The five books in this series are different than most murder mysteries. Some basic information will help you, the reader, to understand these excentric characters.
- Rick Podowski, Leti Rios, Erin McGinty, and Teresa Spinelli are English teachers at Central High School in East San Jose.
- The four of them have been working together for over twenty-seven years and so far they have solved five mysteries.
- All four of them have put on lots of weight over the years because they like to eat gourmet foods and drink fine wines from the Santa Cruz Mountains in California.
- They seem to end up in the middle of a murder mystery and by consulting with their students and using logic they are able to solve the crime.
- Each book contains seven ethnic (Polish, Italian, Irish, Mexican) recipes and seven wineries are presented. A wine is then paired with the recipe. A reader who completes the series will have learned about thirty-five boutique wineries and have thirty-five recipes paired with the appropriate wine.
- Three of the books explore moral issues--good people doing bad things, loyalty to our country and falsely accusing another person. Two of the books explore the adoption issues related to birth parents and the challenges of foster care.