Customer Reviews

The Viognier Vendetta: A Wine Country Mystery (Wine Country Mysteries)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Another highly satisfying addition to this series; I pre-ordered it and read it in a day and a half. Berkeley's mystery series can be very hit or miss but this is definitely one of the best. The author evokes a good sense of place through her descriptions, whether it's in Blue Ridge wine country or in D.C. as she does in this book and makes me crave dark roasts and baguettes for breakfast... sentences and chapters sometimes end with a little bit of a "noir" ish feel (she does this in other books as well) which I love. Love Lucy but kind of missed her brother and sister in this book and the family and friends dynamics of past books. Q needs to come around of course. :) Will look forward to the next book down the road.

Ellen Crosby's Wine Country Mysteries is yet another series that I look forward to reading. Her lead character, Lucie Montgomery, is warm and inviting with just enough sass and intelligence to entertain a reader without being too sugar sweet or condescending.

The fifth book in the series brings Lucie Montgomery to Washington DC during the cherry blossom season to meet up with an old friend, Rebecca Natele. But this meeting wasn't the spur of the moment unplanned event that Lucie was expecting. Something was definitely up and when Rebecca suddenly disappears with her clothes found neatly folded in a rowboat floating down the Potomac, Lucie wonders if it was actually suicide. This is Washington after all and when you mix politics, scandal, billionaires and a missing antique silver wine cooler looted by British soldier's before they burned the White House during the War of 1812, you just never know who is telling the truth and which lie might actually have a partial truth to it.

Ellen Crosby adds the right amount of history to her books to both entertain and educate the reader. You are left feeling that Ms Crosby had done her research and you come away with more than a nice mystery, you also are left with a bit of history and a little more knowledge then you started with.

What a well-written book. I especially enjoy the character development that the author includes from book to book. Just like in real life, these 'people' experience ongoing changes that will shape future chapters. After what happens in this book I am very much looking forward to the next one!

I wish certain other mystery authors (Ms Fluke!) would take writing lessons from Ms Crosby. Maybe then we wouldn't keep seeing a rehash of the same storyline from them over and over and......

The Wine Country series is well written, and The Viognier Vendetta is a good addition to the series. I enjoyed reading it, although I didn't enjoy the Washington, DC setting as much as the Montgomery Vineyard settings of the previous books. I like the characters, although they sometimes verge on being just a little too dark for me. Lucie has endured several tragedies, yet she perseveres and grows a little in each book. Quinn either needs to come around and get his act together, or she needs to dump him and find the kind of man she deserves.

Twelve years have passed since vintner Lucie Montgomery heard from her former best friend at college Rebecca Natale. So she is understandably shocked when Rachel calls her and asks to meet her in Washington DC. She will put her up at a nice hotel that she can afford since she is the protégé of billionaire investor Sir Thomas Asher.

Lucie arrives at the hotel, but is told to meet Rebecca at the Lincoln memorial. The Virginia vintner knows Rebecca wants something from her, but cannot fathom what that could be. Rebecca stuns Lucie further when all she asks is for her friend to come to the showing of Asher donating his document collection to the Library of Congress. Lucie agrees to attend and Rebecca buys postcards before saying bye. Soon after their meeting, Rebecca vanishes with a valuables antique stolen during the ransacking of the White House in the War of 1812. Meanwhile whistle blower Ian Phillips, who insisted Asher's investments are a Ponzi scheme fraud, is found dead. Lucie believes Rebecca's disappearance is tied to the murder. Assuming that Rebecca is dead too, Lucie tries to decipher the messages her friend sent to her.

Readers will toast Ellen Crosby with her delightfully tasty wine country mystery (see The Riesling Retribution) that combines headlines with the DC historical. In spite of knowing that Phillips and probably Natale were murdered, intrepid Lucie investigates seeking to uncover clues her best friend at school left buried for her. The Viognier Vendetta is the valiant vintner at her best.

Harriet Klausner

A very good "Wine Country Mystery" - the series of the Virginia vineyards. Lucie Montgomer (vineyard owner) is meeting an old friend from college (Rebecca) in Washington DC for the weekend. They talk for about an hour, then Rebecca goes on an errand alone to Georgetown. Rebecca never returns. This book is very fitting in today's financial world. A good read.

I never heard of the author or the series. Just picked it up at the library. The reader's "characters" are awful. Phony. The entire book is read in a poor attempt at a "genteel" rural Virginia accent. Worse, other characters arrive in very bad British and French accents. After the 2nd CD, I couldn't take it any longer.

Interesting series. Very well written and exceptionally well researched. Enjoyed all the little inserts on history of the area and also on vineyards and the difficulties of growing grapes. Her descriptions made the series come alive. Now I want to go and visit the locale of her stories!

Virginia vintner, Lucie Montgomery was surprised to get a phone call from an old college friend. She and Rebecca had been team mates on the cross country team. Lucie had stood by Rebecca during a difficult time in her life but a few years later when Lucie had needed help Rebecca had sent flowers and then disappeared. Now, out of the blue, Rebecca had called an pressured Lucie into meeting her in Washington, DC for some catching up. Somewhat mystified Lucie agrees to meet her old friend and learns that Rebecca has done quite well for herself as an assistant to wealthy businessman Sir Thomas Asher. Her job is quite glamorous, and demanding. So demanding that Rebecca must leave Lucie a few hours after her arrival to run an errand. Lucie was still puzzled as to why after all these years Rebecca wanted so badly to see her, especially when she left Lucie so aburptly. Too bad those questions would not be answered anytime soon since Rebecca never returned from her errand. As Lucie began to piece together the intriguing clues Rebecca left behind she quickly realized that there was much more going on that appeared on the surface, and that much of it involved those near to her back home.

This is the fifth in a series of romantic cozy mysteries involving Lucie Montgomery, her family and friends, set in Virginia wine country. The previous volumes in this series have been set closer to Lucie's vineyard and involved her family, friends and neighbors. This time though the story is set for the most part away from rural Virginia, instead centering in Washington DC. This story is much less of a cozy and more of a thriller. That is not to say it is not a good read, just that those who have been following the series will probably miss catching up on some of the more familiar recurring characters that had appeared in earlier novels.

As usual, Ellen Crosby delivers a great mystery with the Virginia wine country background. Gotta love the characters that continue her adventures.