition of Jules Verne’s A
Journey
to the Center of the Earth. Hidden in the book is a secret
map that unveils an even greater hoard of treasures
brought
to California by French winemakers fleeing the Nazi
invasion
with the commune leader’s grandfather, Anton, among them.
As reporters and art appraisers flock to Sonoma to see the
precious bounty, questions begin to rise—did Anton hide
these items to protect them, or did he steal them for
himself? Who is the mysterious man left for dead inside
the
cave? But not all crime is buried in the past. When a new
presence threatens the town’s peace, Brooklyn decides to
do
a little excavating of her own and solve the mystery of
the
treasure before anyone else is written off.…