When archivist Nadia Fontaine is found drowned, Emily Snow is hired to finish the job she started--to process the papers of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Raymond West. But was Nadia's death really an accident?

The follow-up novel to the blockbuster Sideways, the basis of a major motion picture, tracks the continuing story of Miles Raymond and his buddy Jack. It's seven years later. Miles has written a novel that has been made into a wildly successful movie, and the movie has changed his life. Jack, contrarily, is divorced, has a kid, and is on the skids. Phyllis, Miles' mom, has suffered a stroke that's left her wheelchair bound and wasting away in assisted...

Jack and Miles were college roommates, and despite their differences, they have been friends ever since. Jack is an actor, whose career high point is a stint as a soap opera regular. English teacher and oenophile Miles would much rather be a published novelist. Jack is about to get married, so depressed, divorced Miles suggests they hit the road for a week-long bachelor party amidst the rolling hillsides and gorgeous sunsets of wine country near Santa...