Wine Country Mysteries

Lucie Montgomery, vintner at a Virginia winery, must solve a mystery that connects a presidential scandal with a murder in Prohibition-era DC that echoes all the way to the present.Lucie Montgomery and winemaker Quinn Santori have decided to make champagne, a first for the the Montgomery Estate Vineyard in Atoka, Virginia. But then Gino Tomassi, Quinn's uncle, turns up on their doorstep, demanding help in solving the mystery of what happened to Zara Tomassi, the first wife of his grandfather, who died in a San Francisco hotel in 1923 under suspicious circumstances. It seems there's no coincidence that her death came the day after President Warren Harding passed away in that same hotel. Gino needs answers before his blackmailer takes him for all he's worth-or exposes an explosive family secret.Lucie searches for what happened almost a hundred years ago as she delves into Prohibition-era Washington, DC-a town of bootlegging and duplicity, jazz clubs and speakeasies. But then the investigation turns deadly, threatening Lucie, her relationship with Quinn, and the vineyard. Someone is still out there nearly a century later who will go to any lengths to keep the truth about Zara's death a buried secret.

When Jamison Vaughn-Virginia real estate mogul, vineyard owner, and failed US presidential candidate-drives his gold SUV into a stone pillar at the entrance to Montgomery Estate Vineyard, Lucie Montgomery is certain the crash was deliberate. But everyone else in town is equally sure that Jamie must have lost control of the SUV on the rain-slicked country road. Despite being saddled with massive campaign debts from the election, Jamie had a seemingly perfect life. What possible reason could he have for committing suicide? Lucie soon uncovers a connection between Vaughn, his old friends (an elite group of academics), and the twenty-five year old murder of a brilliant PhD student. It turns out that this group all had motives for wanting the scientist dead, but that they were freed from suspicion when a handyman was arrested and convicted of the crime. The more Lucie digs, the more she is convinced that this could be a case of wrongful conviction-possibly even a set-up. Realizing that her investigations have now put her in danger, Lucie must work to solve two murders-one decades-old, one that proves intensely personal-before someone silences her … for good.

The search for the killer of an aristocratic French winemaker who was Lucie Montgomery's first crush and the discovery of dark family secrets put Lucie on a collision course with a murderer.It's harvest season at Montgomery Estate Vineyard-the busiest time of year for winemakers in Atoka, Virginia. A skull is unearthed near Lucie Montgomery's family cemetery, and the discovery of the bones coincides with the arrival of handsome, wealthy aristocrat Jean-Claude de Marignac. He's come to be the head winemaker at neighboring La Vigne Cellars, but he's no stranger to Lucie-he was her first crush twenty years ago when she spent a summer in France.Not long after his arrival, Jean-Claude is found dead, and while there is no shortage of suspects who are angry or jealous of his ego and overbearing ways, suspicion falls on Miguel Otero, an immigrant worker at La Vigne, who recently quarreled with Jean-Claude. When Miguel disappears, Lucie receives an ultimatum from her own employees: prove Miguel's innocence or none of the immigrant community will work for her during the harvest. As Lucie hunts for Jean-Claude's killer and continues to search for the identity of the skeleton abandoned in the cemetery, she is blindsided by a decades-old secret that shatters everything she thought she knew about her family. Now facing a wrenching emotional choice, Lucie must decide whether it's finally time to tell the truth and hurt those she loves the most, or keep silent and let past secrets remain dead and buried.

