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.
Ellen Crosby is the author of the Virginia Wine Country Mystery series and the Sophie Medina Mystery series, as well as the stand-alone novel Moscow Nights. She is a former freelance reporter for the Washington Post and was the Moscow correspondent for ABC Radio News and an economist at the US Senate.
Christine Marshall is an actress, director, and designer living in Portland, Maine. She teaches for the Maine State Ballet and produces plays with her theater company, Mad Horse. In addition to audiobooks, she records the online version of the New Yorker.