The Bitter End

When a food critic drops dead during a beer judging competition, former lawyer Mackenzie O'Brien discovers that some corporate conspiracies are worth killing for. Mac thought her biggest worry would be impressing the judges at Hopefield's Spring Beer Festival with her Heritage Porter. Instead, she finds the town's most arrogant food critic poisoned at the judging table—with her own beer as the murder weapon. Armed with her legal training and brewing chemistry knowledge, Mac uncovers a systematic corporate plot to destroy local breweries through fraudulent reviews, arson, and economic terrorism. When someone starts threatening her community with explosives and targeting traditional family recipes for theft, Mac realizes the killer is part of a conspiracy that reaches far beyond one dead critic. In small-town Hopefield, North Carolina, authentic craft brewing meets corporate greed, where traditional techniques are stolen and businesses are destroyed for profit. With the help of her brewing partner Travis Blake and Deputy Sheriff Alexa Carlsbad, Mac must expose the conspiracy before more breweries burn and more lives are lost. But when corporate raiders will kill to acquire small-town businesses, protecting her community might cost Mac everything she's built. The second book in the Brews & Blues Mystery series featuring Mac O'Brien and the Emerald Isle Brewery.