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Lucie Montgomery has precious little time to enjoy spring in the Virginia countryside. A freak frost threatens to ruin her vineyard – a place she has been gradually building up since her father almost ruined it by taking profits to pay for his gambling habit. Lucie hires a helicopter pilot to fly over the vineyard and spread a pesticide, a savior to the grapes but toxic for humans. Driving around the vineyard, Lucie finds the body of Georgia Greenwood a victim of the pesticides used on the plants. Georgia, a candidate for state office, is despised by most of the vintners, because she plans to introduce legislation forcing the vintners to sell through a broker and not directly to restaurants and shops. The bill would effectively ruin many of the 'boutique' wineries. There are suspects aplenty – since all of the small wine makers stand to lose their livelihoods if Greenwood is successful. At the top of the list are Greenwood's husband Dr Ross Greenwood and Randy Hunter, part-time worker at Lucie's vineyard and part-time musician. Ross was delivering twins when his wife was murdered, but he is hard put to prove this alibi, since the parents are illegal immigrants, terrified of being deported, and therefore unwilling to talk to the police. Lucie begins her investigation out of loyalty to Ross, who saved her life after an auto accident three years ago. Ellen Crosby has created a really appealing character in Lucie. She is intrepid in her pursuit of the killer in order to clear Ross; she is struggling to keep the vineyard solvent; she is attempting to persuade her younger sister Mia to see the error of her ways and to stop drinking – at least until she is of age to do so legally. Lucie has ambivalent feelings about Quinn Santori, the wine maker hired by her father, with whom she regularly clashes about wine making techniques, these clashes often the result of Quinn's reluctance to work for a woman. The plot works well, only occasionally bogged down with lectures on wine making and the history of the area of Virginia in which the novel takes place. The ending is so unexpected that I had to read the chapter twice to make sure it was true.
Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Devine, October 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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