The Angels' Share
A Wine Country Mystery
-
-
4.4 • 24 Ratings
-
-
- $12.99
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
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 95-year old family patriarch, invites Lucie to his fabulous wine cellar where he offers to pay any price for a cache of 200-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?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Crosby's crisp and elegant 10th Wine Country mystery (after 2018's Harvest of Secrets) finds Virginia vintner Lucie Montgomery attending a party over Thanksgiving weekend at Hawthorne Castle, the home of 95-year-old newspaper tycoon Prescott Avery. When Prescott invites Lucie to see his wine cellar, reputed to be one of the most beautiful wine cellars in the world, she jumps at the chance, but she soon discovers that he wants to know the location of a case of 200-year-old Madeira that he assumes is in Lucie's possession. She has never seen or heard of it. After Prescott turns up dead later that same evening, Lucie places herself at the center of the subsequent investigation. As usual, Crosby supplies plenty of Virginia history, this time focusing on the founders and the signing of the Declaration of Independence, without slowing the main story. She also includes some tantalizing history about wine, particularly Madeira. A family tree linking the Montgomery and Avery families serves as a useful guide, especially during early scenes. The disparate plot threads come together in an exciting and satisfying conclusion. Crosby knows how to keep the reader guessing.