Ellen Crosby pours up another corking mystery with The Angels' Share, an intriguing blend of secret societies, Prohibition bootleg wine, and potentially scandalous documents hidden by the Founding Fathers, all of which yield a vintage murder. When Lucie Montgomery attends a Thanksgiving weekend party for friends and neighbors at Hawthorne Castle, an honest-to-goodness castle owned by the Avery family, the last great newspaper dynasty in America and owner of the Washington Tribune, she doesn't expect the festive occasion to end in death. During the party, Prescott Avery, the ninety-five-year-old family patriarch, invites Lucie to his fabulous wine cellar where he offers to pay any price for a cache of two hundred-year-old Madeira that her great-great-uncle, a Prohibition bootlegger, discovered hidden in the US Capitol in the 1920s. Lucie knows nothing about the valuable wine, believing her late father, a notorious gambler and spendthrift, probably sold or drank it. By the end of the party Lucie and her fiancé, winemaker Quinn Santori, discover Prescott's body lying in his wine cellar. Is one of the guests a murderer? As Lucie searches for the lost Madeira, which she believes links Prescott's death to a cryptic letter her father owned, she learns about Prescott's affiliation with the Freemasons. More investigating hints at a mysterious vault supposedly containing documents hidden by the Founding Fathers and a possible tie to William Shakespeare. If Lucie finds the long-lost documents, the explosive revelations could change history. But will she uncover a three hundred-year-old secret before a determined killer finds her?

Lucie Montgomery's discovery of her grandfather's Parisian romance unlocks a series of shocking secrets in the gripping new Wine Country mystery. In 1949, during her junior year abroad in Paris, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis bought several inexpensive paintings of Marie-Antoinette by a little-known 18th century female artist. She also had a romantic relationship with Virginia vineyard owner Lucie Montgomery's French grandfather - until recently, a well-kept secret. Seventy years later, Cricket Delacroix, Lucie's neighbor and Jackie's schoolfriend, is donating the now priceless paintings to a Washington, DC museum. And Lucie's grandfather is flying to Virginia for Cricket's ninetieth birthday party, hosted by her daughter Harriet. A washed-up journalist, Harriet is rewriting a manuscript Jackie left behind about Marie-Antoinette and her portraitist. She's also adding tell-all details about Jackie, sure to make the book a bestseller. Then, on the eve of the party, a world-famous landscape designer who also knew Jackie is found dead in Lucie's vineyard. Did someone make good on the death threats he'd received because of his controversial book on climate change? Or was his murder tied to Jackie, the paintings, and Lucie's beloved grandfather?

When a vineyard accident during harvest season leaves Lucie Montgomery without a valuable employee, it's her worst nightmare. But before she can search for a replacement, there's more bad news: Paul Merchant, her winery manager's husband, is found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool. Police rule Paul's death an accident, but his wife insists he was murdered because of his leadership of Don't Pave Paradise, a conservationist group lobbying to keep the region's beautiful country roads unpaved. And six weeks ago, Paul's predecessor also died under mysterious circumstances. As Lucie is drawn into investigating Paul's death, she discovers more than one motive for the crime-and more than one person in their close-knit community who wanted Paul dead. And when she finds an old photo of a beautiful local heiress who died tragically in a fire eighty years ago among Paul's papers, she starts to wonder if the modern-day crime might have roots in the past. Either way, someone is determined to make sure Lucie, who's agreed to continue the work of Don't Pave Paradise, hits a dead end before she even gets started. Even if it means committing murder. Again.

The brutal murder of a beautiful vineyard expert and a devastating storm force Virginia winemaker Lucie Montgomery to confront painful changes on the eve of her wedding. In just over a week, vineyard owner Lucie Montgomery and winemaker Quinn Santori will be married in a ceremony overlooking what should be acres of lush flowering grapevines. Instead they are confronted by an ugly swathe of slowly dying vines and a nursery owner who denies responsibility for selling the diseased plants. With neighboring vineyards facing the same problem, accusations fly and the ugly stand-off between supplier and growers looks set to escalate into open warfare. When Eve Kerr, a stunning blonde who works at the nursery, is found dead a few days later, everyone wonders if someone in the winemaking community went too far. What especially troubles Lucie is why Eve secretly arranged to meet Quinn on the day she was murdered-and whether Lucie's soon-to-be husband knows something he's not telling her. Then a catastrophic storm blows through, destroying everything in its path. With no power, no phones, and no wedding venue, Lucie needs to find out who killed Eve and what her death had to do with Quinn. "Crosby's reliable character-driven series once more offers a good mystery and relevant social commentary." "The fully developed characters and the vividly depicted vineyards and Virginia countryside make this one hard to put down."