A Mysterious Writer Loves Her Virginia Wine

A Mysterious Writer Loves Her Virginia Wine

The brutal murder of a beautiful vineyard expert and a devastating storm force Virginia winemaker Lucie Montgomery to confront painful changes on the eve of her wedding. In just over a week, Lucie 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 swath 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. When Eve Kerr, a stunning blonde who works at the nursery, is found dead a few days later, everyone wonders if someone in the winemaking community went too far. What especially troubles Lucie is why Eve secretly arranged to meet Quinn on the day she was murdered, and whether Lucie’s soon-to-be husband knows something he’s not telling her. Then… a catastrophic storm blows through, destroying everything in its path. With no power, no phones, and no wedding venue, Lucie needs to find out who killed Eve and what her death had to do with Quinn.

UPPERVILLE, Va.---What could be a more appropriate setting for book talk and signing for writer Ellen Crosby’s latest? After all, this is her twelfth mystery set in Virginia wine country.

FADE IN

Slater Run Vineyards (SRV) tasting room. Author is joined by experts who inspired the plot: viticulturist Lucie Morton and winemaker Rick Tagg, with SRV owner/moderator Kiernan Slater Patusky. Guests sip wine, listen intently and line up to get an autographed copy of “Bitter Roots.” (Note the connection here in the word Roots with SRV’s red blend called Roots.)

Kiernan Slater Patusky, Chris Patusky, Ellen Crosby, Delaplane Cellars winemaker Rick Tagg and Slater Run Vineyard viticulturist Lucie Morton.

After writing eleven wine-related books—all set in Virginia-over 17 years—Ellen Crosby realized the fascinating history of the Commonwealth also is also the history of America. “So, all of my books not only involve a vineyard and a murder,” she said. “There’s also always some aspect of history woven into the present-day plot.”

In addition to the history and a murder, Ellen folded in the romance between the two characters of vineyard owner Lucie and winemaker Quinn.

“I knew it was finally time for them to get married—but it wasn’t going to be a happilyever-after story, at least not right away,” she said.

“Everything that could go wrong did go wrong.”

That would include a splash climate change, actually a big splash, which Ellen based on the 2012 derecho that blew through this area. In this book, Ellen said everything that happened is based on that storm.

“No power, no water, no 911 service (even Fairfax County’s backup generator failed), no internet service for days, grocery stores throwing out spoiled food, gas stations running out of gas. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.”

Montgomery Estate Vineyard. Artwork by Peter de Nesnera