The Viognier Vendetta
A Wine Country Mystery
-
-
4.3 • 21 Ratings
-
-
- $7.99
Publisher Description
Ellen Crosby’s "beguiling" (Kirkus Reviews) fifth mystery takes readers into Washington’s corridors of power, where Lucie Montgomery uncovers a political and financial scandal while trying to locate her missing friend.
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.
The next morning Lucie identifies Rebecca’s neatly folded clothes found in a rowboat floating in the Potomac River. Is it suicide, murder—or an elaborate scheme to disappear? A clandestine meeting in the U.S. Capitol, a startling revelation on a windy hill, and cryptic messages from Rebecca cloaked in eighteenth-century poetry are all part of the suspenseful tale of whether Rebecca is alive or dead—and the truth about Asher Investments.
Featuring an absorbing plot, colorful characters, and fascinating winemaking detail, The Viognier Vendetta combines an entertaining mystery with luminous prose that has become Crosby’s trademark.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When glamorous Rebecca Natale disappears before a black-tie gala honoring her boss, billionaire Wall Street guru Sir Thomas Asher who's donating a collection of architectural drawings, maps, and other documents relating to the design and planning of Washington, D.C., to the Library of Congress Virginia vintner Lucie Montgomery, who's Rebecca's college friend, investigates in Crosby's enjoyable fifth wine country mystery (after 2009's The Riesling Retribution). After Rebecca's clothes turn up at a Potomac boat house, she's feared to be either a suicide or a victim of foul play. Lucie joins forces with ex-investment analyst Ian Philips, a disgruntled whistle-blower who's prepared to testify before a government subcommittee that Sir Thomas is running a Ponzi scheme, but Ian "drowns" before he can do so. Full of Washington historical lore, this addictive whodunit also updates Lucie's relationship with brooding Quinn Santori, her Montgomery Estate Vineyard winemaker lover.
