Wine Country Mysteries in Order: How to read Ellen Crosby’s Series?

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Murder in the Wine Country.

What is the Wine Country Mysteries series about?

From mystery author Ellen Crosby, the Wine Country series takes us in a vineyard where murder is best served with a good red.

This is the story of Lucie Montgomery who, at the beginning of the series, must solve a murder in order to save the family’s five-hundred-acre Virginia vineyard.

After that, murder and wine seem to meet in Lucie’s life, it may be the secret of her success.

How to read the Wine Country Mysteries Books in Order?

Every book in the Wine Country Mysteries works as a standalone story, but the lives of the different characters evolve from one novel to the other.

  1. The Merlot Murders – A phone call at two thirty in the morning is never good news. Lucie Montgomery’s semi-estranged brother, Eli, calls her in France to tell her their father, Leland, has been killed in a hunting accident on the family’s five-hundred-acre Virginia vineyard just as the fall harvest is about to begin. By the time he calls, Eli has already made funeral arrangements with what Lucie argues is indecent haste.
  2. The Chardonnay Charade – Facing a freak spring frost that threatens to kill the grapes in her vineyard, Lucie Montgomery hires a chopper to fly over the vines in order to blow warm air on them. But her thoughts soon turn from grapes to murder when she discovers the body of Georgia Greenwood, a controversial political candidate, lying near the fields.
  3. The Bordeaux Betrayal – When author and historian Valerie Beauvais turns up dead the night after a verbal brawl with a noted wine critic on the grounds of Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home, Lucie Montgomery is certain Valerie’s death is related to something she knew concerning the authenticity of the priceless Washington Bordeaux.

  1. The Riesling Retribution – When a tornado rips through Montgomery Estate Vineyard and unearths a grave in an abandoned field, police inform Lucie Montgomery that the odds are good someone in her family is responsible-possibly for murder. But she has more to worry about than buried secrets.
  2. The Viognier Vendetta – When Lucie Montgomery visits Washington, D.C., during cherry blossom season she doesn’t expect her reunion with old friend Rebecca Natale is a setup. But Rebecca disappears into thin air after running an errand for her boss, billionaire philanthropist and investment guru Sir Thomas Asher. Also missing: an antique silver wine cooler looted by British soldiers before they burned the White House during the War of 1812.
  3. The Sauvignon Secret – When Lucie Montgomery finds the body of prominent wine merchant Paul Noble hanging from a beam in his art studio not far from her Virginia vineyard, she is unwittingly dragged into Noble’s murky past. Once a member of the secretive Mandrake Society, Noble might have aided in a cover-up of the deaths forty years ago of a disabled man and a beautiful young biochemist involved in classified government research.

  1. The Champagne Conspiracy – Winter has come to the Montgomery Estate Vineyard in Atoka, Virginia. Lucie Montgomery and winemaker Quinn Santori have decided to make champagne, a first for the vineyard. But then Gino Tomassi, Quinn’s uncle, turns up on their doorstep one afternoon, 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.
  2. The Vineyard Victims – The death of a former presidential candidate in a fiery car crash at her Virginia vineyard has ties to a thirty-year-old murder, as well as to Lucie Montgomery’s own near fatal accident ten years ago, as she searches for a killer who now may be stalking her.
  3. Harvest of Secrets – 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 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.

  1. The Angels’ Share – 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.
  2. The French Paradox – In 1949, 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 90th birthday party, hosted by her daughter Harriet. Then on the eve of the party a world-famous landscape designer who also knew Jackie is found dead in Lucie’s vineyard.
  3. Bitter Roots – 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.

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